Dassault Systèmes has presented the concept of virtual companions, referred to as Virtual Companions, a new category of artificial intelligence experts available on the 3DExperience platform. The solution is intended to support industry in changing the way innovations are created, tested and validated, as well as how operations are run, by leveraging collaboration between people and AI systems at scale across the entire lifecycle of products and services. The introduction of Virtual Companions is a continuation of the 3D Univ+rses presented a year earlier and aligns with the company’s strategy to support enterprises in transitioning to the generative economy.
The virtual companions are embedded in the 3DExperience platform and are intended to enable secure, intelligent and large-scale collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence in solving complex industrial challenges. The solution is addressed to many industries, including sectors that use advanced design, simulation and manufacturing processes, such as machinery, automotive, aerospace, and the packaging and plastics processing industries.
Three virtual tools for different engineering and scientific tasks
Dassault Systèmes defines three complementary virtual tools that address different types of business and technical challenges in industry. Each virtual companion has a different scope of capabilities and application context, while all are integrated with the 3DExperience platform.
Aura is responsible for organizing knowledge and context. It tracks design requirements and changes, and also helps teams cope with task complexity and maintain consistency. This type of functionality can be important in projects involving multiple product versions, complex quality and regulatory requirements, and long product development cycles.
Leo brings an engineering approach and is designed to solve complex issues across various engineering domains, from design to production. This includes support for structural analyses, process optimization, and topics related to manufacturing and assembly. The tool is intended to enable engineers to move more quickly from concept to solutions validated for technical feasibility.
Marie uses deep scientific expertise, including materials science and chemistry, to investigate complex phenomena, formulate questions and analyze hypotheses. This approach is important in areas requiring advanced analyses of material properties, chemical reactions or physical phenomena, including in sectors developing new materials, coatings, chemical formulations, or solutions based on specific performance parameters.
Combining industrial models, AI and physics-based simulation
Dassault Systèmes emphasizes that Virtual Companions go beyond standard large language models. The virtual companions draw on science and industry knowledge bases accumulated over decades. They combine models of the industrial world, artificial intelligence, and multiscale, multidisciplinary modeling and simulation grounded in the laws of physics and materials science.
The virtual companions are intended to understand users’ intentions and motivations and to coordinate activities across the entire lifecycle of products and services, from concept through use to reuse. As a result, they can support processes related to design, production optimization, servicing, as well as topics related to product reuse or recycling.
The system is intended to provide accuracy, traceability and reliability, enabling simulation of behaviors and consequences before any physical objects exist. This approach aligns with the development of digital twin and virtual prototyping concepts, which help reduce the number of physical tests, shorten time to market, and lower the cost of developing new products.
Scalability of the 3DExperience platform and sovereignty requirements
The 3DExperience platform, on which Virtual Companions are embedded, is expected to scale in a way that enables asynchronous management of thousands of collaborating virtual companions and users. The solution is being designed to meet sovereignty requirements, which in practice includes, among other things, control over data flows, data location, and compliance with regulatory requirements in different jurisdictions.
According to Dassault Systèmes, this approach is important in the generative economy, where enterprise knowledge and know-how play a key role. Securing these assets and using them effectively in automated yet controlled decision-making processes is one of the main premises of the Virtual Companions concept.
Management perspective at Dassault Systèmes
Pascal Daloz, Chief Executive Officer of Dassault Systèmes, emphasizes that the perception of value in industry is changing. As he stated, in the generative economy industry produces knowledge and know-how that make it possible to build products, and this is where the real value lies. The time has come to use this knowledge in a new type of collaboration between people and virtual companions. We want to uncover what has so far been invisible, and make possible what has so far been impossible, before a physical object exists. In doing so, we accelerate the innovation cycle while protecting critical assets.
The concept of virtual companions was presented in detail during the 3DExperience World 2026 conference. A recording of the general session, including a demonstration of Virtual Companions, is available online for interested users and customers.
Availability of Virtual Companions in the Dassault Systèmes ecosystem
The virtual companions can be used across all Dassault Systèmes brands, and thus in various industrial sectors served by the company. The solution is horizontal in nature, meaning it can be applied both in large enterprises and in smaller organizations using the 3DExperience platform.
Aura is already available to users of the 3DExperience platform. The other two virtual tools, Leo and Marie, are to be made available on the same platform in 2026. This roadmap indicates a gradual expansion of functionality related to the use of artificial intelligence in engineering, scientific and operational processes.
Along with the development of Virtual Companions, Dassault Systèmes is expanding its portfolio of digital solutions intended to support enterprises in transitioning to operating models based on data, simulation and generative artificial intelligence. For the plastics processing industry and the packaging sector, this may mean further adoption of virtual prototyping, more advanced product lifecycle management, and better integration of design, simulation and production processes.
