It’s no thriller that 2025 was a transformative yr with each growth and contraction taking form throughout the automotive trade, energizing a quickly evolving mobility panorama.
Microsoft for automotive
Trusted options for the automotive trade
Change and disruption had been the norm
We noticed authentic tools producers (OEMs) and suppliers announce funding methods and product re-alignments throughout electrical car (EV), hybrid, and inside combustion engine (ICE)-powered segments. We witnessed new software-defined car (SDV) platform developments just like the introduction of BMW’s Neue Klasse SDV platform, and noticed thrilling in-vehicle experiences that transcend conventional screen-projection with embedded and safe car working techniques that supply AI-powered productiveness and interactivity as seen with Mercedes-Benz.
There have been advances throughout all areas of auto improvement because the trade grappled with client sensitivity round value, product availability, and a want for extra customized and related experiences contained in the car.
From {hardware} to software program
As software program continues to drive new car improvement—approaching the dimensions of billions of traces of code—its significance to car engineering has turn into crucial, even regulated with necessities to keep up software program health and safety over the car lifecycle. Automakers and suppliers are embracing this shift, nonetheless, and acknowledge that with a give attention to software program and information, they’ll now provide new merchandise and providers that drive distinctive differentiation and might enhance buyer worth, loyalty, gross sales, and repair. The adoption of cloud and AI applied sciences has added a drive multiplier to this transformation throughout the whole trade.
Whereas {hardware} will at all times be within the combine, we proceed to see a give attention to lowering the variety of car area controllers and consolidating compute.
Much less is extra
Much less is certainly extra, and the purpose for automakers on the subject of time to market. With aggressive plans for brand new car introductions over the subsequent two to 3 years, OEMs and their suppliers are creating paths to shorten the time it takes to introduce new autos and merchandise to market. That is pushing cycles from a typical 48 to 60 months right down to 24 to 36 months to stay aggressive.
The AI push is actual
Throughout all industries, and particularly inside automotive, the adoption of AI and AI brokers has enabled enhancements in design, necessities administration, coding, and car engineering features, resulting in enterprise effectivity, speedy innovation, buyer satisfaction, and shorter total improvement occasions.
CES 2026—The stage is about
With that mentioned, the stage is now set for 2026 and the annual technology-infused tour de drive at CES 2026. For years, CES has been identified for highlighting each present and galvanizing future know-how. That is additionally true for automotive at CES 2026 as evidenced by the inhabitants of exhibitors and attendees over the previous few years. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see how that panorama has developed for this yr’s occasion given the brand new dynamics at play.
Microsoft for automotive at CES 2026
For the fifth consecutive yr, Microsoft will showcase its affect on automotive because the safe know-how platform powering the subsequent frontier of automotive innovation. With our cloud and AI options, together with our ecosystem of acceleration companions, Microsoft is remodeling processes throughout the automotive “V” mannequin—from necessities and engineering to improvement and testing.
At CES 2026, we’re significantly targeted on the transformation inside digital engineering, serving to our automotive and mobility prospects set up robust software program capabilities. This consists of areas akin to SDVs, embedded software program, car superior driver-assistance techniques (ADAS), and autonomy. As well as, assembly OEMs model differentiation necessities via distinctive in-vehicle experiences with a give attention to the digital cockpit is one other core highlight.
Our prospects and companions additionally search our differentiation round enterprise-grade safety, global-scale cloud, AI copilots built-in throughout engineering workflows, and an open ecosystem vs. vertically locked platforms.
At CES 2026, Microsoft and our companions are demonstrating how AI-powered engineering and in-vehicle intelligence are converging to speed up SDV improvement and redefine the driving force expertise.
Digital engineering
Digital engineering calls for cloud infrastructure that may scale globally, adapt in actual time, and ship constant efficiency throughout more and more complicated workloads—from AI inference and data-intensive analytics to embedded improvement and full car simulation. Current Microsoft Azure improvements take away longstanding compute and operational bottlenecks by supporting heterogeneous architectures akin to Arm64, graphics processing models (GPUs), and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), enabling end-to-end engineering from chip to cloud. Elastic scaling empowers globally distributed groups with cloud-native CI/CD pipelines and real-time analytics, whereas high-performance computing accelerates software-defined car (SDV) improvement via superior simulation, validation, and software-in-the-loop testing—permitting groups to maneuver sooner, validate earlier, and convey clever techniques to market with higher confidence.
We shared some thrilling new bulletins in each digital engineering and in-vehicle innovation beneath:
AMD and Siemens: AMD is offering new engineering help for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers with the AMD VAS stack operating on Microsoft Azure, enabling virtualization of improvement environments. This integration allows systems-level simulation to help earlier engineering validation efforts aimed toward enhancing effectivity, lowering improvement dangers with SDV improvement, and lowering time to market. Be taught extra in regards to the AMD announcement.
With this functionality, Siemens will combine their PAVE360™ digital twin simulation atmosphere into the AMD VAS stack on Azure, offering developer help for AMD compute and graphics applied sciences. Discussing this and different subjects additional at CES 2026, Siemens may also function a panel lineup with President and Chief Government Officer Roland Busch joined by executives from NVIDIA, Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Commonwealth Fusion. The panel will share a dialog on the affect of AI in remodeling the bodily world to remodel manufacturing, infrastructure, and transportation.
ETAS: As a number one supplier of progressive options for the event of automotive software program, emergency technical help service (ETAS) brings its core calibration suite to Azure, enabling automotive engineers to speed up SDV improvement via cloud-based engineering instruments. The ETAS toolchain on Azure allows OEMs to maneuver software program improvement actions to start out an earlier cut-off date, a time period often called “shift-left,” which allows late-stage car improvement processes to be carried out earlier—saving time, enhancing high quality, and enabling sooner iteration cycles. Learn the weblog to be taught extra.
KPIT: KPIT will reveal their Subsequent-Technology Agentic AI Answer Suite at CES 2026—a versatile, cloud-based instrument designed to make car software program improvement sooner, extra dependable, and cost-effective for automakers. Through the use of superior AI on Azure, KPIT helps OEMs enhance the way in which they design, and construct related and self-driving autos. This know-how supplies extra environment friendly processes to replace car software program, diagnose and resolve issues extra rapidly, and ship higher experiences for drivers, resulting in larger high quality autos and extra glad prospects. Be taught extra.
Neural Idea: Neural Idea focuses on enhancing car aerodynamics, a crucial issue for enhancing car efficiency, power effectivity, and lowering improvement prices. As improvement timelines within the automotive trade proceed to shorten, the demand for data-driven approaches that complement or exchange conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) workflows turn into more and more necessary. By using the MIT DrivAerNet++ dataset—which comprises 8,000 car designs and intensive CFD data, Neural Idea helps superior analysis and improvement in engineering. These improvements empower automakers to attain design cycles which can be 30% shorter. Be taught extra about Neural Idea at CES 2026.
PTC: Contemplating pace to market, PTC introduced a collaboration with Lamborghini S.p.A to enhance total product lifecycle via their centralized information basis that connects design, engineering, and operations with enhanced AI capabilities. Additionally, via their collaboration with Microsoft, PTC will reveal a brand new engineering change administration resolution—an AI-powered agent to streamline the engineering workflow that has broad applicability even past automotive. Meet PTC at CES 2026.
Renesas: Persevering with with the theme of digital engineering and SDV, Renesas, a sophisticated semiconductor options supplier, introduced an trade first integration to create a vendor-neutral SDV-as-a-Service platform, powered by Azure together with Visible Studio Code integration, GitHub CI/CD pipelines, and Microsoft Copilot AI. The Renesas RoX DevStudio allows OEMs and different companions with cloud-based instruments to architect, develop, simulate, take a look at, and deploy SDV architectures, supporting the whole v-model. Uncover extra with the Renesas weblog.
Digital Cockpit and in-vehicle experiences
The quickly rising in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) market is remodeling with new AI-powered experiences enhancing driver security, consolation, and even productiveness.
Bosch: In collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA, Bosch is introducing in-vehicle cockpit innovation at CES 2026. The Bosch AI cockpit, launched because the “AI extension platform,” will present compute energy to allow AI capabilities on the sting to current car cockpit techniques. That is vital in that automakers can use their current {hardware} infrastructure within the car. This new platform is powered by NVIDIA’s Drive Orin system-on-chip (SoC), delivering high-performance with solely energy and Ethernet interfaces, simplifying electrical and electronics (E/E) infrastructure whereas supporting fashionable car computing wants. With this highly effective platform and the combination of Microsoft Foundry and specialised cockpit options, Microsoft and Bosch are remodeling the automotive right into a cell workplace with out compromising driver security. This mix not solely allows entry to Microsoft 365 functions productiveness suite and intuitive voice command, nevertheless it integrates intelligently with different car techniques to prioritize security and reduce distraction—like enabling adaptive cruise management whereas on a Microsoft Groups name—demonstrating a key use case for the way AI will revolutionize the cockpit and driving expertise. Be taught extra about Bosch improvements at CES 2026.
Cerence AI and NVIDIA: In one other milestone collaboration with Cerence AI, NVIDIA, and Microsoft, Cerence introduced Cerence xUItm , a brand new, hybrid, agentic intelligence resolution for OEMs to fulfill rising demand for quick, edge/in-vehicle giant language mannequin AI to energy new in-car experiences. Be taught extra at CES 2026.
FORVIA: Constructing on the present Microsoft Groups integration work from 2025, Appning by FORVIA collaborates additional to carry AI-powered experiences enabled by Microsoft Foundry Instruments to the Appning Apps market ecosystem. This collaboration helps superior conversational interfaces, content material, and providers for customized person experiences. Be taught extra.
TomTom: The placement know-how consultants at TomTom mix their mapping and site visitors intelligence information in a singular platform that offers OEMs final flexibility in creating distinctive, branded, and related experiences delivered in weeks as a substitute of months. The platform additionally builds on the Microsoft Cloud and generative AI capabilities into the TomTom AI Agent.
Microsoft for automotive and our companion ecosystem
Along with the companions making bulletins at CES 2026, we are going to showcase a vibrant companion ecosystem supporting automotive and mobility together with:
| AMD | Ansys |
| ETAS | PTC |
| QNX | Siemens |
| Synopsys | TCS |
Microsoft is dedicated to partnering with OEMs and suppliers to speed up SDV improvement, modernize engineering, and ship clever, differentiated in-vehicle experiences. Be taught extra about Microsoft for automotive.
Because the Product Advertising and marketing Director for the Mobility Trade, Aaron Lee oversees Microsoft’s advertising efforts for the automotive, journey, transportation, and hospitality sub-verticals. He goals to assist prospects perceive how the Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft’s companion networks can clear up among the trade’s hardest issues and create a extra sustainable future.
