Fireside Chat: AI Agents in Engineering: Building Scalable R&D Teams with Digital Coworkers

Presentation by Ravi Kunju, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Altair and Jousef Murad, CEO of APEX Consulting as part of the 2025 ATCx AI for Engineers conference.

Engineering organizations are under immense pressure to innovate faster with fewer resources, often constrained by talent shortages, fragmented communication, and manual workflows. This presentation explores how AI agents - autonomous systems powered by large language models and engineering tools - can revolutionize product development by acting as digital coworkers.

By transitioning from rule-based automation to multi-agent systems, R&D teams can offload non-deterministic and repetitive tasks, enabling human engineers to focus on critical decision-making and innovation. Real-world use cases, including RFQ automation and cost estimation in manufacturing, highlight how these agents reduce time-to-market, improve accuracy, and scale seamlessly.

The session introduces a structured framework for identifying high-impact automation opportunities and provides practical guidelines for implementation. Attendees will gain actionable insights into orchestrating AI-enhanced workflows, integrating tools like Synera, and designing agentic organizations that operate 24/7 - ultimately achieving a 10x acceleration in product development.