Mr. Peter Bilello, President & CEO of CIMdata, and Mr. Yifeng Matsukawa, Senior Director of CIMdata Asia Pacific, jointly shared insights on the 2025 global PLM market, practical AI applications in PLM, and cutting-edge technology trends including digital twin and digital thread. Dr. Huang Pei, CEO of e-works, interpreted the latest development dynamics of China's PLM market in 2025.
 
According to CIMdata, the global PLM market grew by 8.7% in 2025, reaching $87.3 billion.  
Overall PLM Market Growth: 8.7%
The latest 2026 PLM Status and Trends Survey released by CIMdata reveals that the global PLM market in 2025 is showing a differentiated growth. The overall growth rate of the PLM market is 8.7%, lower than the expectation. However, in the segmented fields, AEC showed strong performance, followed closely by EDA. Platform Technologies outperformed forecasts with growth of 8.9%, whereas S&A underperformed, expanding by approximately 8.5%. Peter Bilello noted that the PLM industry is undergoing continuous consolidation, with new entrants emerging and growing investor attention. In 2025, numerous companies acquired value-added resellers, and mainstream PLM vendors sought to strengthen competitiveness by differentiation and regional expansion.
  For the Product Innovation Platform market, services remain an important source of revenue: In the Overall Total Product Innovation Platform market, service revenue accounts for 46%, mainly driven by independent service providers. From the revenue structure of Product Innovation Platform Providers, the software revenue in 2025 is 77.3%, a decrease from 79.1% in the previous year.
 
Peter stated that the development, packaging, and delivery of products as suites, along with the widespread adoption of cloud-based applications, have reduced demand for traditional services. Meanwhile, PLM-related services are shifting from IT installation and integration toward higher-skilled requirements. Coupled with advances in AI, this will significantly reshape market revenue structures.
 
He concluded that key factors shaping market development are multifaceted:

• The slightly lower-than-projected 2025 PLM revenue may be attributed to macroeconomic uncertainty.
• AI is driving enterprise adoption of platform technologies, yet management remains cautious about return on investment (ROI).
• Software resellers face widespread margin pressure, industry consolidation is evident, and many are transitioning to service providers.
• M&A activity in EDA is particularly notable, with industry focus on how these companies will narrow the gap with mechanical engineering-centric platforms.

 
Impact of AI on the PLM Market
Facing the AI wave, Peter emphasized that the industry currently needs to clarify several key perceptions:

• Large language models can only predict but not truly reason, and grounding is a prerequisite for their adoption.
• The confusion in the market regarding concepts such as AI and generative AI is disrupting AI strategy.
• AI will not replace PLM but rather precisely empower it. The core engineering technology stack remains secure, and the knowledge work layer will be the first to be transformed.
• The industry also needs to establish a unified and shared framework to address the differences in the definition of AI strategies.

He pointed out that 87% of software vendors regard AI investment as a high priority, while customers remain largely on the sidelines, resulting in a planning gap of more than two years between the two sides. There is yet to be a mainstream AI pricing model in the industry, and proving return on investment to customers remains a core commercial challenge for vendors. Most vendors overlook customers' governance demands for IP protection, show low recognition of system integration needs that customers attach great importance to. All these show a clear disconnect between the two sides in their understanding of the value of AI innovation.
 
Unlocking the Value Potential of Digital Twin and Digital Thread
On the deployment of digital twin and digital thread technologies, Yifeng Matsukawa, noted that the PLM market shows a clear divergent development. Vendors' strategies fall into two categories: focused and general. Focused solutions offer deep and mature capabilities in specific areas such as simulation-led design, technical publications, or metrology. General solutions, on the other hand, aim to integrate disparate enterprise systems like PLM, ALM, MES, and ERP, creating a cohesive data thread. Meanwhile, the industry architecture is evolving from connectors to virtual data landscape, upgrading from point-to-point integration to more sophisticated architectural models. Yifeng stated that the role of mainstream PLM platforms is undergoing pivotal change. While they remain foundational to enterprise digital thread and digital twin ecosystems, their position as central program hubs is increasingly being challenged and redefined by more open, federated, data-centric architectures.
 
Furthermore, AI and machine learning have transitioned from conceptual ideas to practical enablers for advanced digital twin and digital thread functionalities, with use cases focused on delivering specific business value.
 
China PLM Market Maintains Single-Digit Growth
 
According to e-works estimates, China PLM market maintained single-digit growth in 2025, reaching $4.57 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. By segment, EDA was the only sector to achieve double-digit growth, serving as the growth engine of the PLM market; S&A enjoyed relatively rapid expansion. MCAD Multi-discipline, Product Innovation Platform (PIP), and MCAD Design-focused all posted single-digit growth. Dr. Pei Huang explained that industrial AI is continuously evolving from analytical to generative, agentic, and physical AI. He emphasized that generative AI and analytical AI are not substitutes but complementary technologies. He identified key challenges to industrial AI adoption: talent shortages, polarized enterprise perceptions, insufficient data security and quality. Success requires business scenario-driven strategies, quantified targets, rational combinations of large and small models, and deep integration between industrial software and AI.
Dr. Huang also highlighted China's strong innovation capacity in smart hardware, with modular, scenario-based intelligent equipment demonstrating global competitiveness, a growing portfolio of niche innovative products, and significant export potential. In 2025, China's PLM industry is defined by three core trends: deep integration of AI, deepening ecosystem collaboration, and accelerated overseas expansion strategy. Local vendors are embedding AI across full workflows including PLM, CAD, and CAE, driving intensive product iteration, continuous M&A, and strategic partnerships.