Industry 5.0 from three perspectives: academia, industry, and the innovation ecosystem

28/9/2026

What does the transition towards Industry 5.0 require from industry, universities and the organisations that connect and fund them? At the fully booked Automation Vista 2026 in Västerås, around 100 participants from companies, academia, the innovation system and the public sector came together to explore how technology, competence and collaboration can turn new possibilities into value.

Held on 21 September at Steam Hotel in Västerås, Automation Vista 2026 brought together researchers, industry leaders, innovators, startups and public-sector representatives. The conference was hosted by Automation Region together with Mälardalen University's research profile MARC and the industrial graduate school ARRAY.

Speakers from MDU, AstraZeneca, Roboytix and Scania approached industrial transformation from very different perspectives. Yet a common question ran through the day: as technologies such as AI, automation and robotics advance, how can industry turn technological possibilities into sustainable and practical value?

Putting people at the centre of Industry 5.0

Opening the conference, Chris Ivory, Professor at Mälardalen University, placed today's technological transformation in a broader historical and societal perspective. His presentation contrasted an Industry 4.0 logic centred on accelerating production and reducing dependence on labour with the human-centric ambitions associated with Industry 5.0.

In this perspective, skilled employees are not simply a cost to be reduced but valuable assets whose knowledge and capabilities can contribute to innovation, productivity and the successful introduction of new technologies. For Ivory, human-centricity therefore has practical implications for how companies innovate. He encouraged companies to spend time understanding how people actually solve problems and integrate technologies in their everyday work, to identify emerging skills and practices, and to view the organisation as a "collaborating community, not a machine."
This human perspective became a recurring theme throughout Automation Vista.

From fascination to useful technology

Humanoid robots provided perhaps the most visible example of how quickly industrial technology is developing. During the afternoon, participants could see humanoid robots in action, while Ahmad Alali, founder of Roboytix and RoboLabs, discussed both their potential and the challenges involved in bringing them into real production environments.

"You can buy a robot. But who will program it? Who will connect it to the machines? And who will understand what happened when it stops?" Alali asked in his presentation.

While the humanoid market is developing rapidly and early industrial applications are emerging, Alali cautioned against equating impressive demonstrations or robot shipments with proven industrial performance. Questions about reliability, integration, software access, maintenance, and support become critical when technology moves from a pilot into production.

Per Strandberg from Westermo Network Technologies came away from the demonstration with a similar balance between enthusiasm and pragmatism:

“Humanoid robots are no longer science fiction. While they will not be the answer to every problem, they have the potential to become a highly versatile platform for many tasks currently performed by humans.”

Industrial transformation in practice

The same challenge can be seen inside established industrial companies, where new technologies have to become part of complex existing production systems.

Jerry Johansson, Head of Engineering at AstraZeneca in Södertälje, described an industrial environment facing changes in production technologies, sustainability requirements, supply chains, patient expectations and a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Digitalisation, data and AI are therefore not isolated initiatives, but part of a wider transformation of manufacturing and supply.

AstraZeneca's vision connects a digitally enabled network and smart factories with what the company calls "Smart People" – people with the capabilities and insights required to use these systems.

Anna Davidsson, Senior Manager Research and External Cooperations at Scania, similarly placed digitalisation, automation and AI within the broader need for resilient and flexible production. Scania uses future scenarios and technology roadmaps to connect technological development with competence areas ranging from circularity and resource efficiency to production flexibility, work organisation and data utilisation.

Together, the industrial perspectives highlighted an important reality: the future of industry will not be created by simply replacing existing systems with new ones. Transformation requires companies to integrate new technologies into existing processes, infrastructure and ways of working.

More courses are not enough

That makes competence development central to industrial transformation. In the parallel session on upskilling and reskilling, Jessica Bruch, Professor at Mälardalen University, challenged a common assumption: that the answer to industry's competence needs is simply to offer more courses.
"The problem is not a lack of courses," was the workshop's starting point. The more difficult question is how competence development can be organised so that people have the opportunity to participate and new knowledge actually leads to change in the organisation.
Participants discussed barriers including lack of time, generic training that is insufficiently connected to real needs, difficulties applying new knowledge after a course, unclear responsibility for competence development and isolated initiatives that fail to create long-term learning environments.
The discussion also challenged the traditional idea that knowledge simply moves from universities to companies. Companies, participants, and universities can learn from each other, and knowledge is created through interaction and work on real industrial challenges.

Collaboration as part of the transformation

This leads to another central theme from Automation Vista: industrial transformation cannot take place within individual organisations alone. The parallel session on collaboration and funding explored the conditions needed for long-term cooperation between academia and industry.

Lena Strålsjö from the Knowledge Foundation presented knowledge exchange as a two-way movement of people, ideas and expertise between companies and universities. Experience from collaborative research also points to some practical success factors: companies need to be involved early, all partners must commit time throughout the project, goals and conditions need to be mutually understood, and projects require both clear structures and enough flexibility to adapt when circumstances change.

These discussions mirror the role of research environments such as MARC and industrial graduate schools such as ARRAY, where research questions, industrial challenges and competence development meet.

They also reinforce one of the day's conclusions: industry and academia need to share more than successful results. Participants called for greater exchange around what has actually been tested and implemented, what has worked and what has not, as well as more opportunities for study visits and learning across companies and regional boundaries.

Continuing the conversation

By the end of Automation Vista, a common picture had emerged from discussions about AI, humanoids, industrial production, skills and research collaboration.

Advanced technologies are creating new possibilities, but technology alone does not create industrial transformation. Companies also need the competence to understand and implement it, organisations capable of learning from experience, and collaborations that allow knowledge to move between research and industrial practice.

As technological development continues to accelerate, meeting places such as Automation Vista provide an opportunity to compare experiences, question assumptions and identify challenges that no single company, university or innovation actor can solve alone.