Smart AI Agent™ Ecosystem for a Transformative Business Landscape : The Secret Sauce of Smart Product Development

Challenge: Do more with less in product development

The automotive and manufacturing sectors face significant obstacles in optimizing efficiency within product development processes (PDP). Among these, time constraints and efficiency concerns are particularly prominent. Timely handling of requests for quotes (RFQs) in Engineer-To-Order scenarios is vital to winning orders.
Furthermore, the current application of AI is often fragmented, confined to isolated use cases without comprehensive integration across entire business processes and alignment to business strategy. This limited scope restricts the overall impact of AI technologies on the bottom line.
Product development is inherently non-linear, involving continuous collaboration and iterative workflows. Transitioning from isolated use cases and predefined workflows to a multi-agent PDP demands a seamless approach-one that NTT DATA delivers. Incorporating a holistic view, as illustrated by our V-model picture with AI use cases, is essential to achieving the speed and efficiency that Agentic AI solutions can bring to product development.

AI Use Cases in Engineering

Agentic AI for engineering

Agentic AI offer a promising solution to these challenges, being uniquely suited to enhance the PDP environment.
Let's look at a scenario in Engineer-to-Order manufacturing: An Account Manager receives a Request for Quotation (RFQ) via email and asks a Project Manager to analyse the requirements. This Project Manager works with experts on requirements engineering, system architecture mapping and initial test planning. These expert roles are implemented as Agentic AI, each with their own set of prompts, large language models and tools for working with engineering IT applications. Their human counterparts benefit from the fact that tedious, often manual work is relieved and the important basis for value-adding knowledge work is created in the shortest possible time.
Additionally, using reasoning and specialized AI models allows these agents to plan the workflow and handle challenges proactively. Introducing a central orchestrator, which coordinates and integrates the efforts of numerous agents almost like a development project manager, can significantly enhance business benefits by providing cohesive process integration on a large scale.

Multi-Agent Scenario for Engineering

Award-winning NTT DATA solutions for multi-agent PDP

At NTT DATA, we offer a suite of services and assets targeting the enhancement of PDP through Agentic AI systems based on expertise in projects that leverage Agentic AI in engineering. Continental Automotive won the MIMA (Microsoft Intelligent Manufacturing Award) in 2025 with our jointly developed solution.
For more details please refer to Faster, More Efficient: Continental is Accelerating Product Development With Help of "Microsoft Azure AI Services" - Continental AG
The NTT DATA Systems Engineering Copilot is a pre-configured Microsoft Azure AI Services environment that allows to quickly establish an infrastructure for building use cases for your needs. It provisions all required infrastructure, AI services, and application modules, enabling the development team to accelerate their time to solution. The following video demonstrates a multi-agent scenario based on the Systems Engineering Copilot.

Identifying the right use cases that support your strategy in product development can be complex. This is where our Value Discovery Proof of Concept (PoC) can be very handy to implement AI solutions in your Azure subscription quickly. In only three months, we will support you with finding the right use cases based on our case model and implementing them based on the Systems Engineering Copilot. We make sure to evaluate KPIs on cost, benefit and quality so that the PoC can be scaled to enterprise-ready solutions quickly.

NTT DATA Value Discovery PoC for AI in Engineering

The strategic alliance between NTT DATA and Microsoft provides not only access to innovative technology and expertise, but also a platform for scalable enterprise applications through Microsoft Azure and its advanced AI services, with a structured data foundation-a crucial factor in achieving bottom-line benefits.

AI agents and enterprise architecture

Integrating Multi AI agents into enterprise architecture needs careful consideration of its potential impacts. The scope expands from isolated use cases and tools to more complex process chains and IT landscapes. Assessing risks associated with AI integration is essential to ensure smooth adaptation and minimal disruption. Considerations regarding data access, quality, and intellectual property management within AI systems are also critical to developing a robust data architecture.
NTT DATA offers comprehensive services for scaling to enterprise-ready solutions. For more insights, please refer to NTT DATA unveiled a comprehensive enterprise-grade Smart AI Agent™ Ecosystem.

What's Next?

AI is reshaping engineering processes, methods, and tools. With Agentic AI approaches, companies can drive greater efficiency, eliminate process silos, and accelerate product development. To remain competitive and scale for the future, adopting AI-driven innovation is a strategic imperative.
NTT DATA is leading this evolution with solutions like the Systems Engineering Copilot, the Value Discovery PoC, and our strategic alliance with Microsoft. Connect with us to learn how we can accelerate your AI journey.
For further insights, explore our Global GenAI Report at 'Playtime is over' for GenAI: NTT DATA research shows organizations shifting from experiments to investments that drive performance | NTT DATA Group
For more details about NTT DATA Agentic AI initiatives, check out our landing page, Agentic AI | NTT DATA.