Emerson announced new NI Nigel AI enhancements, including "author" code generation capabilities, across its NI software portfolio. The update adds prompt-based code generation to NI LabVIEW and automated sequence generation to NI TestStand, letting engineers move from design to validation without hand-coding every step. Emerson says internal benchmarking across representative engineering workflows shows the tools cut the time and effort needed to develop and deploy test systems by up to 50 percent, with the productivity gains aimed at automotive, electronics, aerospace and defense, and semiconductor test teams.
The release marks a shift in what Nigel AI actually does inside a test workflow. "In one year, Nigel has evolved from an AI advisor to AI author, showing the strength of the NI platform and its ability to integrate the most in-demand technologies quickly for the benefit of our customers," said Ritu Favre, president of Emerson's test and measurement business. Favre said the goal is to accelerate productivity "while ensuring engineers remain in control of validation and decision-making."
What's new here is that Nigel AI now spans the full NI LabVIEW+ Suite, not just LabVIEW and TestStand. Emerson has extended the same context-aware AI into NI InstrumentStudio, NI FlexLogger and NI VeriStand, covering interactive measurements, sensor-based datalogging and hardware-in-the-loop test environments. That gives engineers AI assistance across the entire test lifecycle, from initial development through system validation and deployment, rather than in a single tool.
Engineers weighing whether to hand code generation to an AI system will want to know how much oversight survives the automation. Emerson says Nigel AI is built to work within structured test workflows, using modular instrumentation, open software systems and existing engineering code so outputs align with real-world system constraints, and that the platform maintains traceability and governance alongside compliance with regulations such as the Cyber Resilience Act.
The 50 percent productivity figure comes from Emerson's own internal benchmarking rather than a third-party or customer-reported study, and the company has not published the specific workflows or methodology tested. Emerson has not disclosed pricing or a rollout timeline for the LabVIEW+ Suite expansion. More detail is available at ni.com/nigel.
