Nuvicom Hosts 'NI LabVIEW User Group Developer Day'

AI Test and Measurement Innovation, Expanding LabVIEW Developer Ecosystem

"We do not believe that AI will replace developers. Through Nigel AI and LabVIEW, we aim to connect and complete all workflows of test and measurement engineers, enabling faster and smarter development."

Nuvicom, a domestic NI partner company, held the 'NI LabVIEW User Group Developer Day' on the 18th at All That Mind in Munrae-dong, Seoul.

The event was organized as a venue for LabVIEW users and developers to gather together and share the latest software strategies and AI-based development directions. In particular, Anand Jain, Senior Engineer at Emerson-NI Software Business Unit (SW BU), visited Korea and gave a presentation on the theme of 'Today of LabVIEW Development, Tomorrow to be Created Together with AI', drawing considerable interest.

The core of this presentation was not simply a product introduction. NI disclosed mid-to-long-term strategies regarding what role it will play in the test and measurement industry going forward and how it will transform the development environment through AI.

In particular, Anand Jain stated that "software is the center of NI strategy" and presented AI, connectivity, and community as the key pillars for future growth.

Anand Jain defined the direction of the software platform pursued by NI as 'Open' and 'Connected'.

This means that LabVIEW is building an environment that integrates naturally with Python, C#, and various third-party software, beyond just interfacing with NI hardware.

Through this, users can connect and automate the entire test and measurement workflow within a single platform, rather than individual instruments.

What particularly stood out was the AI strategy.

Anand Jain characterized Nigel AI, an AI assistant under development by NI, as "AI for Test and Measurement".

He emphasized that AI will become an essential technology in response to industry changes such as increased product complexity, data explosion, and expansion of multidisciplinary development organizations.

Currently, Nigel AI has advanced from the 'Advisor' stage, which answers questions, to the 'Author' stage, where it can generate LabVIEW code and TestStand sequences.

In the future, it is expected to expand to the 'Agent' stage, which will perform requirement analysis, test plan creation, test coverage analysis, hardware recommendations, and data analysis support.

Anand Jain explained that AI is not a technology that replaces developers, but a technology that improves productivity.

He said, "There are skeptics about AI, and some believe that AI will solve all problems, but NI is choosing a technical approach that applies AI to actual problem-solving."

He further projected that "over the next 5 to 10 years, AI will fundamentally change the way test and measurement is conducted."

It was also impressive that NI continues to show strong confidence in LabVIEW.

Anand Jain explained the strengths of LabVIEW, a graphically-based programming environment, through FPGA development examples.

Complex HDL code of thousands of lines can be expressed with a few visual block diagrams, which has even greater value in the AI era in terms of code understanding and maintenance.

He stated that LabVIEW is one of the most optimized languages in the test and measurement field, and NI plans to continuously strengthen this advantage.

The areas where NI is recently focusing investment were also disclosed.

In addition to AI-based workflows, installation environment improvements, automatic instrument driver configuration, DevOps and CI/CD support, modern user interface development, data analysis and insight provision, and security enhancement are notable examples.

In the DevOps field in particular, support has been provided to operate the LabVIEW development environment on a container basis, enabling automatic builds and tests coordinated with Jenkins and others.

Security was also a key topic.

Anand Jain introduced that NI is strengthening the security systems of LabVIEW and the entire NI platform to respond to the European Union's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation, encrypted data transmission, and Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) application were also mentioned as major investment areas.

A live demonstration was conducted during the event on the theme of 'How Will LabVIEW Development Change with Nigel AI?'.

The demonstration showcased Nigel AI supporting existing LabVIEW code analysis, system architecture design consulting, step-by-step development guide generation, and actual measurement VI generation.

Bae Chang-yong, an engineer from Nuvicom who conducted the demonstration, emphasized that AI is a 'development assistant tool' that supports analysis, design, and initial code generation, rather than replacing developer decision-making.

The actual demonstration introduced the process of generating LabVIEW VI using only natural language prompts for CompactDAQ-based temperature and vibration measurement systems, measurement systems using power supplies and digital multimeters, and PXI-based measurement systems.

Additionally, it was explained that Nigel AI utilizes Microsoft Azure-based AI services, and LabVIEW Plus Suite users can currently use VI generation functionality 50 times per week, while LabVIEW Professional users can use it 25 times per week.

This event went beyond simply introducing new features to show what NI aspires to become in the future.

Keywords that repeatedly appeared throughout the presentation were AI, connected workflows, security, DevOps, and community.

Anand Jain introduced, "More than 130 user group activities have been conducted worldwide over the past year," and positioned community as a core driver of product development.

He also stated, "User feedback is being reflected in actual product improvements and roadmaps, and we plan to expand investment in user communities going forward."