At 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026 in Houston, Dassault Systèmes and its SolidWorks brand unveiled a broader suite of artificial intelligence agents aimed at helping designers and engineers work with greater speed and insight. The announcement came from CEO Manish Kumar in front of a large audience at the George R. Brown Convention Centre and focused on expanding beyond SolidWorks’ earlier AI assistant, Aura, to include new agents with distinct specializations, tells Develop 3D.
Aura, the first of the virtual companions introduced in 2025, was joined by Marie and Leo. Marie is built to assist with materials, chemistry, and science, while Leo focuses on engineering, mechanics, simulation, and manufacturing workflows. Each agent is trained to respond to questions in its area of expertise, offering answers that reflect different professional perspectives, similar to consulting a materials scientist or a simulation engineer directly.
Under the hood, these AI agents run on Dassault Systèmes’ Outscale cloud infrastructure and use the Mistral AI foundational model. This setup delivers powerful computational capabilities while maintaining confidentiality and data security, which the company emphasizes as crucial for professional users. Leo is set to roll out in mid-2026, with Marie arriving later in the year.
In a live demonstration, Kumar showed Leo taking an initial sketch in SolidWorks 3DEXPERIENCE XDesign and transforming it first into a parametric sketch and then into a full 3D model with adjustable parameters. The agent also performed a surrogate simulation study, an approximation of a finite-element analysis, triggered simply by a user prompt, illustrating how AI can ease complex design iterations that typically require manual setup.
Despite the clear focus on artificial intelligence, speakers at the event stressed that these tools are intended to augment human creativity and expertise, not replace engineers. Breakout sessions at the conference showed that attendees still prioritize traditional design topics, even as AI draws interest for future workflows.
This move underscores Dassault Systèmes’ evolving AI strategy within the broader 3DEXPERIENCE platform, reinforcing its long-term vision of integrated tools that help CAD professionals reduce repetitive work and accelerate innovation.