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Data Driven: EDM Association’s Q3 2026 Update

From John Bottega, President, EDM Association

Dear Members, Partners and Friends,

As we move through 2026, I want to share an update on where the EDM Association is focusing its energy on your behalf, and the activities underway to keep our global community – across our Data & Analytics, OMG Standards, Digital Twin Consortium and Augmented Reality (AREA) groups – at the leading edge of data management, digital engineering and standards. Our work continues to center on the practical, business-critical challenges our members face — and on building the shared infrastructure that makes good data management and innovation possible across the industry.

Business Environment

EDMA is balancing growth and innovation with disciplined stewardship as members navigate AI-driven change and economic uncertainty.

We are mindful that our  work with all of you is happening against a backdrop of real challenge and real opportunity. The rapid advance of AI is reshaping what our members need from data management, digital engineering and standards, even as it unfolds amid an uncertain economic and global environment. We recognize that many of our members, and the broader marketplace, are navigating funding constraints and closer scrutiny of travel and discretionary spend. With that context firmly in mind, we are working to make sound, disciplined business decisions that position the Association for sustainable growth — investing where it matters most to members and being deliberate stewards of the resources you entrust to us.

Upcoming 2026 Member Events

Members can look forward to an active schedule of global technical meetings and networking opportunities through the remainder of 2026

Q3 & Q4 will be very busy for EDMA in-person events  across the globe, including the US, UK, Australia and India. Please check out the Conference and Events information for our DataVision events; Q3 Object Management Group (OMG) and Business Architecture in Data Management events in Orlando and Digital Twin Consortium (DTC) member meeting in Leeds, UK; annual charity golf event in New Jersey, US; as well as several industry conferences. We hope that you can join some or all to network with the EDMA community!

Register to join these events, and please get in touch to explore speaking or sponsoring opportunities.

PLUS, stay tuned for updates to be announced about our Q4 OMG Technical Meeting and DTC Member Meeting! Both will be held IN PERSON in the US in early December. More to come soon!

EDM Association’s Dynamic Market Position

We are actively positioning EDMA as the leading advocate for trusted, standards-based data foundations that enable successful AI adoption

Our members, and the global marketplace, across all industries and geographies are dealing with navigating the opportunity and challenge of adopting and leveraging AI across the enterprise. They are looking for guidance, collaboration and innovation to build their operational and business strategies.

The EDM Association’s position is clear: the path to AI optimization begins with trusted, interoperable data through best practices and standards. As AI systems scale, organizations are learning that performance depends not just on models, but on the quality, structure, and shared meaning of the data beneath them. Ontologies, knowledge graphs, and standardized data products transform fragmented information into machine‑readable intelligence, shifting the paradigm from “garbage in, garbage out” to “gold in, gold out.” This foundation is what enables AI to reason accurately, digital twins to mirror reality with fidelity, and AR systems to deliver contextual intelligence in real time. AI is leading to the convergence of innovative technologies, trusted data interoperability, standards and best practices. The EDM Association is well positioned for this convergence and the future is bright.

Business Update

Across industries and geographies, EDMA is advancing strategic initiatives focused on AI, interoperability, emerging technologies, and business value

Within and across the EDM Association, we are working with our member communities to undertake and advance significant conversations and initiatives – all focused around business impact and AI.  Here are just a few of many recent highlights:

  • Agentic AI & Data Products framework for global financial services firms
  • Building on FIBO (Financial Industry Business Ontology) & other open ontology frameworks
  • Driving XR frameworks to enable business value
  • Adding Space Systems to the Aerospace and Defense working group
  • New quantum computing working group in the DTC
  • Joining the AMD’s Open Robotics Partner Ecosystem
  • Partnering with Isle of Man on the first-of-its-kind legislated Data Monetization structure (see the Data Asset Foundations initiative)

Highlights From Our Consortia

Object Management Group (OMG Standards Development Organization)

OMG continues to expand the standards and frameworks that enable scalable, interoperable, and trustworthy enterprise AI solutions

Our OMG team continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in AI by strengthening the standards that make real interoperability achievable. They’re evolving the knowledge‑representation foundations — from API4KP and ODM to OMG Commons and our own FIBO ontology — that today’s agentic AI systems rely on. At the same time, they’re tackling the emerging challenges organizations face as they move from experimentation to enterprise deployment, with new work supporting GenAI, Graph‑RAG, and other fast‑moving technologies. The focus is squarely on practical adoption: building the frameworks, like SACM and SysML v2, that help organizations deploy AI responsibly, at scale, and with confidence.

Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)

AREA is helping organizations translate XR technologies into measurable operational and workforce benefits.

AREA continues to be a powerful force in helping organizations turn XR (extended reality) from a promising idea into a proven business capability. Our Innovation Impact Framework keeps the emphasis on human‑centered design and workforce adoption — the real keys to avoiding stalled pilots and achieving measurable value. Recent webinars have showcased how companies are using XR to improve productivity, quality, safety, and training, including smart ways to convert legacy content into AR‑ready data. With active participation across major industry events and a growing community of members, the AREA is expanding collaboration opportunities and strengthening the enterprise XR ecosystem. Their research, tools, and frameworks are helping organizations navigate the strategic, technical, financial, legal, and workforce considerations that come with adopting AR at scale.

Digital Twin Consortium (DTC)

DTC is accelerating digital twin innovation through interoperability, physical AI, robotics, and industry-focused collaboration.

The DTC continues to accelerate innovation in digital twins, moving the field from prediction to action through physical AI, interoperability, and real‑world deployment. Our collaboration with AMD’s Open Robotics Partner Ecosystem is helping advance robotics and automation, while webinars and workshops highlight successful digital twin applications across energy, manufacturing, robotics, and space. The ecosystem keeps expanding, with new members and leadership — including Entarian joining the Steering Committee — bringing fresh expertise from aerospace, defense, healthcare, manufacturing, and research institutions. DTC’s recent programs, from the Space Mission Systems Workshop to Front‑Running Simulation initiatives and new working groups like Quantum, demonstrate how digital twins are delivering operational decision‑making and business value in complex, data‑intensive environments.

Data & Analytics Initiatives

EDMA is expanding practical guidance, standards, and tools that help organizations build trusted, AI-ready data ecosystems

Across EDMA, we’re seeing members push hard to make AI dependable, governed, and grounded in trustworthy data. Our expanded work on AI‑ready data is helping organizations structure, validate, and manage the information that fuels AI and machine‑learning models — including using AI itself to accelerate tasks like classification, lineage discovery, and quality remediation. At the same time, we’re deepening our guidance on data products, giving members practical patterns and operating models for designing discoverable, well‑owned, high‑quality data assets that agentic AI can rely on. FIBO continues to anchor our ontology standards work as the shared semantic foundation for financial services, with ongoing improvements in coverage, tooling, and adoption. And through the Data Asset Foundations, we’re helping members turn well‑governed data into measurable business value by giving them a structured way to inventory, assess, and manage data as a true enterprise asset. Together, these efforts support the shift from experimentation to repeatable, enterprise‑ready data and AI practices.

Key Partnerships

Strategic partnerships are broadening the Association’s influence and strengthening alignment across data, engineering, and standards communities

None of this work happens in isolation, and we continue to invest in partnerships that extend the reach and rigor of our standards and practices:

  • INCOSE — collaborating on the intersection of systems engineering and data/information management, so data considerations are built into complex systems from the start.
  • OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) — aligning geospatial and location data standards, supporting members whose data assets increasingly carry a spatial dimension.
  • ODI (Open Data Institute) — partnering on open data practices, data trust frameworks, and broader data ecosystem thinking that complements our members’ enterprise-focused work.

Together, these partnerships help ensure that the standards and practices we develop stay connected to the wider data, systems, and standards communities — and that our members benefit from perspectives beyond any single industry or discipline.

Training and Certification

New training and certification programs are equipping members with the skills needed for next-generation data, AI, and systems initiatives

We remain committed to expanding our training and certification offerings so members can build and validate the skills these initiatives demand. Highlights of our growing curriculum include:

  • SysML v2 — training on the next generation of the Systems Modeling Language, helping members apply rigorous, model-based approaches to complex data and systems design.
  • DCAM 3 — the newest release of our Data Management Capability Assessment Model certification, giving members an updated benchmark for assessing and maturing enterprise data management practices.
  • AI Optimization Masterclass — an in-depth, practical workshop to deepen expertise in applying AI within a governed, data-driven enterprise.

These offerings reflect our ongoing investment in professional development, and we encourage members to take advantage of them as they roll out.

Operations

Internal modernization efforts are improving the efficiency, reliability, and member experience of the Association.

Behind these program initiatives, we are also investing in the operational foundation that supports them. We are working to normalize and improve our technology environment, streamline internal processes, and strengthen how we communicate and engage with members. This includes modernizing the systems and workflows the Association relies on day-to-day, so that member-facing services are more reliable and consistent, and improving the channels and cadence through which we keep members informed and involved. Our aim is an Association that runs as efficiently and transparently as the standards and practices we promote to the industry.

Get Involved

Members are encouraged to actively participate in working groups, standards development, partnerships, and community initiatives

Each of these initiatives depends on active member participation. If you would like to join a working group, contribute to FIBO development, pilot the Data Asset Foundation, or get involved in any of our partnership activities, please reach out to your member relationship contact, email our Member Services team, or get in touch through our online contact page. We welcome your engagement and your expertise!

In Closing…

On behalf of the EDM Association, we remain grateful for your continued membership, support and commitment to advancing our data-driven, innovative future – cross-industry and around the globe.  We look forward to advancing this work together.

Digital Twin Consortium Announces the Digital Twin System Framework

Defining the four-layer architecture that turns digital twin insight into operational action

BOSTON, MA – AUGUST 25, 2026 – The Digital Twin Consortium® (DTC™), an EDM Association community, today announced the Digital Twin System Framework, formally defining the Digital Twin System (DTS) – a term already present in DTC’s published digital twin definition but never separately defined. The framework specifies the DTS as a four-layer architecture – Data, Context, Decision and Process Orchestration, and Actuation – supported by the Digital Thread, and extends DTC’s decision-making language so that humans, autonomous agents, and robots are treated as actuators.

A digital twin shows what is happening in a physical system; the Digital Twin System defines how that insight becomes action – and each layer adds distinct value. Data is the foundation: synchronized, trustworthy information drawn from the physical system. Context gives that data meaning, binding it to the asset, its process, and its operating limits. Decision and Process Orchestration turns meaning into evaluated, coordinated decisions. Actuation closes the loop, carrying decisions back into the physical world through people, autonomous agents, or machines.

“The Digital Twin System Framework unifies DTC’s prior work – the Digital Twin and AI Agent Capabilities Periodic Tables, the Industrial AI Agent Manifesto, and the Digital Thread – into one cohesive architectural framework, each defined a piece of the problem. The DTS defines how they operate together, giving organizations a single blueprint to realize digital twin systems in production,” stated Dan Isaacs, GM & CTO, DTC.

Consider a pump in a water treatment plant. The Data layer streams vibration and flow measurements; the Context layer maps them to the pump’s model and operating envelope, revealing early-stage cavitation; Decision and Process Orchestration weighs the evidence, confirms who – or what – has authority to act, and selects the response; Actuation executes it: a maintenance work order, an AI agent rescheduling downstream operations, or the control system trimming pump speed. The Digital Thread preserves traceability from measurement to action.

“AI has moved faster than the architectures many companies use to govern it,” said Pieter van Schalkwyk, CEO of XMPro and Co-Chair of the Composability Framework Working Group. “The Digital Twin System gives industrial organizations a way to connect AI to operational reality without losing control of context, evidence, authority or safety.”

At scale, the Decision and Process Orchestration layer is multi-agent: specialized AI agents coordinate under clear safety hierarchies rather than communicating point-to-point, preventing conflicting objectives from creating unsafe system states. For trustworthy production deployment of the Actuation layer, the framework leverages the ten governance laws of the DTC’s previously announced Industrial AI Agent Manifesto, developed by the Composability Framework Working Group.

The laws – including deterministic validation and execution, separation of agent cognition from action execution, emergency stop and human override, complete auditability, and multi-agent safety orchestration – ensure that every action reaching the physical world is validated against the digital twin’s constraints, traceable, and subject to human override.

The framework extends the Digital Twin Capabilities Periodic Table and the AI Agent Capabilities Periodic Table, which maps onto the four layers, and support digital engineering methodologies. The Digital Twin System shows how digital twin information can participate in a broader operational architecture for decisions, orchestration, and actuation.

Learn more about the DTS Framework. Watch the upcoming Webinar on September 9th at 1 pm PT. Led by DTC member co-chairs of the Capabilities and Technology and Digital Engineering: Pieter Van Shalkwyk, CEO of XMPro and Dr. David McKee, CTO of Crysp, the webinar showcases real-world deployed application examples.

About Digital Twin Consortium
The Digital Twin Consortium® (DTC) is Accelerating Digital Twin Innovation™. DTC advances digital twin adoption and market growth by working closely with members to foster development, raise awareness, and enhance interoperability of digital twin applications throughout the Digital Twin Lifecycle across industries. DTC is an EDM Association community. For more information, visit https://www.digitaltwinconsortium.org.

Note to editors: All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Karen Quatromoni
Karen@omg.org

Welcome Competition and Markets Authority as EDM Association’s newest member

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is an independent government body responsible for promoting competition, protecting consumers, and investigating anti-competitive practices, mergers, and market issues across the UK.

Learn more here.

Eyes on Data: The AI Readiness Gap — Why Data Strategy Is Now a CEO-Level Issue

By EDM Association

Published on TDAN.com

Across industries, CEOs and executive teams are asking how AI can improve productivity, reduce costs, strengthen decision-making, and create new sources of competitive advantage. Organizations are making significant investments in AI platforms, infrastructure, and talent while accelerating efforts to move from experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption.

But a critical question is often missing from the conversation:

Is the organization actually ready to scale AI?

The 2026 EDM Association Global Data Management Benchmark Report suggests that, for many organizations, the answer is not yet.

Based on responses from more than 435 organizations across more than 50 countries, the report reveals a widening gap between enterprise AI ambition and the organizational foundations required to support it. While AI adoption is accelerating, many companies continue to struggle with strategy, accountability, funding, governance, architecture, and workforce readiness.

The implication for CEOs is straightforward: AI readiness is an enterprise data management question.

Read the full article on TDAN.com

JPMorgan Chase is the EDM Association’s Newest Member

JPMorgan Chase is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, commercial banking, asset management, consumer banking, and wealth management services to individuals, businesses, institutions, and governments worldwide.

For more information, click here.

EDM Association welcomes Skipton Building Society as its newest member

Skipton Building Society is a UK mutual financial services institution offering mortgages, savings, financial advice and insurance, with a focus on helping members achieve homeownership, save for the future and build long-term financial security.

For more information: click here

Dan Schuck Consulting becomes the newest member to join EDM Association

Dan Schuck Consulting designs and implements customized data management and analytics solutions that integrate, clean, govern, and transform enterprise data into actionable insights for better decision-making.

Learn more here.

IGnPower Inc. is the EDM Association’s Newest Member

IGnPower Inc. is a Canadian digital transformation advisory and software services firm specializing in the intersection of Internet of Things (IoT), information governance, AI, digital twins, and emerging technologies to help organizations navigate and execute enterprise digital transformation.

For more information, click here.

Welcome Hamilton Lane Incorporated as EDM Association’s newest member

Hamilton Lane is a global private markets investment management firm providing asset management, investment solutions, data and technology services to institutional and private wealth investors.

Learn more here.

EDM Association welcomes Harris Farm Markets as its newest member

Harris Farm Markets is a family-owned Australian grocery retailer specializing in fresh produce, premium groceries, meat, seafood, organic products and other food essentials, with both physical stores and online delivery.

For more information: click here