The white paper explores how semantic interoperability is becoming a key success factor for the digital and AI-driven transformation of manufacturing. It focuses on the shift from static dictionaries toward dynamic, extensible, and federated semantic processes.

The paper explains why industrial data spaces, digital product passports, smart manufacturing, and AI applications require shared, machine-readable, and reliably maintained meaning structures. It addresses key challenges such as fragmented domain-specific dictionaries, inconsistent data models, versioning, governance, and the controlled use of AI to support semantic mapping and harmonization.

The authors propose a flexible framework for semantic interoperability based on modular dictionary architectures, coexisting domain models, standardized mapping processes, and clear governance rules. In doing so, it contributes to international standardization and to the trustworthy use of AI in connected industrial ecosystems.