Automation resource hub. 15 June 2026 ARROW ELECTRONICS has launched a new factory automation resource hub designed to support original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), system integrators and engineering teams developing next-generation industrial systems. To help customers navigate this complexity, Arrow has developed a comprehensive suite of technical resources focused on machine vision and motor control - two critical pillars of modern automation systems. The online hub includes a range of in-depth content, including whitepapers, webinars, on-demand event sessions and additional resources covering intelligent sensing, motion systems and real-time automation design. As manufacturers accelerate the transition to Industry 4.0, production environments are becoming increasingly connected, data-driven and complex. Integrating machine vision, motion control, sensing and connectivity into cohesive systems presents growing challenges around synchronisation, real-time performance and scalability. "Insights from our recent Factory Automation Summit highlighted that system failures are most likely to occur at integration points rather than within individual subsystems, while deterministic communication is essential to achieving real-time performance," said Morten Block, global engineering director, segments and technology go-to-market, Arrow Electronics. "The discussions also underscored that although AI adoption is increasing in targeted applications, scaling remains complex, and that trade-offs across sensing, control and connectivity can significantly impact overall system behaviour." Arrow's global business support for factory automation combines system-level architecture expertise with validated components, engineering support and lifecycle management services. This helps customers accelerate development, reduce integration complexity, and scale automation systems more reliably from design through deployment. Explore Arrow's factory automation resource hub at: Send Enquiry FEATURED SUPPLIERS TWITTER FEED CDA MAGAZINE VIDEO OF THE MONTH 1/2 (1 to 10 of 20)

Arrow opens global AI and cloud experience centers. Published June 10, 2026 News summary. Arrow Electronics opened experience centers in Georgia and Sweden to help partners test AI, cloud and security solutions before deployment. Arrow Electronics has opened linked experience centers in Alpharetta and Stockholm to help vendors, channel partners and customers test AI, cloud and security deployments before buying, as enterprises struggle to turn interest in high-growth technologies into workable infrastructure projects and channel providers look for faster ways to prove, price and sell complex multivendor solutions at scale now. The centers are positioned as demonstration and engineering hubs rather than showrooms. That is the useful part. Enterprises have already heard enough about AI strategy. Many are now stuck on less elegant questions: where the data sits, which infrastructure stack can run the workload, how security controls are applied, and who takes responsibility when a proof of concept fails to become production. Arrow Electronics wants its channel partners to bring customers into a controlled environment before capital is committed. The company says the centers, located in Georgia and Sweden, are networked globally so partners can use similar environments across North America and Europe. Same experience, different region. In theory. The move reflects a broader change in the channel. Resellers and integrators are being asked to sell outcomes around AI, hybrid infrastructure and resilience, while many customer environments remain fragmented, under-documented and heavily dependent on legacy systems. Testing before spending. Arrow says the centers support AI, cloud, security and multivendor solutions, with a focus on hybrid infrastructure, cybersecurity risk and resilience, and services consultancy. Partners can access more than 100 pre-built and tested solutions, or build custom configurations with Arrow engineers and technicians. That could matter for buyers trying to reduce deployment risk. AI infrastructure is rarely a single-product sale. It can involve compute, storage, networking, data protection, identity, monitoring, governance and security tooling. Add on-premises requirements and the architecture becomes slower to specify and harder to justify. For vendors, the centers offer another route into enterprise accounts through the channel. For partners, they create a place to demonstrate more than slideware. For customers, they may shorten the distance between curiosity and procurement. Demonstrations are not production. A working lab environment can still hide integration friction, data quality problems, internal skills gaps and budget constraints. The question for enterprise buyers is whether the tested configuration maps closely enough to their real operating model. Workloads, latency, compliance exposure, change windows, existing contracts. All the boring details that decide whether a project survives. Arrow Electronics says channel partners using its experience centers to demonstrate solutions have averaged a 90 percent close rate on proposals. That is a striking number, though it should be read carefully. Demonstration-ready opportunities are not always representative of the wider market. Buyers who reach that stage may already be more qualified, more funded or more committed than early-stage prospects. Channel pressure. The commercial pressure on channel partners is obvious. AI demand is high, but monetizing it is uneven. Customers ask for help, then hesitate. Vendors produce reference architectures, but those often assume cleaner environments than customers actually have. Partners get caught between ambition and implementation. Experience centers are meant to bridge that gap. They can help partners package infrastructure, show use cases, train sales and technical teams, and validate combinations of hardware and software before presenting them as customer-ready. The vendor-agnostic language is important. Arrow is not presenting the centers as a single-platform program. It is emphasizing multivendor environments, which fits how most enterprise IT is bought and operated. Few customers want another isolated stack. Fewer still want an AI project that breaks their security posture or forces a premature cloud commitment. Still, vendor neutrality has limits. Distributors sit in commercial ecosystems. Product availability, partner incentives, vendor funding and margin structures can shape which solutions get built, promoted and repeated. Buyers should ask what is being tested, who sponsored it, and how performance or risk claims were validated. The Stockholm center gives Arrow a European anchor for AI and cloud conversations that increasingly involve sovereignty, security and regulatory questions. The Alpharetta site gives it a North American counterpart. That geographic split is sensible. It also exposes how regional AI adoption is diverging. European buyers may ask harder questions about data location and compliance. U.S. buyers may move faster but still face cost and skills constraints. The skills layer. Arrow is also using the centers for training, enablement, guidance and knowledge exchange. That may be the less glamorous but more important function. Many organizations do not lack AI ideas. They lack teams able to move from vendor demo to operational service. Machine learning, modeling and data science need infrastructure. Infrastructure needs security. Security needs governance. Governance needs someone who understands the business case well enough to decide what should not be built. So the experience center model is partly about technology validation and partly about confidence-building. It gives the channel a place to rehearse before walking into customer projects with multiple vendors, uncertain budgets and high expectations. The risk is that the industry mistakes demonstration velocity for adoption maturity. AI projects can move quickly in a lab because the scope is controlled. Enterprise deployment is slower because ownership is contested. IT, security, data, legal, finance and business units all get a vote. Sometimes too many votes. Arrow is trying to make the channel more useful in that messy middle between opportunity and implementation. The centers may help. They will not remove the underlying constraint: customers still need a real use case, an architecture they can operate, and a budget owner willing to defend the spend. Executive insights FAQ. How do Arrow's centers affect enterprise AI adoption? They give buyers and partners a controlled setting to test infrastructure combinations before committing capital to complex AI, cloud or security deployments. Why does this matter for channel partners? Partners need demonstrable solutions, technical validation and stronger sales enablement as AI demand rises but customer implementation readiness remains uneven. Where could the model fall short? Lab success may not reflect production constraints such as legacy integration, compliance obligations, data quality, internal ownership and operating skills. What should buyers ask before engaging? Buyers should ask which vendors are included, how configurations were validated, who funds the solution design and whether results map to real workloads. How does this fit broader IT spending? It reflects a shift toward proof-led procurement as enterprises scrutinize AI investments and demand clearer links between infrastructure spend and operational value.