3M today unveiled Ask 3M, an AI-powered digital assistant, and an expanded 3M Digital Materials Hub at CES 2026. Ask 3M leverages generative AI to guide engineers through substrate selection, environmental conditions, assembly methods and performance targets, using 3M’s portfolio of adhesives and tapes. The Digital Materials Hub adds Optical Models for simulation of optical film in automotive, consumer electronics and advanced manufacturing applications. Together, these tools enable customers to move from design challenge to digital concept validation in minutes, potentially reducing early-stage design cycles by up to 50%.

At launch, Ask 3M will be piloted by engineers in the Safety & Industrial Business Group focused on bonding challenges. The platform runs on Amazon Web Services’ secure AI stack—including Amazon Bedrock and AgentCore—demonstrating scalable performance and data security. 3M projects that customers using these tools could cut prototyping costs by 30% through reduced physical trials and faster virtual validation. Holly Semerad, CMO of the Safety & Industrial Business Group, highlighted that small-quantity purchase options will further accelerate final prototyping and time to market.

The introduction of these digital offerings underscores 3M’s shift toward software-enabled services, opening new recurring revenue streams beyond traditional materials sales. In a pilot with select customers, virtual sampling through the Hub shortened development timelines by 40% and increased customer engagement by 25%. The ability to request bespoke virtual materials—backed by 3M’s decades of materials science—positions the company to capture higher-margin custom projects. Investors should monitor adoption rates at scale and subsequent unit economics of small-quantity prototyping purchases, which could meaningfully enhance gross margins over the next two fiscal years.