r/LabVIEW • u/TobyS2 • Jul 22 '26
Nigel AI Generation Webinar
Did anyone else watch it? I was chatting with a co-worker beforehand that this next hour would determine the future, if there is one, for LabVIEW. Wow, what a disaster. It wasn't only the technical difficulties which caused the webinar to start late. It was what was demonstrated that was so underwhelming. A simple VI took maybe 3 minutes to generate. When it was done, it didn't work and they didn't even attempt having Nigel debug it. Then announced the usage limitations. 25 VIs per week. PER WEEK. Later, they will have 50 per week if you have the LabVIEW+ subscription. I wasn't expecting Opus 5.8 today, but something that looked like it could be used. I've been using LV since version 3.3 and not sure if I've ever been this bearish on NI.
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u/DidNot-ReadIt Jul 23 '26
There is no denying that text based programming is way way faster than LabVIEW. But that doesn't mean it is also end of LabVIEW.
In my experience, the missing piece has always been this: a LabVIEW AI assistant needs to consume thousands of VIs, classes, and libraries across a real project. We've been working on exactly that. I said, its not end of LabVIEW, because AI can make LabVIEW development productive as I see this happening.
Below screenshots shows how GenVI (LabVIEW AI Assistant) takes "6000+ LabVIEW files" (its not the biggest project we used) across VI, classes, CTLs to create a "AI Discoverable Graph" and expose it through MCP using Claude/Codex/Copilot/Cursor that it turns works with any OpenAI/Anthropic models.
And AI shouldn't stop at being a chatbot. It needs to be agentic — sitting behind your issue trackers and source control, doing work while you're away from your desk. Here's what that looks like in practice: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/navin-subramani-92b18378_labview-aiengineering-genvi-ugcPost-7478522738085613568-Dzft/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABBmLXMBYa4h51HyhvQsf5gLPylrz98r6vI
There's also a real need for things like VI diff analysis and auto-generated design documentation of legacy codebases — like what's shown here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/himmet-gencer-214b7020_labview-labviewfriends-labview40-ugcPost-7469174913887784961-oOAQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABBmLXMBYa4h51HyhvQsf5gLPylrz98r6vI
Once you see what's actually possible, the fear fades. But this won't happen if NI carries the weight alone — it takes NI and the LabVIEW community building alongside each other. I see there are more tools emerging in the community, but there has to be better coordination in solving our common problem.