3M is unveiling two digital innovations that will accelerate customer design workflows at CES 2026. The company is introducing Ask 3M, a new AI-powered digital assistant that helps customers find solutions to design challenges using 3M's vast portfolio of adhesives and tapes, and an expanded 3M Digital Materials Hub, which enables direct collaboration with 3M scientists through the Workbench feature and powers virtual materials sampling for generative solutions that don't yet exist.

To speed the introduction of solutions for 3M customers, these tools leverage generative AI, advanced modeling, and simulation-ready data cards, empowering users to design and digitally validate materials before investing in physical prototypes.

"At 3M, we're combining decades of material science with AI so engineers can make better decisions, faster," said Holly Semerad, chief marketing officer for 3M's Safety & Industrial Business Group. "Together, Ask 3M and the 3M Digital Materials Hub allow customers of varying scope and scale to move from design challenge to solution concept then digital selection and simulation in minutes. We can further accelerate the testing timeframe with small quantity purchase options for final and confident prototyping."

At launch, Ask 3M will be piloted to engineers solving bonding design challenges utilizing tapes and adhesives — largely within 3M's Safety & Industrial Business Group. Leveraging Amazon Web Services' (AWS) secure and scalable AI capabilities, including Amazon Bedrock and AgentCore, Ask 3M and the 3M Digital Materials Hub demonstrate how agentic AI and advanced simulation can help 3M customers accelerate innovation cycles, reduce prototyping costs, and bring better products to market faster. Powered by AWS, the AI assistant guides users through substrates, environmental conditions, assembly methods, and performance targets to recommend suitable options, helping teams move from problem to product-fit more quickly.

The expanded 3M Digital Materials Hub, which launched in early 2025, will now include Optical Models, which represent 3M optical film performance for use in common simulation environments. Engineers in automotive, consumer electronics, and advanced manufacturing can quickly assess optical behaviors and material tradeoffs earlier in the process, reducing iterations and enabling faster decision-making. In a pilot with select customers, engineers reported that the tool enables seamless use of 3M materials into virtual simulations, accelerating prototyping and design.

In addition to these capabilities, the expanded platform also enables customers to request bespoke virtual materials — ones that solve their specific design challenges but don't yet exist. It does this by leveraging 3M's decades of material science and engineering expertise, which means the path to create these unique solutions is already in place and 3M can accelerate their development and delivery.

"With these platforms, 3M is redefining how engineers discover, evaluate, and simulate materials," said Jason Langfield, 3M Digital Materials Hub project lead. "By drawing on 3M's deep technological and application expertise, we can deliver secure, scalable access to mechanical models, optical models and virtual materials, while helping our customers reduce iterations, accelerate decisions, and bring better solutions to market faster."

3M will showcase these solutions as part of its exhibition at CES 2026, located at Booth #8505 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. To learn more, visit 3m.com.