Is NI having a revival?
When I joined National Instruments in 1993, I experienced a spirited company with an incredibly strong DNA: Focused strategy, simple performance metrics, and a great work environment.
Fast forward to the NI of 2025: In the period leading up to the acquisition by Emerson, I saw a sustain periodic of dramatic change in NI’s focus: From being the company of “the common man”, it became a company focused on large accounts in vertical markets. LabVIEW and DAQ were gutted as part of this process. While adding a significant new set of skills to NI, it came at the expense of the smaller customers on whose successes the company was built, along with the all-important food chain of the academic market.
I now see positive signs of a re-birth of the roots of NI: combining the strength of high-level sales to key accounts, with the renewed focus on the individual engineer’s success.
At GDevCon in Stuttgart in September of 2024, I glimpsed the drama from a front row seat.
- I saw a passionate LabVIEW user community, that seemed to care more about LabVIEW and DAQ than NI.
- In Elijah Kerry’s presentation of the LabVIEW roadmap, the audience was positively and frankly engaged.And NI listened. Nine people from NI were there.
Yet sitting far from NI corporate here in Denmark, I see other positive signs:
- Renewed focus on LabVIEW
- Finally, a re-birth of a few excellent DAQ products, after a long period of no new products.
- Re-establishing an academic program
- Re-introducing permanent LabVIEW licenses in addition to the subscription model.
- Some of the “old” “fire in the belly” NI employees are coming back.
But more subtle signs, indicate that the NI DNA is returning:
- YouTube videos have gone from sterile, pre-scripted presentations in blurry quality to informal discussions led by Elijah Kerry and Norm Kirscher that get into the “machine room” of NI– now in high resolution so we can see the block diagrams.
- Fun events like rap-songs, “DAQ is back” T-shirts, and “It’s still OK to have fun” are coming back.
- The NI web pages are slowly being rejuvenated and speeded up.
- A more positive vibe emerging from NI.
I choose to see these as signs that the tide is turning. And that the “old” DNA can help revive r the important “entry level” market while also infusing the big ticket market.
I also sense that NI is beginning to be approachable, down-to-earth NI is coming back.
At a personal level after retiring a few years ago, I wanted to do some LabVIEW development in my one-person company. But this had been on hold for several years due to the onerous subscription model of LabVIEW which is prohibitively expensive for a “hole-in-the-wall” company. Also, my faith in the future of NI had reached a new low.
NI has now fixed the licensing issue, and I have the joy of getting back in the LabVIEW saddle. It still amazes me every day what a fantastic product LabVIEW is, and how the visual representation of my thoughts makes expressing my ideas easy to implement and remember.
Every day I look forward to grabbing the mouse, and turn my engineering dreams into reality.
I hope and pray for the best for NI, as it returns to its roots and embodies the “genius of the and” by combining the best of both worlds, from the engineer on the floor, to the managers approving big iron purchases!
It’s fun to have fun again!
https://youtu.be/dASler7a1ow?si=mrJ7JcnOrk6CDtF5