IFS gives industrial AI ecosystem leg up through partnerships

IFS recently hosted Industrial X Unleashed, its first dedicated AI event. The main theme of the event: building out an AI ecosystem together with partners. The company collaborates with Anthropic, Boston Dynamics, 1X Technologies, and Siemens to advance industrial and physical AI capabilities for enterprise customers.

The event marked a shift in IFS’s approach to customer engagement, focusing specifically on AI rather than broader FSM, EAM or ERP topics. At the event, we sat down with Christian Pedersen, Chief Product Officer at IFS. He explained that the targeted format reflects customer demand for concrete AI solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Partnership strategy

Pedersen emphasized that IFS approaches partnerships strategically rather than for publicity purposes. “We are our customers’ conduit into the technology for their industry, the industry solutions, their industrial AI and their physical AI,” he stated. This philosophy drives the company’s selection of partnership opportunities.

The partnerships announced span different aspects of AI. The Anthropic collaboration focuses on language models and reasoning capabilities, while Boston Dynamics and 1X Technologies address physical AI through robotic systems. The Siemens partnership targets energy optimization for data centers and power grids. All in all, IFS takes a broad approach to AI.

IFS Resolve: deep integration with Anthropic

The most technically integrated announcement involved IFS Resolve, a solution co-developed with Anthropic. This partnership goes beyond typical API integration, Pedersen says. Both companies’ product teams work closely together on development. Pedersen describes the collaboration as bringing together Anthropic’s modeling expertise with IFS’s deep industry knowledge.

IFS Resolve demonstrated significant real-world impact at distiller William Grant, saving $8.4 million annually at a single site by identifying and resolving maintenance issues that the company knew existed but couldn’t previously diagnose or quantify. That suggests huge potential if applied across the entire estate.

Three-tier intelligence architecture

The partnership with Anthropic is part of a three-tier model architecture underlying IFS’s AI strategy. The first level consists of publicly available large language models like Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. The second level includes private, industry-specific models developed by IFS using technology from partners like Anthropic. The third level incorporates customer-specific data that remains within their control.

“When the customer uses them, they need to see them as one interface,” Pedersen explained. This unified approach applies whether a human user or an AI agent accesses the system. IFS has adopted Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to manage API calls efficiently across these model layers.

Physical AI in industrial settings with Boston Dynamics

The Boston Dynamics partnership centers on integrating Spot robots into enterprise workflows. During the event demonstration, Spot performed inspections, detected potential problems, and automatically triggered work order creation within the IFS system.

Pedersen highlights Spot’s advanced sensing capabilities, including a hypersonic microphone that can detect issues humans cannot perceive, such as leaks in voltage transformers or steam pipes. “Spot can go places where humans can’t even go,” he notes, referencing the robot’s ability to navigate rocky terrain unsuitable for human workers.

Humanoid robots for enterprise applications

The partnership with 1X Technologies aims to adapt NEO, currently a consumer-focused humanoid robot, for enterprise use. Pedersen describes this initiative as “creating Neo’s brother and getting Neo’s brother ready to go to work.”

The key advantage of 1X humanoids lies in their dexterity. The robots can fold clothes and do other household tasks. This fine motor control translates well to manufacturing and repair center applications. IFS plans to begin customer engagements with the enterprise humanoid in 2026, focusing initially on manufacturing and service sectors.

Pedersen distinguishes between the use cases for different robotic form factors: Spot excels in harsh environments and inspection tasks, while humanoids will handle work requiring fine manipulation and human-like interaction with existing infrastructure.

Deployment control and update cadence

AI develops very quickly. This raises some concerns companies like IFS need to address. How do you keep up with rapid release cycles, especially in traditionally rather conservative industrial environments? Pedersen emphasizes that IFS maintains customer control over production deployments. While IFS can make updates available daily for products like Resolve, customers decide when to implement changes in their production environments.

“Making sure the client is in control of when they put them in production is another thing, and for me, that is still a very important element,” Pedersen stated. He also acknowledges that some updates, particularly front-end enhancements, might eventually be configured for automatic rollout at customer discretion.

Addressing skilled labor shortages

Pedersen mentions skilled labor shortages as a critical problem that physical AI can help solve. This is not a problem that IFS made up to push its physical AI story. He mentions conversations with utility companies like Eversource, where qualified workers are occupied with routine inspections rather than strategic work. That’s a waste of time and skilled labor, which is in short supply as it is already.

“It was one of the fastest growing roles in the US,” Pedersen notes about utility field workers. Physical AI systems can handle routine inspection work, freeing skilled personnel for complex problem-solving and strategic initiatives.

Siemens data center energy partnership

The Siemens partnership addresses energy optimization, particularly for data centers and power grids. Pedersen summarizes the value proposition simply: “Figure out where should I invest my money first in optimizing my power grid? Where do I get the most bang for the buck?”

The collaboration combines Siemens’ operational technology expertise with IFS’s enterprise asset management capabilities to identify high-impact investment opportunities in power infrastructure.

IFS and customers advance pragmatic AI

Pedersen advises customers to approach AI pragmatically: “Paint somewhat of a future of what you want your business to be and then make sure you take pragmatic steps towards that future.” He also warns against simply replicating existing processes in new technology, which can lead to “blind alleys” that don’t advance strategic objectives.

The pragmatic approach advocated by Pedersen from a customer perspective, also holds for IFS itself. It has always been very clear about that. Don’t expect the company to build AI castles in the air. Partly because it can’t do that anyway, but definitely also partly because it doesn’t see the value in it. As the initial hype around AI seems to die down a bit, IFS may have made the right decision to go for a pragmatic approach.

Also read: IFS partners with Anthropic to accelerate AI in industrial environments