IFS ups its industrial AI, sustainability capabilities

Generative capabilities charge up industrial AI

AI is everywhere today, but it's not new. It has been used for years to automate and optimize industrial processes, said Christian Pedersen, chief product officer at IFS, during the IFS Unleashed opening keynote.

"It wasn't until the buzz around GenAI two years ago that set the imagination free, because GenAI placed in our minds that AI could generate things -- not only optimize things," Pedersen said.

IFS has taken the learnings of generative AI technology in the past two years and is applying them to the core strengths of the IFS Cloud, which includes its industry specificity for aerospace and defense, construction and engineering, energy and utilities, manufacturing, services, and telecommunications, he said.

"The deep expertise we have in industries, the deep and rich data models of our ability to do data streaming for augmented reality, automation, predictable AI," Pedersen said. "We're bringing all these things together with GenAI, and that has unleashed a tremendous amount of power."

Generative AI has a broad set of applications on its own, he said, but its use in industrial AI stands apart because it is laser-focused on precision with no hallucinations, which are erroneous or misleading conclusions produced by a generative AI model.

"Most importantly, industrial AI has context," Pedersen said. "It understands your industry, your business, your data and your people. When it generates action, it does it in the context of real-world challenges."

IFS is developing more than 300 industrial use cases and plans to deliver at least 60 validated use cases by the end of the year.

IFS showed the industrial AI capabilities in IFS Cloud 24R2 during the opening keynote session. The demonstration focused on a fictional use case of planning, building and operating a new airport terminal, but involved real customers -- such as waste metal recycling company Tomra, and electric and natural gas company Xcel Energy -- showing how they could use generative AI functions. The demonstrations highlighted the AI functionality in two platforms that IFS recently acquired: Copperleaf Technologies for asset lifecycle management and Poka for connected frontline worker management.

Sustainability is 'good business'

Sustainability was also on the agenda at IFS Unleashed. IFS Cloud Sustainability Management, a new tool developed in collaboration with PwC, is embedded in IFS Cloud 24R2. This is designed to help customers gather, track and manage data around sustainability to help them meet regulatory requirements, improve the efficiency of operations and support circular manufacturing processes. It includes functionality such as a carbon emissions tracker with categories for waste generated in operations, transportation and distribution.

"Typically, when you invoke the kind of actions that reduce carbon, that optimize processes, that improve productivity and uptime, reduce fuel consumption -- it's just good business," said Mark Moffat, CEO at IFS, during the opening keynote. "It's also a call to action for the industry -- if we can do it for our customers, and our competitors do the same, imagine the kind of impact we can have."

Customer AI readiness still a question

Customers and analysts were generally positive about IFS' practical use cases for industrial AI, but also recognized that there are issues that need to be resolved and questions answered before it's widely adopted.

IFS did well by showing use cases with input from real customers, said Liz Herbert, an analyst at Forrester Research.

[Vendors] at a lot of these events show ideas for use cases, but are a little light on how customers are using them. The industry-specific elements are strong for them, particularly as industrial AI isn't effective without the industry context.

"[Vendors] at a lot of these events show ideas for use cases, but are a little light on how customers are using them," Herbert said. "The industry-specific elements are strong for them, particularly as industrial AI isn't effective without the industry context."

IFS pivoted in the last few years from its on-premises ERP base -- first to cloud and now to AI functionality, she said. While IFS continues to support some customers on-premises, the company's ability to transition could be a competitive advantage as traditional ERP vendors, particularly SAP, struggle with moving their customers to the cloud.

"This can open a door for a company like IFS because they're in the same area and they're much cheaper," Herbert said. "If they can show that billion-dollar-plus corporations are using them, they can start to crack that door open."

The product demonstrations showed how IFS is adding AI capabilities across the entire lifecycle, from planning and forecasting to procurement and operations, said Brian Sommer, founder and president of technology advisory firm TechVentive. The emphasis on practical uses of industrial AI also helps to cut through the AI hype, he said.

"They did a good job of showing where they're putting AI and how they're doing this with real customers," Sommer said. "It's one thing to say you have AI -- it's another to make it accessible, relatable and usable to an audience. It can't just be some pie-in-the-sky thing."

However, questions remain about how ready customers are to start using industrial AI, he said. IFS needs to fill in details of what's really available and what it costs.

"They're long on concepts and short on some of the hard data points to wrap around," Sommer said. "Given the newness of some AI things, customers should be encouraged, but still need to verify and validate the value."

Sustainability is an important issue for IFS, as the issue is already important in Europe where the company is headquartered. It's also becoming a growing issue in the Asia-Pacific region, Sommer said.

"Many companies there are getting questions from their customers and suppliers when they get down to Scope 3 emissions issues, and they need to provide this information," he said. "They're just beginning the process of figuring out what data they need to collect."

More details needed before implementing AI

IFS Cloud and AI are on the horizon, but more details are needed, said Marc DeAntoni, applications developer principal at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colo.

BAE Systems is running an on-premises IFS ERP system, but is looking to move to IFS Cloud and introduce some AI capabilities, DeAntoni said.

"We're looking at industrial AI, but we work in the aerospace and defense industry, so there's a lot of questions [that have to be asked about AI]," he said. "What do you do with AI if you're running on-premises and what are you connecting to?"

Sustainability is also an important issue for DeAntoni, who attended a standing-room-only session for IFS Cloud Sustainability Management.

"Our company was a subsidiary of a metal packaging firm that was acquired," he said. "There was a huge push for sustainability there, and it's still an issue, although it's transitioning, so I'm gathering information about IFS' sustainability tools."

Trevor Duncan, IT contracts manager at William Grant & Sons, came to IFS Unleashed to see what IFS is doing with the cloud and AI. The distiller in Glasgow, Scotland, uses on-premises IFS as its main ERP system and will start turning to the cloud next year, he said.

"The industrial AI information is very interesting. It's mentioned in our jobs more and more every day, so it's important that we know what IFS is doing and the path that they're on," Duncan said. "It's not ready for the on-premises system, but it's about what's to come in the future. There's lots of nervousness generally about AI, and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered."

Jim O'Donnell is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial who covers ERP and other enterprise applications.