IFS has launched the latest version of its industrial software suite, arguing that only deeply embedded, sector-specific AI will help companies confront rising labour shortages and mounting infrastructure demands.
The London-based group unveiled IFS Cloud 25R2 this week, using its Industrial X Unleashed event to outline a vision in which “Digital Workers” operate as autonomous agents across asset-heavy industries. The company said the new release applies advanced, contextual AI to routine operational work, multiplying human capacity at a time when half of the global industrial workforce is expected to retire within five years.
Christian Pedersen, Chief Innovation Officer at IFS, said the update reflects a growing divergence between consumer-grade AI tools and those required for complex operational environments. “The strength of our solutions lies in their application – AI embedded into the intricate processes of industry to work autonomously, intelligently, and profitably,” he said. “Generic tools simply cannot cut it in these environments.”
IFS argues that industrial organisations are facing a capacity crunch as trillions of pounds of capital flow into AI factories, infrastructure renewal, and supply-chain stabilisation, while millions of jobs remain unfilled. The company’s new Digital Workers, part of the IFS Loops family of autonomous agents, are designed to take over what it terms “invisible work” – repetitive tasks such as order processing, inventory management, maintenance scheduling, and data entry that it claims can consume up to 60% of frontline staff time.
The first five Digital Workers handle customer orders, supplier orders, inventory replenishment, materials planning, and operational analysis. Unlike conventional automation tools, they are designed to think, decide, and act across systems with full governance and auditability, IFS said.
Pedro Buhigas, Chief Information Officer at Kodiak Gas Services, told the New York event that the potential returns are tangible. “If half of our workforce engages with the IFS Loops agent once per day, that is three million dollars a year of ROI. More importantly, that is ninety thousand hours we can give back to field service technicians,” he said.
IFS has extended AI capability across its ERP, Enterprise Asset Management, and Field Service Management suites. New tools include AI-generated job briefings for technicians, automated service-report summaries, AI-driven optimisation of maintenance instructions, business-planning baselines, and context-aware part identification for aviation maintenance.
Cathie Hall, Chief Product and Customer Officer, said the company’s priority is to ensure adoption on the shop floor rather than in executive dashboards. “Our commitment is to embed industrial-focused AI where it matters most – in the daily workflows of field technicians, maintenance planners, and operations teams,” she said. “We are building technology that delivers measurable impact immediately.”
IFS maintains that Industrial AI is augmenting, rather than replacing, workers, and that deploying these systems at scale is now a commercial necessity as companies confront heightened operational volatility.
