New operational foundation helps industrial organizations move from AI experimentation to trusted execution

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- IFS UNLEASHED - IFS, the leading provider of Industrial AI software, today introduced the Industrial AI Harness, the operational foundation of IFS Intelligence, designed to help enterprises put AI to work within the permissions, policies and operational realities that govern their business. The Industrial AI Harness builds on and extends the existing security, safety, governance and trust controls already embedded across IFS.

As AI moves from answering questions to performing work, industries face a new challenge: AI can generate intelligence but may not be trusted to operate inside real-world processes. IFS Intelligence addresses that challenge through the Industrial AI Harness, which provides the context, permissions, governance and operational controls that allow Digital Workers to execute work within established business rules and operational boundaries.

Frontline teams are moving at full speed: 43% have trained and introduced agentic digital workers into their day-to-day operations over the past 12 months, according to new IFS research. Meanwhile, only 11% have validated AI outputs for safety, quality, or mission-critical processes, and 11% have established control mechanisms for AI use with sensitive or export-controlled data. Research from Futurum also found that while 66% of enterprises plan to invest in digital workers within the next 12 months, just 5.7% trust AI to act fully autonomously. Control gaps are unacceptable in mission critical environments where failure is not an option.

Industrial companies shouldn't have to choose between safety and the innovation speed they need - but general-purpose AI models lack the industrial context needed to act reliably on core operations. The IFS Industrial AI Harness is designed so AI operates through the customer's existing identity, permissions, business rules, approvals, and audit controls. It inherits permissions and access controls from connected systems, using IFS Cloud as the foundation source - no raw data is sent to external AI providers. IFS Intelligence users can only access information and execute actions they are authorized to access. The AI cannot and will not be able to see or do something the signed-in user is not authorized to see or do.

Mo Dawood, CIO, Eight Group, commented: "We decided against building AI agents in house purely because of the level of governance, technical expertise and knowledge that's needed and the speed of how things are advancing. We're a field service business, not a software business. The IFS Industrial AI Harness supports the governance underneath, monitors the orchestration and gets the digital workers to act safely."

IFS's Industrial AI Harness brings together six components, each built to prevent a specific failure:

Planning and orchestration break goals into steps and coordinate agents and tools.
Skills and connectors define and validate the systems agents can use.
Memory and context carry progress forward and assemble only the information relevant to each task.
Guardrails and permissions enforce identity, approvals, and limits on risky actions.
Verification and escalation check work for correctness and policy compliance, escalating when needed.
Observability and auditability logs every decision and action for review, so nothing happens that cannot be traced back after the fact.

The Industrial AI Harness is also designed to work across AI models and services, giving IFS the flexibility to use the right technology for the task rather than locking customers into a single provider. It also allows customer requirements, such as where data can be processed, to remain part of how AI is deployed. With the introduction of the Industrial AI Harness, IFS Intelligence is the only AI platform for industrial companies that delivers:

Sovereignty - all data stays within the system of record; no raw data sent to external AI providers
Staged Autonomy - workers start with copilot assistance, progress to recommendations, then to autonomous action, with escalation on uncertainty
Industrial Context - domain expertise + curated tooling that prevents agents from being paralyzed by 70,000 available APIs
Multi-Layer Governance - security at the cloud level, the harness level, and the model level; not a single control, but aggregated assurance

Toby Rees, Global Head of AI Trust, IFS, said: "From auditable processes and transparent governance to the ethical use of AI, IFS treats trust as a fundamental requirement, not an ambition. As organizations scale AI across critical assets, supply chains, service operations and enterprise workflows, success will depend on the ability to combine intelligence with context, control, accountability and operational discipline. The Industrial AI Harness provides that foundation for IFS Intelligence, helping customers turn AI potential into measurable industrial outcomes."

Learn more about IFS Intelligence here: https://www.ifs.com/en/products/ai/ifs-intelligence/

IFS Press Contacts:
EUROPE / MEA / APJ: Adam Gillbe
IFS, Director of Corporate & Executive Communications
Email: adam.gillbe@ifs.com

NORTH AMERICA / LATAM: Mairi Morgan
IFS, Director of Corporate & Executive Communications
Email: mairi.morgan@ifs.com

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