IFS industrialises humanoid robotics with 1X, partners with Siemens
IFS has detailed a new partnership with 1X Technologies (1X), to jointly industrialize humanoid robotics for asset-intensive industries.
The collaboration will combine 1X’s humanoid robots with IFS.ai to develop and deploy production-ready robotics solutions alongside select customers across manufacturing, utilities, aviation and other industrial settings.
The partnership aims to create what IFS calls a “unified digital-physical operational environment” where intelligent robots work directly within enterprise business processes.
By integrating humanoids with IFS.ai, IFS and 1X will deliver solutions that “close the loop” from physical execution to business intelligence, enabling real-time orchestration of robotic operations and data flow between physical work and enterprise systems.
IFS and 1X say they will work with select customers to industrialise and validate humanoid robotics solutions across high-impact use cases: manufacturing and smart factory automation, IoT-enabled robotics feeding real-time operational data into IFS.ai, field service automation combining robotic hardware with intelligent maintenance orchestration and vertical-specific applications for warehousing, aviation MRO to utility maintenance.
“This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to bring together the physical and digital AI worlds,” said Christian Pedersen, chief product officer at IFS. “By integrating 1X’s robotics with IFS.ai, we’re creating solutions where intelligent machines and intelligent systems work in harmony. This isn’t about adding robotics as a feature; it’s about embedding intelligence in context, delivering real value to customers operating in asset-intensive environments. We’re focused on making a meaningful difference for businesses that manufacture, service, and maintain critical assets.”
Pedersen says it’s a case of beyond robotics as a feature… Jorge Milburn, EVP sales & operations at 1X Technologies, says that this collaboration creates a connection between physical execution and intelligent business processes.
Robotic understanding
“By integrating our humanoids with IFS.ai, we’re building solutions where robots don’t just operate in isolation, they understand operational context, adapt to changing conditions and deliver data that drives better decisions across the enterprise,” said Milburn.
According to IFS, where operations today rely on 300 human workers barely covering demand, the future holds 3,000+ total workers: human experts elevated to orchestration and judgment calls, digital workers (AI agents) running diagnostics and workflows 24/7, and robotic workers inspecting assets and handling hazardous work in challenging environments. For the first time in industrial history, output is no longer limited by how many humans organisations can hire.
IFS orchestrates all three as one integrated system, the only platform designed to schedule, manage, govern and optimise human, digital, and robotic workers together. The 1X partnership extends this capability into the physical world, enabling robotic workers to be deployed and managed within the same enterprise platform that runs operations.
The partnership builds on IFS’s Industrial AI strategy, including the Nexus Black innovation accelerator and recent acquisitions of TheLoops and 7Bridges, which have positioned IFS to deliver agentic AI capabilities across customer operations.
Siemens strategic union
IFS also forged a new bond with Siemens to deliver integrated, AI-driven solutions that aim to revolutionise how energy, utilities and infrastructure operators plan, manage and service critical grid assets.
The collaboration unites Siemens’ domain expertise in grid planning, electrification and smart infrastructure with IFS’s capabilities in enterprise asset management, field service management and AI-powered scheduling optimisation. Together, the companies promise they are addressing “the most pressing challenges” facing critical infrastructure operators: ageing assets, supply chain disruption, labour shortages and the urgent imperative to accelerate the energy transition through digital transformation and autonomous grid operations.
By integrating IFS’s AI-powered enterprise asset management, field service, and asset investment planning capabilities with Siemens’ Gridscale X solutions, utilities and energy operators gain operational intelligence across their entire infrastructure.
The IFS and Siemens partnership delivers a unified solution that bridges the critical gap between engineering and financial planning, operational technology and information technology, and strategic asset decisions and real-time field execution. IFS is partner in the Siemens Xcelerator marketplace.
“The autonomous grid isn’t a distant vision – IFS and Siemens are making it a reality today. By combining Siemens’ unmatched grid intelligence with IFS’s Industrial AI platform, we’re enabling utilities to make smarter investment decisions, predict and prevent asset failures, and orchestrate field operations with unprecedented precision. Together, we’re engineering the resilient, sustainable infrastructure that will define the next decade,” said Max Roberts, chief operating officer at IFS.
The result: A pathway toward autonomous, self-optimising grid operations that address today’s most critical infrastructure challenge. As utilities rapidly integrate distributed energy resources like solar and wind at scale, these inverter-based resources are transforming grid dynamics – creating both unprecedented opportunity and complexity.
Grid reliability & resilience
The combined solution enables utilities to manage this transition effectively, improving uptime, reducing costs and driving sustainability outcomes while maintaining the grid reliability & resilience that society depends on.
This cloud-ready, modular approach enables digital transformation without disruptive rip-and-replace projects, delivering industry-specific solutions purpose-built for utilities, energy infrastructure, manufacturing, and critical facilities.
