thyssenkrupp AG and GlobalLogic Inc., a Hitachi Group Company, announced the commencement of a strategic alliance, designed to recalibrate the operational core of heavy industry by driving the deployment of autonomous robotics and Physical AI.
This alliance combines thyssenkrupp’s deep industrial and operational expertise with Hitachi’s unique end-to-end innovation stack to help accelerate digital transformation across the industry. This “Lab-to-Scale” pipeline integrates foundational breakthroughs from Hitachi America R&D, digital strategy and design from Method as well as enterprise-grade software engineering from GlobalLogic. The pipeline connects on-site data seamlessly to AI-driven autonomous control, thereby eliminating engineering bottlenecks and enhancing operational safety, while establishing a leading-edge global model for the heavy industry sector.
Moving beyond digital experimentation, the two global conglomerates are planning to co-create a suite of “Physical AI” solutions that translate complex data into measurable industrial ROI. The solutions will focus on safety, servitization, and acceleration of the global energy transition.
Realizing the “Implementation Year”
The partnership focuses on high-stakes, frontier innovation across two primary workstreams:
- The Data Intelligence Layer and Autonomous Operations: To bridge the gap between factory floor operations and business logic, GlobalLogic will deploy a data intelligence layer for thyssenkrupp based on its Unified Data Layer (UDL) architecture. The UDL provides a common data and semantic foundation that integrates and links operational technology (OT) data from the field with IT data from business operations. It is an essential technology for ensuring the smooth operation of autonomous robotics and drones that require real-time data processing, semantic understanding, and AI-driven decision-making. This infrastructure serves as the prerequisite for a new generation of autonomous robotics and drones. In the hazardous environments and production sites of thyssenkrupp, autonomous “Robocams” and drones are to be deployed to handle high-risk inspections and precision measurements to prevent worker injuries. Designed to enhance safety and efficiency, these systems augment the workforce by removing employees from dangerous zones and providing them with higher-fidelity data to manage complex industrial processes.
- Speed to Decarbonization Meeting ambitious decarbonization targets requires a significant increase in engineering speed. The alliance is planning to deploy an intelligence platform to automate the capture of “offline” and unstructured complex technical data. By translating complex documentation into actionable intelligence, thyssenkrupp aims to shorten the “Quote-to-Cash” and technical engineering cycles for its green energy projects. This digital acceleration will ensure that the administrative and technical complexity of the energy transition does not become a bottleneck for execution.
“thyssenkrupp is in the midst of its most significant transformation in history. By joining forces with Hitachi and GlobalLogic, we are ensuring that we are backed by the world’s most advanced digital capabilities. This alliance is a cornerstone of our strategy to lead the industrial sector into a sustainable, data-driven future,” says Mr. Miguel López, CEO of thyssenkrupp AG and thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies. “Decarbonizing heavy industry is a race against time. The integration of advanced AI allows us to better manage the immense technical and administrative complexity of the energy transition, moving from unstructured documentation to actionable intelligence at a pace that was previously impossible.”
“The future will be defined by organizations that can seamlessly harness the power of advanced AI, edge computing, data and inference, and combine it with deep industrial expertise,” said Mr. Srini Shankar, President & CEO of GlobalLogic and CEO of Hitachi Digital Services. “Our extensive credentials in Physical AI, from servitization to industrial automation to operations intelligence, will complement thyssenkrupp’s leadership in heavy engineering to create a lasting competitive advantage.”
“Physical AI marks the next step in industrial transformation – bringing intelligence from the digital world into real-world operations. By enabling machines to sense, decide, and act autonomously, it unlocks entirely new levels of efficiency, safety, and scalability,” said Ms. Nadja Håkansson, COO of thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies and CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde. “For thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies, physical AI is not just an innovation topic, but a core driver of our future business and our ability to deliver sustainable, high-performance solutions. Our collaboration with Hitachi accelerates this path and strengthens our leadership in next-generation industrial technologies.”
“Real innovation happens at the intersection of empathy and engineering. We are bringing together brilliant minds from all involved organizations to de-risk these complex industrial transformations, ensuring that technology always serves the people on the front lines of global industry,” said Mr. Timothy Morey, Head of Method, a GlobalLogic company.
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