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The companies say their edge-based system will let process and heavy industries run agentic AI alongside live production data, addressing concerns over sovereignty, security and cost.
Schneider Electric has joined with NVIDIA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to unveil what the companies describe as Industrial AI Agents at the Edge, a system designed to bring artificial intelligence directly onto the shop floor of process and heavy industries. According to the announcement, it is the first time agentic AI has been positioned to run on the hardware where industrial data is generated, rather than being routed to a remote cloud service first.
The collaboration is built on HPE Private Cloud AI, part of HPE’s broader AI Factory portfolio developed with NVIDIA, and combines that platform with Schneider Electric’s operational technology expertise. The companies say the aim is to give manufacturers a practical route towards so-called Physical AI, in which software agents can continuously observe equipment, reason over live signals and adjust operating parameters in real time without leaving the industrial environment.
The pitch centres on three persistent barriers that have slowed wider AI deployment in factories and plants: data sovereignty, cybersecurity and cost. By keeping sensitive production data on site, the system is meant to help companies comply with strict governance and regulatory requirements while protecting proprietary formulas and process know-how. Processing decisions locally also reduces exposure to internet-based threats, while avoiding the bandwidth and inference bills that can mount quickly when thousands of sensors stream data to the cloud every second.
The move also reflects a broader effort to shift AI from the more visible world of humanoid robots and autonomous machines towards the less glamorous but far more economically important realities of continuous industrial operations. In sectors such as chemicals, cement, refining and metals, uptime, safety and energy efficiency matter more than novelty, and the companies involved say the new edge-based framework offers a standardised way to test, deploy and scale AI in environments where even brief disruption can be costly.
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Source: Fuse Wire Services
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