Industrial AI adoption gains momentum as enterprises move beyond pilots, with recurring revenue accounting for 85% of IFS’s total revenue.
IFS reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of more than €1.3 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2026, marking 24% year-on-year growth. Industrial AI bookings for the first nine months of the year have already exceeded three times the total recorded for the whole of 2025, highlighting growing enterprise demand for AI designed for industrial operations.
Recurring revenue accounted for 85% of the company’s total revenue, underlining the importance of subscription-based business as IFS expands its Industrial AI portfolio.
“Customers are moving beyond testing AI and buying our Industrial AI at scale.” — Ryan Courson, Chief Financial Officer, IFS
The company said customers across manufacturing, asset maintenance, field service and supply chains are moving AI from pilot projects into daily operations. New customers selecting IFS solutions during the third quarter included Tesco, LATAM Airlines, Yeo Valley, Mitsubishi Electric and Eight Group, across areas such as asset lifecycle management, aviation maintenance and manufacturing.
“Customers are moving beyond testing AI and buying our Industrial AI at scale,” said Ryan Courson, Chief Financial Officer, IFS. He added that the company’s focus is now on expanding adoption of IFS Intelligence to improve performance across more customer operations.
Digital workers enter industrial workflows
At its IFS Unleashed event in October, the company introduced IFS Intelligence, designed to bring AI into day-to-day work. Supported by its Industrial AI Harness, the platform allows users to ask questions, take action and delegate workflows to digital workers within business-defined rules and permissions.
More than 100 customers signed up to pilot IFS Intelligence and its digital workers around the product’s launch, according to the company.
“Every industrial organization has capacity it isn’t using, and the people running it know where it is,” said Mark Moffat, Chief Executive Officer, IFS
IFS Chief Executive Officer Mark Moffat said industrial customers need AI that understands equipment, safety requirements and operational processes—and can act on live jobs without introducing risk. He attributed the surge in bookings to the company’s longstanding focus on industrial requirements.
Eric Newmark, Group Vice President at IDC, said industrial organisations are moving towards operational AI deployment but remain focused on trust and control. While building an AI agent may be straightforward, he noted, deploying a digital worker safely in a production environment requires deeper industry expertise and access to operational data within established safeguards.
The results suggest that industrial AI adoption is increasingly being measured by its ability to support real-world workflows rather than simply demonstrate capabilities in pilots. For IFS, sustaining growth will depend on converting strong bookings and early customer interest in IFS Intelligence into wider operational deployment.
