The conversation surrounding enterprise software has fundamentally shifted. For the past several years, corporate agendas have been dominated by theoretical discussions about the potential of artificial intelligence. However, at IFS Connect United Kingdom & Ireland 2026, held on April 29th at the iconic Silverstone Racecourse, the focus took a pragmatic turn. Industry leaders, asset-intensive enterprises, and system experts gathered to transition from broad AI hype to the rigorous execution of Industrial AI—artificial intelligence embedded directly into core, in-process business operations to deliver measurable outcomes.
For Novacura, represented onsite by Aksel Jarlbäck and Josh Alexander, the event confirmed a critical market reality: before an enterprise can successfully adopt advanced AI capabilities at scale, it must first establish complete process clarity on the shop floor and in the field.
The Blind Spots Threatening Industrial AI Readiness
IFS Connect 2026 clearly distinguished generic, conversational AI from true Industrial AI designed for complex asset management and field service operations. IFS has positioned its ecosystem as a real-world enabler of industry transformation, showcasing digital assistants, evolving pricing models, and embedded capabilities within IFS Cloud. Yet, as organizations look to implement these technologies, they face an immediate, systemic obstacle: unresolved operational foundations.
Many manufacturing and asset-heavy businesses are still plagued by legacy inefficiencies. Field Service Management (FSM) operations struggle with disconnected technicians, maintenance teams face data-logging bottlenecks, and warehousing teams operate with limited real-time shop floor visibility.
Attempting to overlay sophisticated Industrial AI onto fractured, poorly integrated processes is an expensive miscalculation. If your frontline technicians lack a simple, structured method to input clean data from the field, any predictive maintenance model or AI-driven scheduling engine will fail due to poor data quality. To unlock the value of modern ERP upgrades and AI investments, companies must first close the execution gap between their central database and their physical operations.
Stabilizing the Core with Novacura Flow
This critical integration layer is precisely where Novacura focused its conversations at Silverstone. Acting as a process-optimizing workflow layer, Novacura Flow serves as the vital technical bridge connecting core IFS installations with real-world, frontline execution.
At our exhibition booth, our team demonstrated how Novacura Flow insulates the core ERP from unnecessary complexity. Rather than relying on rigid, high-risk code modifications to adapt IFS to unique warehouse or maintenance routines—a practice that complicates or derails future cloud upgrades—organizations can deploy a flexible, low-code workflow layer.
By utilizing this architecture, businesses can deliver simple, role-based mobile workflows directly to technicians and operators. Whether executing a complex asset inspection on a remote site or tracking inventory movements across a chaotic shop floor, the frontline worker interacts with an interface tailored exactly to their task. Novacura Flow handles the complex data validation in the background, ensuring that the information routed back into IFS is clean, structured, and instantly actionable.
To visually reinforce this philosophy, our booth featured a LEGO giveaway. The concept resonated strongly with attendees: just as complex, high-performance vehicles at Silverstone are built from simple, standardized components, resilient enterprise architecture relies on simple, repeatable building blocks to manage data flow.
Direct from Silverstone: Tackling Cloud Upgrades and Field Operations
Throughout the intensive one-day event, Aksel Jarlbäck and Josh Alexander engaged with numerous IFS users navigating the realities of digital transformation. Two primary operational pain points dominated these discussions:
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Preparation for Cloud Upgrades: As companies evaluate their migration path to IFS Cloud, they are actively looking to eliminate historical customizations. Novacura showed how these legacy modifications can be extracted from the ERP core and safely rebuilt within the Novacura Flow layer, ensuring a clean, standard upgrade path for the core system.
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Technician Empowerment: Maintenance and field service managers emphasized the need for offline capability and simplified mobile data entry. Resolving these challenges directly reduces lead times, improves first-time fix rates, and guarantees the data integrity required to feed predictive maintenance models.
Transforming Complexity into Predictable ROI
The true value of attending IFS Connect UK&I 2026 was the collective realization that innovation is a product of discipline, not hype. Businesses cannot automate or optimize processes they have not yet stabilized.
By introducing Novacura Flow as a dedicated process execution layer, asset-intensive companies achieve a state of operational readiness that makes future technologies viable. They secure complete shop floor visibility, reduce administrative overhead for field teams, and preserve a clean ERP core that is primed to leverage the full power of Industrial AI.
To drive sustainable growth in a rapidly changing industrial landscape, you must first establish a firm operational footing. Novacura remains committed to helping enterprises eliminate system friction, achieve absolute operational clarity, and turn enterprise complexity into predictable, measurable outcomes.