The question is no longer whether AI belongs in industrial operations; the question is who has the industry-specific capabilities and enterprise-grade platform to run it at scale? IFS’s results make that answer clear

IFS, the leading provider of Industrial AI software, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2026, reporting ARR growth of 25 percent and a strong start to the year. Q1 performance reflects a continued shift in how organizations operate, as AI scales beyond supporting decisions to executing work across assets, workflows, and operations.

Q1 2026 Highlights

• Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): 25% YoY growth 
• Cloud Revenue: 24% YoY growth
• Net Retention Rate (NRR): 114% 
• Recurring Revenue Mix: 84% of total revenue 

Growth in the quarter was driven by new customers, solution expansion by existing customers, consistently strong retention metrics, and increasing adoption of AI-driven capabilities across operational workflows. A selection of billion-dollar revenue companies choosing IFS.ai in Q1, include: Aramex, Coca-Cola, China Airlines, Drydocks World, FirstSolar, JVCKENWOOD, LATAM Airlines, Miele, Shin Maywa Industries.

Driving Commercial Value Through Enterprise-Wide AI Adoption

Q1 continued to see customers extend their use of IFS solutions across additional sites, assets, and processes. Significantly, organizations are beginning to operate differently. Rather than using AI to support individual tasks, customers are moving to more autonomous operations, enabling systems to plan, decide, and execute work across complex environments with minimal manual intervention.

This shift is most visible in the asset-intensive and service-driven industries IFS serves, where uptime, coordination, and responsiveness are critical. AI is now deeply embedded in mission-critical processes and the execution layer of operations, improving productivity, reducing inefficiencies, and enabling faster, more consistent outcomes.  

Mark Moffat, CEO of IFS, said: “We’re seeing a distinct move from AI supporting work to AI performing work, and that’s changing how our customers run their operations. Through targeted investments, strategic partnerships and industry-specific capabilities that solve real challenges, we’re equipping customers with Industrial AI to build the agility that the next wave of global growth demands. As our Q1 financial results demonstrate, IFS is the industrial platform that makes AI actually work in the real world, and that’s never been more valuable.”

Matthias Heiden, CFO of IFS, said: “We have delivered a resilient start to 2026, performing in line with our strategic plan. ARR growth of 25 percent, new customers, strong retention, and continued expansion across our installed base position us well for the year. All regions contributed positively despite macroeconomic headwinds, reflecting the trust customers place in IFS innovation and the RoI they gain.”

Platform Expansion in Q1

IFS continued to invest strategically in its platform, expanding capabilities across supply chain, logistics, and utilities to support increasingly autonomous and integrated operations. 

• IFS Softeon – Following the completion of the Softeon acquisition in March 2026, IFS strengthened its warehouse and supply chain execution capabilities, enabling greater coordination between planning and real-time operations. 
• IFS.ai Logistics – Introduced in March following the acquisition of 7Bridges, IFS.ai Logistics connects transport planning, execution, and financial outcomes, helping organizations manage complex logistics networks with greater precision and automation. 
• IFS.ai Operational Intelligence – Combines asset and operations performance management into a single source of truth to detect failures before they happen. After strong traction in the energy sector, IFS is extending it across all industries, with demand accelerating fast.

These developments reflect a broader focus on enabling systems that can increasingly manage and execute operational processes while remaining grounded in real-world operational constraints – geopolitical tensions, global supply chain uncertainty, and inflation.

Brand Presence and Market Outlook

2026 saw IFS strengthen its global brand presence through partnerships that reflect its growing role in high-performance, operationally complex environments. IFS was named Principal Partner of Chelsea Football Club, supporting the club with AI-driven capabilities across its operations while expanding global visibility as the first AI company to appear front-of-shirt. In motorsport, IFS became the official technology partner of the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, embedding its software across engineering, production, and supply chain processes.

IFS was named a leader in the 2026 IDC report “Worldwide Manufacturing AI-Enabled Asset-Intensive Enterprise Asset Management Applications” and was the only vendor to be recognized as a Customers’ Choice in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer: Field Service Management report.

Keith Kirkpatrick, Vice President and Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows, Futurum Group, commented: “Sustained ARR growth combined with strong retention suggests that customers are standardizing on platforms capable of supporting long-term operational requirements. In asset- and service-centric industries, this typically correlates with software that is embedded into planning, scheduling, and execution processes, rather than positioned solely as a decision-support layer. The results are consistent with enterprises prioritizing measurable operational outcomes over standalone AI functionality.”

IFS enters Q2 2026 with continued momentum, supported by a strong installed base, high retention levels, and sustained demand for AI-driven operational capabilities. As organizations move toward more autonomous operations, IFS is focused on enabling customers to deploy Industrial AI across entire workflows, allowing systems to take on a greater share of planning, coordination, and execution.

Sustainability EmbeddedIFS also published the annual Sustainability Report, outlining continued progress in decarbonization, responsible procurement and governance, alongside sustainability embedded product capabilities aligned to IFS’s long-term growth strategy. Highlights include maintaining 100% renewable electricity across global operations for the fourth consecutive year, delivering over 60% reduction in energy and facilities costs at newly opened sites, and achieving a 36.2% employee participation rate in CSR volunteering.