Honeywell has introduced Experion Cognition, an AI-enabled control system platform designed to support autonomous control room operations, while also expanding its Operational Technology (OT) Cybersecurity Suite with new tools for critical infrastructure protection.
The two announcements, made on June 9 and June 8 respectively, show Honeywell moving deeper into AI-enabled industrial operations where process automation, operator support, cybersecurity, and operational resilience are increasingly connected. Experion Cognition was demonstrated in a live proof-of-concept at Borouge International’s Ruwais facility in Abu Dhabi, while the cybersecurity portfolio expansion adds five capabilities aimed at strengthening OT environments against more sophisticated threats.
Honeywell said Experion Cognition is designed to make recommendations and automated decisions that optimize production and improve safety inside industrial facilities. The platform is built to proactively detect and mitigate abnormal situations before they happen, reducing process mistakes and downtime while increasing the scope of work operators can manage.
AI Moves from Advisory to Autonomous Operations
Experion Cognition combines Honeywell’s process automation experience with AI models intended to act on behalf of control room operators. The platform is part of the Experion PKS distributed control system network, which Honeywell said allows it to integrate into existing control room environments.
The announcement builds on Honeywell’s earlier work around AI-powered control room assistance. In March, Honeywell commercially launched Experion Operations Assistant, an AI-powered solution built on Experion PKS that uses historical and real-time operational data to help operators forecast and respond to critical scenarios before they escalate. Honeywell said the assistant’s pilot phase included Chevron and TotalEnergies, and that it predicted potential alarm incidents an average of 5–10 minutes before they would have occurred.
Experion Cognition extends that direction toward more autonomous control room execution. Honeywell said the platform includes Operations Assistant and other AI-enabled features, and that in multiple pilots it was able to make predictions an average of 5–10 minutes before alarm incidents.
The workforce context is central to Honeywell’s positioning. As experienced operators retire, industrial companies face knowledge-transfer and skills challenges in complex facilities. Honeywell said Experion Cognition is intended to delegate cognitive tasks to autonomous agents so less experienced operators can run plants with knowledge comparable to a seasoned veteran.
Analysis
What this means: Industrial AI is closer to operational control. Honeywell’s Experion Cognition announcement shows AI moving beyond advisory dashboards and into control room workflows where recommendations, abnormal-situation detection, and automated decisions can affect production and safety. For ERP vendors, manufacturing leaders, and enterprise architects, the signal is operational technology data will increasingly shape how enterprise systems understand capacity, downtime, reliability, and plant performance.
Borouge Tests AI Autonomous Operations in Ruwais
Borouge International is using the Ruwais proof-of-concept to assess the potential of autonomous operations and whether the technology can scale across its Ruwais and global facilities.
“Representing the petrochemical industry’s first AI autonomous operations, this collaboration sets a new industry standard for efficiency and innovation, upskilling our people, as well as boosting our performance and competitiveness,” said Dr. Hasan Karam, Chief Operating Officer of Borouge International.
Honeywell said the proof-of-concept showed potential for a significant increase in plant efficiency and improved reliability. Experion Cognition is expected to be commercially available in Q3 2026.
The Borouge deployment is notable because autonomous control rooms have long been discussed as a future state for industrial operations, but the hard problem is not simply making recommendations. The operational challenge is determining when AI systems can safely detect abnormalities, recommend actions, trigger automated responses, and keep human operators in the right supervisory role.
Analysis
What this means: Autonomous operations raise the value of OT-ERP integration. If AI-enabled control systems can detect production risk earlier and support faster operational response, ERP and supply chain systems need cleaner links to plant events, maintenance signals, inventory constraints, and production schedules. For product teams and system integrators, the opportunity is to connect autonomous plant intelligence with planning, maintenance, procurement, and financial impact analysis.
OT Cybersecurity Expands Alongside Autonomy
Honeywell’s autonomous operations push comes as the company is also expanding its OT cybersecurity capabilities. On June 8, Honeywell announced five additions to its OT Cybersecurity Suite: Secure Media Exchange Portable Scanner, Cyber Proactive Defense, Cyber Governance Risk and Compliance, Data Diode, and OT Security Operations Center.
Honeywell said the expanded suite is designed to move industrial organizations beyond reactive security models and toward more proactive cyber resilience. Its announcement cited World Economic Forum data that only 32% of organizations with industrial environments actively monitor OT systems, while 20% maintain dedicated OT security teams.
Secure Media Exchange Portable Scanner is designed to inspect removable media, Windows-based machines, and air-gapped systems to reduce the risk of malware entering industrial environments. Cyber Proactive Defense uses AI-powered monitoring and analytics to correlate alerts across process and automation tools, helping organizations identify and prioritize threats before they affect critical operations.
Cyber GRC automates evidence collection and audit reporting through AI and machine learning, while Honeywell’s Data Diode enables secure, unidirectional data transfer to help isolate critical systems. The OT Security Operations Center is a managed service that provides 24/7 network and endpoint monitoring through a vendor-agnostic hub.
The expanded OT Cybersecurity Suite is available now and is engineered for deployment across sectors including manufacturing, energy, and critical infrastructure. Honeywell also positions Secure Media Exchange as a way to reduce risk from removable media such as USBs, which remain a practical threat path in industrial environments.
Analysis
What this means: Cyber resilience becomes a prerequisite for industrial autonomy. Honeywell’s parallel cybersecurity expansion reinforces that AI-enabled operations depend on secure OT environments, governed data flows, and continuous monitoring. Industrial AI roadmaps should treat cybersecurity architecture as part of the operating model, not a separate control layer added after automation advances.
Autonomy Raises the Security Bar
The announcements show Honeywell trying to address two sides of the same industrial transformation. Experion Cognition pushes AI closer to operational decision-making in control rooms. The expanded OT cybersecurity suite addresses the security and resilience requirements that become more important as industrial environments connect more systems, data flows, operators, and AI-enabled tools.
For manufacturers, energy companies, and critical infrastructure operators, Honeywell’s message is that AI-enabled autonomy and OT cyber resilience need to move together. The more operational decisions are supported or automated by AI, the more important it becomes to secure the systems, endpoints, data pathways, and workflows that feed those decisions.
