At IFS Connect UKI 2025, one announcement stood out from today’s market sea of generative AI hype: the launch of IFS Nexus Black™. But this wasn’t a generic AI initiative—it was a deliberate counterpoint to what Matt Kempson, IFS SVP, Group Commercial, called the “industry AI identity crisis.” Nexus Black is IFS’s answer to a fragmented landscape of tools, frameworks, and vendors where speed and scale rarely coexist.
“Nexus Black exists because our customers want industrial AI that’s fast, contextual, and scalable—not vaporware or shelfware,” Kempson said. “They’ve got the data, they’ve got the urgency, but they’re drowning in options with no clear path forward.”
Described by Kempson as “a speedboat per industry,” Nexus Black is a dedicated AI innovation unit inside IFS, bringing together product managers, AI engineers, solution architects, and UX specialists to co-develop high-impact solutions for core industries: manufacturing, aerospace and defense, energy and utilities, construction and engineering, telecom, and service.
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Using a four-phase agile model—Problem Definition, Proof of Value, Accelerated Development, and Digital Continuity—the goal is to turn complex, often latent problems into validated, product-ready AI solutions in weeks. Examples range from invoice anomaly detection to predictive maintenance, automated scheduling, and contextual copilots for sales and service teams.
Critically, IFS promises that every Nexus Black solution that proves its value will be refactored into the IFS Cloud product—closing the loop between bespoke innovation and platform-wide adoption. “We start with product in mind,” said Kempson. “Otherwise, we become another consultancy.”
IFS is clear about who Nexus Black is for: industrial organizations serious about turning AI ambition into operational advantage. Engagements are bespoke, resource-intensive, and co-invested—requiring close collaboration between IFS and the customer’s executive team. “Think of Nexus Black as the black card of industrial AI,” Kempson said. “You’re not just buying features—you’re shaping the future roadmap.”
Already, enterprise customers are requesting multi-use case engagements, often structured as strategic retainers. And in a market saturated with vendors promising pilots that never scale, IFS is differentiating by doing the opposite: scaling first, then systematizing. With a direct channel into IFS Cloud R&D—and formal research support from MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research—Nexus Black is being positioned as both R&D lab and enterprise accelerator.
What this means for ERP insiders
Solve for speed-to-value with Nexus Black. Organizations in IFS’s six focus sectors should consider Nexus Black if they are facing stalled AI initiatives, uncertain tooling strategies, or board-level pressure to deliver innovation with measurable ROI. Start with a well-scoped business problem, ideally linked to asset utilization, supply chain inefficiency, or cost-to-serve. Then qualify for co-development through your IFS account team. With IFS Cloud as the backbone, you can activate embedded AI copilots while rapidly co-creating agentic AI solutions tailored to your operations—all within a governance framework that ensures security, data integrity, and future scalability.
The promise is the delicate balance among speed, fit, and scale. Unlike generic AI offerings, Nexus Black combines industrial-grade data access, domain expertise, and embedded intelligence with the flexibility of agile delivery. Built on the IFS.ai platform and fully integrated with IFS Cloud, it allows AI use cases to transition from proof of value to production with minimal refactoring. The value tooling lets customers track ROI in real time—even before full deployment. With IFS’s unique productization mandate, successful use cases are converted into native platform features, reducing long-term cost of ownership and accelerating adoption across departments and geographies.
Nexus Black enjoys tailwinds of customer demand. Nexus Black offers a compelling alternative to the disjointed offerings of legacy ERP providers and the siloed innovations of boutique AI firms. IFS’s vertically integrated, domain-centric approach—paired with its promise to fold innovations into the core product—positions it as a credible leader in enterprise AI execution. In a market projected to surpass $100 billion in AI-driven ERP by 2030, success will hinge on speed-to-value, operational relevance, and repeatable innovation. If IFS can maintain this velocity while scaling across regions and verticals, Nexus Black could become the gold standard for AI adoption in asset-intensive industries.
