Forward Deployed Design Lead - Asset Performance Management

India needs to build the AI 'brain' for robotics, not just import hardware. The purpose of Avathon's collaboration with IIT Roorkee is to work on problems that require long-term research. OCTOBER 21, 2026, 4:30 PM As India's physical AI ambitions remain heavily tied to imported robotics hardware, US-based Avathon is taking a different route. It is building the intelligence layer that controls physical systems, while using India's engineering talent and academic institutions to develop the deeper research needed to make those systems work across industrial environments. The company, which has operated since 2013, has set up a Physical AI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, with around 150 employees already working in India, and is partnering with IIT Roorkee on a physical AI research lab. Pervinder Johar, CEO, Avathon tells AIM that the company intends to fund PhDs and pursue research that could take years to translate into commercial products. "Our focus has been on applying AI to make that infrastructure run better," Johar adds. IIT Roorkee collaboration. The IIT Roorkee partnership is designed around this broader definition of physical AI. The technology cuts across geophysics, civil engineering, aerospace, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, and computer science. For example, mining applications can require expertise in seismic and geophysical data, while transportation and aerospace applications bring in civil, mechanical, and aeronautical engineering. "The purpose of the collaboration with IIT Roorkee" is to work on problems that require long-term research, Johar states. Avathon plans to initially sponsor around five PhDs in the first year, although Johar states the company could eventually support 30-40 PhDs a year, depending on the research problems and availability of candidates. The company does not see these as short-term projects. "These things are not the kind of software programming that you want instant gratification," Johar states. "You have to actually invest for a long, long time to find answers to some of the hardest-to-solve problems." Avathon is building the 'brain' Johar draws a distinction between physical AI and the more visible robotics market, where companies often focus on building or modifying robots. Avathon develops AI systems that can control and coordinate physical machines and industrial assets. The company's focus spans energy, mining, oil and gas, transportation, aerospace, and defence, among other industrial sectors. Johar believes the next phase of physical AI will require more than individual intelligent machines. A factory, mine, or industrial site could eventually have autonomous trucks, robots, humanoids, and drones operating simultaneously. "There's an intelligence within each robot, but then you need intelligence which is going to be almost like an operating system or a control system for all the robots or all the humanoids which are doing a set of tasks," he says. That broader coordination layer is where Avathon sees its role. The research bet. One area being explored is asset management. Johar estimates that between $100 trillion and $200 trillion worth of physical infrastructure globally is ageing, creating a problem that cannot simply be solved by replacing old infrastructure. One potential application is using AI to predict equipment or infrastructure failures before they occur and prescribe maintenance. But Avathon sees this as a broader research category rather than a single product. The applications could span renewable energy, traditional energy, nuclear power, electricity distribution, oil and gas refining, and other industrial infrastructure. For Avathon, the value of the IIT partnership is therefore not simply producing another robotics application. It is about developing models and methods for understanding complex physical systems. Avathon expects research to fail. The company's approach also highlights one of the biggest differences between conventional AI development and deeptech research: not every experiment needs to produce a product. "We don't expect every single research project to be successful," Johar says. "If half the things fail, it's okay. It's okay. The other half, as long as they succeed, you're doing very well. You don't have to be that 80, 90% of the things are going to be successful." For Avathon, even unsuccessful research can generate useful knowledge. "As much of research is that something works, it's also research when you can prove out that something doesn't work," Johar says. India's Physical AI gap. Johar's confidence in India is not based simply on the size of its AI talent pool. "It is a question of focus and direction." Avathon already has more than 150 patents, according to Johar, with around 30 additional applications related to physical AI. The company plans to use that existing research base as a starting point for its Indian teams and academic partners. The more difficult question for India is whether an AI talent base alone can support a physical AI industry. Johar argues that it cannot. "Every economy that needs to be successful, you have to have a combination of both manufacturing and computer science," he says. This is particularly relevant to India, where companies increasingly work with imported robotics hardware and focus on software, AI integration and deployment. Avathon itself conducts some manufacturing work, but primarily in laboratory environments rather than at mass-production scale. "We make it easier to do manufacturing," Johar says, referring to the company's AI systems. The goal is to reduce errors while maintaining quality. That leaves a larger ecosystem question for India: whether its physical AI ambitions can move beyond integrating imported machines to developing the manufacturing, components, control systems, and research capabilities required to build complete systems domestically. Industrial ecosystems. Johar sees the next challenge in physical AI as coordination, not simply making individual machines smarter. A mine, for example, could eventually have an autonomous truck, a robot, humanoids and drones operating together. The intelligence required would therefore have to span the entire operation. "A lot of the work that we think is still ahead of us is not intelligence of any one of these particular components. It's the intelligence across the entire ecosystem which needs to work together," he states. That is also the rationale behind Avathon's decision not to scale its academic collaborations too quickly. Johar states the company wants to spend the first year validating the IIT Roorkee model before considering expansion to other institutions. For now, Avathon is betting that India can develop the research and engineering base for physical AI - but its own strategy suggests that the country will need more than software talent to close the gap. It will need sustained investment in deeptech research, manufacturing and the physical infrastructure on which AI systems ultimately depend Your reaction Discussion. No comments yet - be the first to share your view.

Avathon selected to power an ai-native mining operating model for Barrick's North American business. Sep 23, 2026, 09:00 ET Strategic deployment of Avathon's Physical AI platform is building a fully connected, AI-enabled mining enterprise across Barrick's North American gold assets PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 23, 2026 /CNW/ - Avathon, a leading provider of Physical AI for industrial operations, today announced that Barrick's North American business has selected Avathon's Autonomy Platform as a strategic technology partner to transform its business. The strategic partnership will connect data, operational knowledge and AI intelligence across the mining value chain, from exploration and mine planning through safety, production, processing, maintenance and supply chain. Avathon's Physical AI will give Barrick the ability to continuously analyze conditions, identify risks and opportunities, support decisions and enable action across critical mining operations. "Mining has historically been organized around individual functions, systems and processes. The opportunity now is to connect those pieces into one intelligent operating system," said Pervinder Johar, Chief Executive Officer of Avathon. "Barrick's North American business is taking a fundamentally different approach by putting AI at the center of how the enterprise understands its operations, makes decisions and acts. This is the evolution from digital mining to an AI-native mining company, where human expertise and Physical AI work together across the entire value chain to drive safer operations, higher productivity, greater recovery and stronger returns." Avathon's platform provides a common intelligence layer across operational systems and data sources. Its proprietary Computational Knowledge Graph connects assets, processes, people, constraints and operational data, while AI agents reason across that context to support decisions and coordinate workflows. Initial applications of Physical AI are expected to include: * Safety: Use computer vision and AI-based monitoring to identify hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors, enabling earlier intervention and helping prevent incidents before they occur. * Production and recovery: Connect ore flow, processing decisions, maintenance activities and operating constraints to improve recovery, reduce variability and increase throughput from mine to mill. * Asset reliability: Monitor asset health to predict potential failures, recommend maintenance actions and improve coordination of repairs, reducing unplanned downtime and improving equipment availability. * Supply chain intelligence: Connect asset health, planned maintenance, inventory, supplier performance and demand forecasts to improve material readiness, reduce supply chain risk and optimize working capital. * Mine planning: Apply AI to operational data and constraints to improve planning and scheduling decisions and better align plans with real-world operating conditions. * Exploration and growth: Apply machine learning to geological, operational and production data to improve exploration decisions and accelerate the conversion of geological opportunities into economic value. "AI has the potential to change how a mining company safely operates at its core," said Mark Hill, President and Chief Executive Officer, Barrick. "Our ambition is to connect the entire value chain, from exploration through production, unlocking the full potential of our people to make better decisions, more safely. By combining world-class mining expertise with AI, we can improve safety, increase recovery and productivity, strengthen reliability and supply chain performance, and create a more resilient and disciplined operating model." Avathon's approach combines AI with human expertise, with the platform providing continuous analysis, prediction, reasoning and decision support while Barrick's North American mining professionals retain operational judgment, accountability and control. This AI plus human intelligence (HI) approach is supported by internal governance and safeguards designed to ensure AI solutions are developed and deployed safely, responsibly, and with appropriate human oversight as their capabilities evolve. Avathon's platform will provide Barrick with the opportunity to realize the benefits of these initial applications improving performance across its North American gold assets. About Avathon Avathon is a leading AI provider of Autonomy for Operations, bringing Industrial AI into the physical world. The Avathon Autonomy Platform enables organizations to intelligently plan, orchestrate, and execute complex manufacturing, supply chain, and asset management operations by transforming data into knowledge. Designed to scale securely across industrial environments, Avathon improves asset performance and strengthens operational resilience. Learn more at www.avathon.com About Barrick Mining Corporation Barrick is a leading global mining, exploration, and development company. Barrick's North American mining operations comprise a portfolio of long-life gold assets, including major operating mines, and growth projects across the region. Barrick shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'B' and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol 'ABX'. SOURCE Avathon Avathon Media Contact, Sean Rollings, [email protected], 650.740.7238