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Chemical and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Can Elevate Innovation and Market Responsiveness With Exponential IT, Says Info-Tech Research Group

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Info-Tech Research Group’s latest blueprint addresses the pressing need for advanced technology integration in the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. The research emphasizes adopting AI, cloud computing, and data analytics to overcome regulatory challenges, optimize operations, and drive sustainable growth and innovation. This strategic approach aims to balance maintaining existing IT infrastructure while investing in cutting-edge solutions to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

TORONTO, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – The chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry faces numerous challenges, including regulatory compliance, escalating production costs, and protecting proprietary data. In this demanding landscape, sustaining competitiveness and driving innovation requires strategically adopting advanced technologies. Recognizing this urgency, Info-Tech Research Group has published its latest blueprint, Priorities for Adopting an Exponential IT Mindset in the Chemical & Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry. This research underscores the necessity for industry IT leaders to integrate AI, cloud computing, and data analytics to overcome current obstacles, optimize operations, and pave the way for sustainable growth and innovation.

“Industry 5.0, as well as the integration of technologies like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and advanced robotics, have begun to usher in a profound paradigm shift that challenges traditional manufacturing philosophies, enabling precision, efficiency, and customization previously unimaginable,” says Shreyas Shukla, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group. “The role of IT in this transformation is nothing short of critical. Advanced IT maturity will be essential in the effort to integrate new technologies into existing manufacturing ecosystems and enable seamless connectivity, data integrity, and system security.”

Info-Tech’s research highlights the unique challenges faced by the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, ranging from technological adoption and workforce adaptation to ethical considerations and sustainability goals. CIOs in the industry are finding it challenging to strike a balance between maintaining existing IT infrastructure and investing in new, innovative technology solutions. Furthermore, there is a significant struggle to recruit and retain skilled IT professionals proficient in the latest technologies. However, the firm emphasizes that manufacturers can optimize their operations and drive innovation by understanding these barriers and embracing the opportunities presented by exponential technologies.

“Multiple factors are contributing to sluggish demand for chemicals globally, including a recession in Europe, inflation in the United States, and a smaller-than-expected rebound in demand from China,” explains Shukla. “In addition, over-ordering during the pandemic has resulted in high inventory levels, leading to months of destocking. This is causing a slowdown in chemical output with many companies turning their focus toward reducing costs and improving efficiencies.”

While the chemical sector grapples with these challenges, the pharmaceutical industry has made notable advancements, particularly in areas such as vaccine development and cancer treatments. However, despite these breakthroughs, the sector faces significant economic pressures.

“The pharma industry has seen breakthroughs in vaccine development, cancer treatments, GLP-1 drugs that are revolutionizing weight management, gene therapy and gene editing technology for rare diseases, and new treatments for complex diseases like Alzheimer’s,” adds Shukla. “Yet, the sector continues to experience underperformance in capital markets relative to the market index. Every cost-related line item is going up due to inflation, interest rates, new tax regimes, and an increasing threat environment.”

The firm’s blueprint stresses the importance of adopting Exponential IT within the manufacturing industry to mitigate disruptions and drive innovation. While generative AI has been a catalyst for this transformation, Info-Tech’s research explains that the continuous emergence of new technologies is exerting additional pressure on organizations to adapt swiftly and efficiently. These advancements require a strategic approach to integrating and leveraging new technologies to maintain operational excellence and market relevance.

In its latest research, Info-Tech outlines four key priorities for Exponential IT transformations in the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry that organizations must embrace to ensure resilience and growth:

Transform Infrastructure & Apps to Utilities: Shifting from a focus on individual IT applications to leveraging innovative technologies like cloud services and low-code/no-code platforms is imperative for achieving agility and competitive advantage. This approach enables organizations to be more adaptive and responsive to market changes by facilitating rapid deployment and iteration of solutions.Mitigate Rampant Privacy Risks: Effective cybersecurity measures are essential to protect against potential data breaches and prevent unintended uses of AI platforms. These measures safeguard confidential data, research findings, and proprietary methodologies, thereby protecting corporate reputation and financial stability.Deliver Organizational Outcomes via Natural Language: Embracing the “platform as a product” approach democratizes technology across operations. This strategy leverages AI and ML-driven solutions more effectively, enabling employees who may not have traditional coding expertise to develop, customize, and manage applications independently.Build Outcome Measurement: Aligning IT with broader organizational goals is crucial for driving business value and innovation. By taking ownership of organizational targets, IT can better understand and address the strategic needs of the business, proactively identifying opportunities for technology to drive growth, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

By strategically aligning IT initiatives with organizational goals and fostering a culture of innovation, the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry can overcome barriers to digital transformation. Info-Tech’s comprehensive blueprint offers practical guidance on building a robust IT infrastructure, managing risks effectively, and creating a data-driven environment that supports continuous improvement. Adopting these priorities will help manufacturers navigate the complexities of the digital age, improve operational efficiency, sustain a competitive edge, and transform operations for long-term success.

For exclusive and timely commentary from Shreyas Shukla, an expert in the manufacturing sector, and access to the complete Priorities for Adopting an Exponential IT Mindset in the Chemical & Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry blueprint, please contact pr@infotech.com.

Info-Tech LIVE 2024

Registration is now open for Info-Tech Research Group’s annual IT conference, Info-Tech LIVE 2024, taking place September 17 to 19, 2024, at the iconic Bellagio in Las Vegas. This premier event offers journalists, podcasters, and media influencers access to exclusive content, the latest IT research and trends, and the opportunity to interview industry experts, analysts, and speakers. To apply for media passes to attend the event or gain access to research and expert insights on trending topics, please contact pr@infotech.com.

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

To learn more about Info-Tech’s divisions, visit McLean & Company for HR research and advisory services and SoftwareReviews for software buying insights.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm’s Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact pr@infotech.com.

For information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

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SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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on

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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