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Poka Plants the Flag on Industrial AI for Connected Work

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4 months ago

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Built on twelve years of frontline data, new AI agents and no-code AI Studio, are now open in Poka Early Access Program, to bring governed Industrial AI to the shop floor of the world’s largest industrial operators

QUEBEC CITY, June 24, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Today, Poka, the leading Industrial AI platform for Connected Work, is setting the bar even higher with the announcement of its Industrial AI roadmap: the addition of a no-code AI Studio and a MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, on top of its governed AI agents already in production with named industrial customers. The MCP server allows any AI assistant to access the Poka capabilities, and the no-code AI Studio enables customers to build their own agents to solve and manage critical shop floor processes. Both are now open to selected customers in a by-invitation Early Access Program, with general availability in October 2026.

“Industrial AI is not enterprise AI in a hard hat,” said Antoine Bisson, co-founder and CEO of Poka. “It belongs inside the work. We have spent twelve years building the foundation it runs on. Now we are defining Industrial AI for Connected Work.”

A growing wave of the world’s largest industrial operators are choosing Poka for their connected work solutions. New customer wins in 2026 include Viega, First Solar, and The Coca-Cola Company, alongside expansions across the existing base. Poka has expanded across Europe with new growth in DACH, the UK & Ireland, and France. The company grew ARR an outstanding 63% in 2025, followed by 60% in the first quarter of 2026.

“Industrial AI is not enterprise AI in a hard hat,” said Antoine Bisson, co-founder and CEO of Poka. “It belongs inside the work. We have spent twelve years building the foundation it runs on. Now we are defining Industrial AI for Connected Work.”

This is Antoine Bisson’s first major strategic move since becoming CEO earlier this year. He previously served as Poka’s Chief AI Officer, where he was leading the creation of the data foundation that is in the DNA of the new agents. Poka’s twelve years of real-time frontline workflows across thousands of sites and dozens of languages is a foundation that no AI-first entrant can match.

The roadmap responds to three forces converging on the shop floor. Experienced operators are retiring faster than new ones can be trained, taking decades of plant knowledge with them. Regulators have tightened the rules around audit trails and deterministic behavior in the environments where Industrial AI now operates, and the first wave of horizontal AI on the factory floor has only delivered limited operational impact.

Poka’s answer is a complete Knowledge Flywheel, comprising AI agents that capture what the best operator knows and then pass this industry expertise into the hands of every operator on every shift, governed for the regulated environment and grounded in real workflow data. It is delivering governed Industrial AI with the tribal knowledge to equip the workforce, not to enforce horizontal AI bolted to the floor.

Industrial AI in production

Poka Industrial AI agents are in production today at named industrial customers, covering critical use cases, such as:

A Problem-Solving Agent that guides operators through to resolutionAn Analytics Agent that analyzes trends across operations and surfaces insights in secondsA Knowledge Agent that searches across work instructions, troubleshooting guides, and critical documents to deliver a clear, actionable answer

Poka announces Early Access Program

Today, Poka also opens the by-invitation Early Access Program for Poka AI Studio, the no-code environment where operations teams build their own agents on the same foundation, or use templates covering use cases such as:

A Work Instruction Comparison Agent that compares the two procedures and highlights exactly where they divergeA Formless Issue Agent that handles issues end-to-end in plain language (creating, updating, resolving, assigning a task, dropping a comment, all without opening the issue itself)A Similar Issues Agent that searches across open, resolved, and archived issues to surface what’s relevant in the moment, speeding up issue resolution time

General availability for these AI agents is October 2026.

The agents do more than answer questions. Through Poka’s Extensibility Framework, they trigger workflows in connected systems, including MES, CMMS, and ERP, and execute steps under human approval. All Poka agents are governed, auditable end-to-end, and deployable by an operations team without coding work.

Poka also ships today a production-ready MCP server, making Poka’s data and workflows accessible from any enterprise AI assistant. Industrial organizations building corporate AI stacks on Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, or proprietary solutions can connect directly to Poka without custom integrations. A worker asking “Show me unresolved issues on Line 3 from last week” inside whichever AI tool their company provides gets a live answer from Poka — with authentication, permission scoping, and governance traveling with every call.

The Early Access Program opens as a founding cohort. It is limited to selected manufacturers who deploy with Poka engineers alongside their team, capture baseline and outcome metrics from day one, shape the Poka AI Studio roadmap, and convert on founding-member terms at general availability. Manufacturers can apply at poka.io/ai.

“On the factory floor, the wrong AI answer hurts someone and brings the regulator in,” Bisson said. “Industrial AI is what works there, and what moves the numbers in the board pack. Across every plant. On the spot. No configuration session. No compromises. This is the AI we built.”

“The work spoke for itself. The work scaled. The time for quiet is over,” Bisson said.

About Poka

Poka is the leading Industrial AI platform for Connected Work. Founded in 2014, Poka powers more than 1 million frontline workers across 3,000+ sites in 70+ countries and 17 languages, with customers including Nestlé, Bosch, Mars, Danone, L’Oréal, Tetra Pak, Coty, Hitachi, and Flora Food Group. Poka’s governed AI agents run on twelve years of real-time frontline workflow data. Poka was named Leader in both the Growth and Innovation indices of the 2025 Frost Radar for Connected Worker, and in 2026 is shipping production-grade Industrial AI to the factory floor. Poka is part of IFS. Learn more at www.poka.io.

Media Contact

Jamie Kightley, Poka, 1 561 228 1940, poka@iba-international.com, https://www.poka.io/

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ST Engineering iDirect and MBSat Partner to Build Next-Generation Sovereign Connectivity Services Across Oman and the Middle East

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3 hours ago

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October 25, 2026

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Intuition ground system selected to support MBSat’s planned 2027 service launch, enabling accelerated deployment, dynamic resource management and scalable service growth

HERNDON, Va., Oct. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ST Engineering iDirect today announced a strategic partnership with Mohammed Al Barwani Satellite Company (MBSat), part of Mohammed Al Barwani Group, to provide the ground system technology foundation for MBSat’s next-generation satellite gateway and network operations across Oman and the wider Middle East region. Intuition will provide a flexible, software-defined foundation to support sovereign connectivity services, enabling efficient service deployment, dynamic resource management and scalable network operations.

Intuition will deliver a turnkey ground segment solution that accelerates deployment, simplifies operations and gives MBSat the flexibility to scale services as demand grows. The software-defined platform enables dynamic resource management, service automation and seamless integration with existing and future operational systems. The solution also includes Ka-band gateway infrastructure, service provisioning and management capabilities, open API integration frameworks, training and full-lifecycle support. Together, these capabilities will help MBSat launch and operate services efficiently while adapting to evolving market requirements.

The network will leverage capacity from MB Sat-1, a sovereign MicroGEO satellite, with planned service launch in 2027, to support flexible, scalable connectivity services across the region.

The partnership reflects growing investment in sovereign communications infrastructure across the Middle East as operators seek greater control over service delivery, network expansion and long-term technology evolution.

“This partnership represents an important milestone in our efforts to build an advanced satellite communications platform in Oman and the region,” said Ammar Al Rawahi, General Manager, MBSat. “Through our collaboration with ST Engineering iDirect, we are establishing the technical infrastructure required to launch services efficiently, respond to evolving customer needs and expand into new markets, supporting the sustainable long-term growth of our business.”

“We are providing MBSat with a flexible, software-defined ground platform that integrates with its existing operational environment,” said Sridhar Kuppanna, Chief Executive Officer, ST Engineering iDirect. “This enables more efficient service deployment and operations today, with the flexibility to scale, introduce new capabilities and evolve as requirements change.”

About ST Engineering iDirect

ST Engineering iDirect, a subsidiary of ST Engineering, is a global leader in satellite communications, providing technology and solutions that enable its customers to expand their business, differentiate their services and optimize their networks. Through its portfolio of ground infrastructure, intelligent networking and advanced satellite communications solutions, the company supports operators, service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide.

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SOURCE ST Engineering iDirect

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ST Engineering iDirect and MBSat Partner to Build Next-Generation Sovereign Connectivity Services Across Oman and the Middle East

Published

3 hours ago

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October 25, 2026

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Intuition ground system selected to support MBSat’s planned 2027 service launch, enabling accelerated deployment, dynamic resource management and scalable service growth

HERNDON, Va., Oct. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ST Engineering iDirect today announced a strategic partnership with Mohammed Al Barwani Satellite Company (MBSat), part of Mohammed Al Barwani Group, to provide the ground system technology foundation for MBSat’s next-generation satellite gateway and network operations across Oman and the wider Middle East region. Intuition will provide a flexible, software-defined foundation to support sovereign connectivity services, enabling efficient service deployment, dynamic resource management and scalable network operations.

Intuition will deliver a turnkey ground segment solution that accelerates deployment, simplifies operations and gives MBSat the flexibility to scale services as demand grows. The software-defined platform enables dynamic resource management, service automation and seamless integration with existing and future operational systems. The solution also includes Ka-band gateway infrastructure, service provisioning and management capabilities, open API integration frameworks, training and full-lifecycle support. Together, these capabilities will help MBSat launch and operate services efficiently while adapting to evolving market requirements.

The network will leverage capacity from MB Sat-1, a sovereign MicroGEO satellite, with planned service launch in 2027, to support flexible, scalable connectivity services across the region.

The partnership reflects growing investment in sovereign communications infrastructure across the Middle East as operators seek greater control over service delivery, network expansion and long-term technology evolution.

“This partnership represents an important milestone in our efforts to build an advanced satellite communications platform in Oman and the region,” said Ammar Al Rawahi, General Manager, MBSat. “Through our collaboration with ST Engineering iDirect, we are establishing the technical infrastructure required to launch services efficiently, respond to evolving customer needs and expand into new markets, supporting the sustainable long-term growth of our business.”

“We are providing MBSat with a flexible, software-defined ground platform that integrates with its existing operational environment,” said Sridhar Kuppanna, Chief Executive Officer, ST Engineering iDirect. “This enables more efficient service deployment and operations today, with the flexibility to scale, introduce new capabilities and evolve as requirements change.”

About ST Engineering iDirect

ST Engineering iDirect, a subsidiary of ST Engineering, is a global leader in satellite communications, providing technology and solutions that enable its customers to expand their business, differentiate their services and optimize their networks. Through its portfolio of ground infrastructure, intelligent networking and advanced satellite communications solutions, the company supports operators, service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/st-engineering-idirect-and-mbsat-partner-to-build-next-generation-sovereign-connectivity-services-across-oman-and-the-middle-east-302918467.html

SOURCE ST Engineering iDirect

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Global Security & Technology Summit Unveils Month-Long Program of Activities Ahead of December Event

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10 hours ago

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October 24, 2026

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Organizing Committee of the Global Security & Technology Summit (GSTS) held an introductory session today at the Ministry of Interior’s headquarters in Riyadh, bringing together representatives from the government, private, and nonprofit sectors to introduce the program of activities leading up to the summit. The upcoming summit will be held in Riyadh under the patronage of HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, under the supervision of HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Minister of Interior, and organized by the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with Tuwaiq Academy.

During the session, the Organizing Committee presented the comprehensive GSTS program, comprising three key components: GSTS Month, running from November 1 to 30, 2026; the Global Security & Innovation Fair (SAIF), taking place from November 24 to 26, 2026; and the main Summit, scheduled for December 18 to 20, 2026, in Riyadh. Together, these events form an integrated program designed to advance security and technology innovation, strengthen national capabilities, and foster international cooperation.

GSTS Month will feature working groups, boot camps, training programs, knowledge-sharing sessions, and technical workshops across Saudi Arabia’s 13 administrative regions, delivered both in person and remotely in collaboration with specialized entities. The month-long program aims to develop national capabilities, identify emerging talent, enrich knowledge-sharing opportunities, and equip professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to develop innovative solutions to future security and technology challenges.

The main Summit will bring together global leaders, decision-makers, experts, and innovators to explore the future of security and technology, promote the integration of advanced technologies within the security sector, strengthen national capabilities, support innovation, and foster international cooperation, further positioning the Kingdom as a global hub for security and technology.

Showcasing the latest technological breakthroughs and security solutions, the summit will bring together government entities, private sector organizations, academic institutions, and research centers to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration across key fields, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), smart security solutions, emerging technologies, and crisis management. The program will also feature main sessions, specialized discussions, and interactive exhibitions. Registration is available at gsts.sa.

Advisor to HRH the Minister of Interior and Chairman of the GSTS Organizing Committee, Ahmed Altowayan, stated that the summit builds on Saudi Arabia’s efforts to establish an advanced security and technology ecosystem focused on knowledge and innovation, keeping pace with rapid developments and future challenges.

Mr. Altowayan noted that the summit is a global platform for strengthening cooperation and exchanging expertise, anticipating future developments in security and technology, and developing strategic partnerships and innovative solutions that enhance the efficiency and readiness of security systems.

Vice Chairman of the GSTS Organizing Committee, Eng. Abdulaziz Alhammadi, said that the summit will offer a range of integrated programs and activities focused on enhancing national skills, encouraging innovation, and supporting international cooperation.

He added that GSTS Month will help build national capabilities, discover talent, and develop skills, with SAIF providing a platform for innovators and researchers from around the world to showcase leading technological solutions, while the main Summit will bring together leaders and experts to discuss the future of security and technology and explore new strategic partnership opportunities.

SAIF will take place at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center, bringing together innovators, researchers, technology talents, and industry experts from around the world to showcase promising innovations and projects across 14 fields of technology and innovation. The fair will provide opportunities to engage with project owners, including students, graduates, and entrepreneurs, and explore the different stages of innovation development through interactive zones, panel discussions on emerging security and innovation trends, and knowledge-sharing workshops led by specialists. Visitor registration is open to participants from within and outside the Kingdom through saifair.sa.

The introductory session also featured contributions from representatives of government, private, and nonprofit sector entities, alongside members of the media. Discussions focused on developing national capabilities in security and technology, strengthening students’ technical expertise, translating scientific research into practical solutions, and supporting Saudi companies in developing security and technology solutions and advancing digital transformation.

Organized by the Ministry of Interior in cooperation with Tuwaiq Academy, GSTS is produced by Tahaluf, with the Ministry of Education serving as Strategic Scientific Partner, Tahakom as Founding Partner, and Elm as Principal Partner.

Registration for participants from within and outside the Kingdom is available at gsts.sa.

Click here to view the media kit. 

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