From automation to autonomy: why Honeywell and TCS are betting on the next phase of industrial operations
Across manufacturing plants, office towers, airports and energy facilities worldwide, a quiet shift is underway. Enterprises are no longer asking how to automate individual systems, but how to run entire operations more intelligently, consistently and at scale. On 11 February 2026, Honeywell and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) placed a clear marker in that transition, announcing a strategic initiative aimed at accelerating enterprise-wide autonomous operations in buildings and industry.
The collaboration, first launching in India and later expanding to markets including the United States and the Middle East, brings together Honeywell’s operational technology (OT) automation and industrial software with TCS’ information technology (IT), cloud and consulting capabilities. Its ambition reflects a broader global trend: the convergence of physical operations and enterprise digital systems as organisations seek resilience, efficiency and faster decision-making in increasingly complex environments.
A global shift beyond automation
For decades, automation has been the backbone of industrial and building operations. Control systems regulate machinery, sensors monitor safety, and building management systems optimise heating, cooling and lighting. Yet these systems have largely remained isolated from enterprise IT platforms used for analytics, planning and strategic decision-making.
That separation is now under pressure. Large organisations with global footprints face rising energy costs, workforce constraints, sustainability targets and operational risk. Incremental automation is no longer enough. What is emerging instead is a push towards autonomy—systems that do not merely execute instructions, but can interpret data, adapt to changing conditions and support decisions across entire organisations.
It is into this context that Honeywell and TCS position their latest initiative.
Building on an existing partnership
While the announcement marks a significant expansion in ambition, it is not a first encounter between the two companies. Honeywell and TCS have worked together previously as part of a broader strategic relationship focused on IT modernisation, digital transformation and enterprise integration.
TCS lists Honeywell among its strategic partners, reflecting earlier collaboration on aligning enterprise IT systems with Honeywell’s business and industrial platforms. The February 2026 initiative builds on that foundation, extending the partnership more deeply into operational environments and explicitly targeting autonomous workflows rather than isolated optimisation projects.
This continuity matters. Enterprise autonomy is not a plug-and-play upgrade; it requires sustained collaboration, domain expertise and integration across systems that are often decades old.
Bridging OT and IT at enterprise scale
At the heart of the initiative is the convergence of OT and IT—two domains that have historically evolved separately. OT refers to the hardware and software that control physical processes, such as industrial controllers, sensors and building systems. IT manages enterprise data, applications and digital workflows.
Under the new initiative, Honeywell will create a unified digital foundation that enables OT data to flow into customers’ IT systems. This foundation is designed to provide real-time visibility, predictive intelligence and autonomous process control, allowing operational data to inform enterprise-level decisions.
TCS contributes its experience in cloud platforms, IT modernisation and enterprise consulting to integrate these capabilities into customers’ broader digital environments. The goal is not simply better dashboards, but a single operational view across assets, sites and regions.
Honeywell Forge as the operational backbone
A key component of Honeywell’s contribution is Honeywell Forge, the company’s industrial internet-of-things (IoT) and analytics platform. Honeywell Forge delivers AI-powered analytics and dashboards designed to improve efficiency, reliability and security across operational environments.
Within the partnership, Honeywell will deploy Honeywell Forge for Industrials and Honeywell Forge for Buildings. These platforms provide insights into asset performance, energy usage, safety and operational efficiency, using data collected from connected equipment and systems.
Integrated with TCS’ IT and cloud capabilities, Honeywell Forge is positioned as the operational backbone for more autonomous, data-driven environments.
What autonomy looks like in practice
Honeywell and TCS describe autonomous operations as systems that can “perceive, analyse, act and learn”. In practice, this means environments where systems can detect changes or risks, assess their impact and respond according to predefined objectives, while improving performance over time.
For building operators, this could involve balancing energy efficiency with occupant comfort and safety. For industrial operators, it may include improving asset uptime, managing production variability or responding faster to operational disruptions.
The companies emphasise that autonomy is intended to support human decision-making, not replace it—providing operators and executives with clearer insights and faster feedback across complex operations.
Why scale changes the equation
The potential impact of the initiative lies in the scale at which it can be deployed. Honeywell and TCS are both global organisations serving multinational customers with geographically distributed assets.
Honeywell’s technologies are embedded deep within physical operations, while TCS works at enterprise level to modernise IT systems and redesign business processes. The collaboration therefore spans both the physical and digital layers of global operations.
For organisations managing factories, campuses, airports or infrastructure across multiple regions, this integration offers the possibility of consistent operational intelligence rather than fragmented, site-specific solutions.
Moving beyond pilot projects
One of the persistent challenges in industrial digitisation has been moving beyond pilots. Many organisations experiment with analytics or automation in individual facilities, only to struggle when scaling across larger estates.
By combining Honeywell’s installed base of operational systems with TCS’ global delivery and consulting model, the initiative is structured to support enterprise-wide deployment. Crucially, it focuses on integrating and augmenting existing systems rather than replacing them, which lowers barriers for organisations operating legacy infrastructure.
Cybersecurity and operational resilience
As OT and IT systems converge, cybersecurity becomes a central concern. The initiative includes Honeywell’s OT cybersecurity solutions, designed to protect operational environments as they become more connected.
Honeywell states that its AI-powered industrial and building technologies, combined with OT cybersecurity capabilities, are intended to strengthen resilience, improve workforce effectiveness and enhance asset uptime
This reflects a broader industry recognition that autonomy without security and governance introduces unacceptable risk.
India as a starting point, not the endpoint
The initiative will initially be offered to customers in India, a market experiencing rapid industrial growth and digital transformation. Honeywell and TCS plan to extend the offering to other regions, including the United States and the Middle East.
The phased rollout suggests a deliberate approach: adapting solutions to local operational realities before broader global expansion.
A signal of where enterprise operations are heading
Viewed in isolation, the Honeywell–TCS announcement is a partnership between two large technology providers. Viewed in context, it is part of a wider shift in how enterprises think about operations in an era of volatility, complexity and data abundance.
The move from automation to autonomy is not about removing humans from operations, but about rethinking how data, systems and decisions are connected. For organisations navigating the next phase of digital transformation, the collaboration offers a clear signal: the future of operations will be integrated, intelligent and increasingly autonomous.
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