Emergence Launches India''s First Frontier AI Lab for Autonomous Agents to Power the Nation''s Shift from IT Services to Advanced Manufacturing

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (NewsVoir) Emergence, the New York-based frontier agentic AI company founded by three Indian-American scientists from IBM Research, today announced the launch of Emergence India Labs (EIL) – India’s first dedicated AI research and development lab focused on autonomous AI agents. The lab will accelerate the development of homegrown next-generation autonomous systems capable of operating mission-critical digital and physical infrastructure, positioning India to move beyond its traditional IT services model toward advanced manufacturing, logistics, and industrial automation. Backed by tens of millions of dollars in initial inward R&D investment, with significant long-term expansion planned, EIL is expected to scale to 500 world-class research scientists and engineers over the next three to four years – marking one of the most ambitious expansions of frontier AI research capacity in India. Strategically located near the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, EIL will collaborate closely with the IISc ecosystem through joint research, exchanges, hackathons, and summer schools to build a next-generation talent pipeline in autonomous systems. Professor Siddhartha Gadgil of IISc joins as Chief Scientist while maintaining his academic affiliation. Emergence India Labs is envisioned not only as a research center, but as the nucleus of a broader public-private partnership to ensure that India builds foundational AI technologies domestically rather than importing them. While the initiative begins within Emergence, the long-term ambition is to convene government, industry, academia, and global technology leaders around a shared mission: building the foundational systems that will power the next generation of digital and physical infrastructure. Emergence issued a call to action for partners to join this endeavor, with success over the next five years measured by how effectively Emergence India Labs catalyzes frontier R&D programs to be headquartered in India. Central to that ambition is the lab’s structural design. Unlike multinational R&D outposts that operate as satellite extensions of overseas global headquarters, Emergence India Labs is conceived as a core, AI-native R&D epicenter in India, designed to anchor sovereign AI capability. For more than two decades, India’s technology sector has been centered on IT services; the next chapter will be defined by building frontier autonomous systems that transform enterprise software, AI capable of operating digital infrastructure, with the same foundational technologies powering advances in physical AI domains such as manufacturing, logistics, ports, factories, and essential infrastructure. AI adoption in Indian manufacturing has already surged – with 65% of manufacturers integrating AI by 2024, up from 45% in 2022 – and the domestic AI-in-manufacturing market projected to grow at roughly 40% annually, surpassing $8 billion by 2030. Recent global research indicators underscore the urgency of this moment. The Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders report shows that Chinese universities now occupy nine of the top ten global research positions in natural sciences, a dramatic shift east in global scientific leadership over the past decade. In parallel, in 2024, China accounted for more than half of all industrial robot installations worldwide – roughly 54% of the global total – with hundreds of thousands of new robots deployed in factories each year. As technological power rebalances globally, India has a strategic opportunity to position itself at the frontier of autonomous systems research. The launch reflects a broader global shift in AI. The debate is no longer only about training the largest language models, but about developing the autonomous systems layer that enables AI to operate safely and reliably in real-world environments. “We believe the most immediate opportunity lies in building autonomous AI systems capable of operating the world’s most mission-critical digital infrastructure – from financial networks and telecom platforms to cloud and digital public systems,” said Satya Nitta, Co-founder and CEO of Emergence. “By mastering autonomy in the digital realm, we establish the foundation to extend into robotics, advanced manufacturing, and next-generation industrial infrastructure.” “For more than two decades, India’s technology sector has been anchored in IT services,” Nitta added. “The next chapter must be defined by building frontier autonomous systems that power critical infrastructure. The hardest problem in robotics isn’t movement – it’s thinking. By focusing on agentic systems, we are solving reasoning under uncertainty. Around the world, leading economies are embedding AI into physical systems at scale. India must participate fully in shaping that transformation.” “Ultimately, our success will be defined by whether Emergence India Labs helps anchor more frontier R&D in India – making the country a primary home for br