August 21, 2026 | The Autonomous Edge is shaping the next generation of intelligent enterprises.
The 26th edition of the HYSEA TechForward Research Seminar Series, organized by HYSEA with International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) and hosted by ServiceNow, brought together industry leaders, researchers, academicians, and technology professionals to explore the convergence of IT, OT, and AI.
With the theme “The Autonomous Edge: Where IT, OT, and AI Converge,” the session explored how AI, edge computing, connected systems, and intelligent automation are transforming enterprise operations and enabling smarter, increasingly autonomous decision-making.
The industry perspective by Vipul Srivastava, ServiceNow, highlighted governance principles for autonomous AI: inventory every agent, establish distinct identities, enforce least-privilege access, maintain change control, ensure observability and auditability, and have a reliable kill switch. Greater autonomy must be matched by stronger governance.
The academic perspective by Dr. Deepak Gangadharan, International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH), explored Edge AI for Cyber-Physical Systems and how bringing AI inference closer to physical processes can address latency, bandwidth, energy, and autonomy requirements in real-time applications.
A key takeaway was that as AI enters physical and operational environments, safety, security, reliability, and predictability become as important as performance and accuracy. Robust edge architectures must integrate hardware, software, AI inference, connectivity, security, and safety.
The convergence of industry and research reinforced the importance of building trusted, scalable, responsible autonomous systems and strengthening industry–academia collaboration.
TechForward once again provided a valuable platform for knowledge exchange and thought leadership.
The future is moving from connected to intelligent, autonomous systems-where AI can sense, understand, decide, and act closer to the real world.
