JK Tyre’s Roadmap to the AI-Driven Factory of the Future

In a special interaction, Sharad Kumar Agarwal, Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO), JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, shares insights into his digital leadership journey and the company’s roadmap towards building an AI-driven factory of the future. At JK Tyre, this vision goes far beyond incremental automation. It is about fundamentally reimagining manufacturing by embedding connectivity, intelligence, and autonomy at the core of its operations.

Rather than relying on conventional plant management systems, JK Tyre is moving towards factories orchestrated by AI, where decisions are taken in real time, digital twins simulate outcomes before execution, and agentic AI enables continuous collaboration between humans and machines. In this future state, manufacturing shifts from forecast-led planning to a demand-responsive, self-optimising ecosystem, where factories continuously learn and improve on their own.

Laying the groundwork: A 14-month digital reality check

To turn this vision into reality, JK Tyre began with ...