Honeywell launches Forge Cognition AI to run buildings with Nvidia and Dell

Honeywell on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, launched Forge Cognition, an artificial intelligence platform that combines AI agents with digital twins, virtual replicas of physical facilities, to help run buildings, campuses and industrial sites. The platform was built with Nvidia, which supplies AI models and simulation software, and Dell, which supplies the servers and storage that run it on site. It connects to a building's heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), security and power systems. In a pilot at Nvidia's Voyager headquarters, Honeywell says the system cut unnecessary building-management alerts by up to 90 per cent and produced estimated energy savings of about 10 per cent. Honeywell's chief technology officer, Suresh Venkatarayalu, said the platform's fully autonomous mode is not switched on and that humans will remain in control for roughly the next two to three years.

Large buildings and factories already produce huge amounts of data from sensors, meters, cameras and control systems. The problem for the people who run them is usually not a lack of information but too much of it: building-management systems raise so many alerts that staff struggle to tell which ones matter. Honeywell's pitch is that AI agents can sift those signals, explain what is happening and suggest or take action, while a digital twin lets operators test a change virtually before making it in the real building.

The reported 90 per cent drop in unnecessary alerts, if it holds up across other sites, addresses one of the most common complaints in facility management. The estimated 10 per cent energy saving matters because energy is one of the biggest running costs of a large building.

The cautious approach to autonomy is also telling. Industrial and building systems control physical equipment, and mistakes can be costly or dangerous. By keeping humans in the loop for the next few years, Honeywell is signalling that "agentic" AI in physical operations will grow step by step rather than all at once. The partnership with Nvidia and Dell also shows how chip and hardware makers are pushing AI out of data centres and into the places where it controls real machines, the area often called industry 4.0.

Short-term: Facility managers at large campuses, data centres and factories will look at Forge Cognition as a way to cut alarm overload and energy bills. Early customers are likely to use it in advisory or semi-autonomous mode.

Long-term: If AI agents prove reliable in running buildings, the job of facility teams may shift from watching dashboards to supervising AI systems and handling exceptions. Building-automation competitors are likely to respond with their own AI platforms. For Indian builders of commercial campuses, data centres and industrial parks, such tools could shape how new facilities are designed and run.

Who is affected: Owners and operators of large buildings, campuses and plants; facility management staff; building-automation and industrial software competitors; and Nvidia and Dell, which are expanding into industrial AI.

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