Valmet Re-engineers Its Core: AI Partnership Signals Broader Industrial Shift

BENGALURU, India and ESPOO, Finland – June 16, 2026

In a move that signals a significant pivot for the 225-year-old industrial sector stalwart, Valmet has announced a long-term strategic collaboration with global tech consulting leader Infosys. The partnership is designed to completely reimagine Valmet’s global IT operations, leveraging an AI-first model to drive efficiency, resilience, and business agility. While press releases announcing IT modernizations are common, this one warrants a closer look. It represents a textbook case of how established industrial giants are not just adopting technology, but fundamentally re-engineering their operational DNA to compete in an era defined by digital disruption and a push towards sustainability.

This isn't merely about outsourcing IT support; it's about embedding intelligent, automated systems deep within the corporate nervous system. The collaboration will see Infosys deploy its flagship AI and cloud platforms to overhaul Valmet's core IT services, a move intended to slash operational costs, optimize resource allocation, and, most critically, forge a direct, responsive link between technology infrastructure and strategic business objectives.

A Strategic Imperative: The 'Lead the Way' Mandate

To understand the gravity of this partnership, one must first understand Valmet's ambitious 'Lead the Way' strategy, unveiled in 2025. This isn't a minor course correction; it's a comprehensive renewal aimed at transforming the company into a leader in the global shift towards a “regenerative tomorrow.” The strategy moves beyond traditional sustainability metrics, focusing on actively restoring industrial systems and empowering customers to achieve low-carbon, circular operations.

This vision is supported by four key pillars: ensuring customer success with leading technology, expanding its lifecycle commitment to a massive installed base, boosting global competitiveness through operational excellence, and fostering a culture of accountability. To deliver on this, Valmet has set aggressive financial targets for 2030, including 5% organic growth and a 15% comparable EBITA margin. Achieving these goals in the competitive process industries market is impossible without a hyper-efficient, scalable, and intelligent operational backbone.

This is where the Infosys partnership becomes mission-critical. Valmet’s strategy explicitly calls for enhancing “digital capabilities in mission-critical solutions.” An aging, siloed, or inefficient IT infrastructure would act as a boat anchor on these aspirations. By overhauling its IT, Valmet is clearing the path to execute its strategy, enabling everything from the data-driven optimization of its global supply chain to the delivery of advanced digital services to its customers.

The AI-First Engine Room: Inside Infosys's Tech Stack

The technological core of this transformation rests on two key Infosys platforms: Infosys Topaz and Infosys Cobalt. Together, they form a potent combination for enterprise modernization, with Cobalt providing the cloud foundation and Topaz layering on the intelligence.

Infosys Cobalt is a comprehensive suite of services and platforms designed to fast-track an enterprise's journey to the cloud. For Valmet, this means establishing a scalable, secure, and future-ready cloud infrastructure that can handle the demands of a global operation with 18,500 professionals. Rather than a piecemeal migration, Cobalt provides standardized blueprints and governance frameworks to ensure the foundation is not only modern but also compliant and cyber-resilient from the ground up.

Building on this foundation, Infosys will deploy Topaz Fabric, its AI-first suite of agentic services. This is where the real revolution in operations lies. Topaz isn't just about using AI for analytics; it's about deploying a workforce of specialized AI agents designed to automate and manage complex IT workflows. These agents can handle tasks from proactive issue resolution to quality engineering and cybersecurity monitoring, dramatically increasing speed and reducing the need for manual intervention. As Jasmeet Singh, EVP and Global Head of Manufacturing at Infosys, noted, “Our collaboration with Valmet exemplifies Infosys' commitment to driving transformative outcomes by leveraging the power of Infosys Topaz and Infosys Cobalt.”

Crucially, Infosys emphasizes a “human-in-the-loop” approach. This isn’t about replacing human workers with a black box of algorithms. Instead, it creates a collaborative model where human experts oversee, train, and contextualize the AI agents. This ensures governance, maintains transparency, and allows the system to learn and improve, combining the raw processing power of AI with the nuanced understanding of human experience.

From Industrial Giant to Digital Powerhouse

The implications for Valmet are profound. The AI-driven efficiency is expected to directly support the “global competitiveness” pillar of its strategy by reducing operational overhead. Proactive and predictive IT management, a key promise of the Topaz platform, will enhance resilience, minimizing downtime that can be extraordinarily costly in process industries like pulp, paper, and energy.

Arto Huuskonen, VP of IT Transformation at Valmet, framed the initiative in these strategic terms: “At Valmet, our target is to build a resilient, future-ready digital foundation that supports the execution of our Lead the Way strategy.” He highlighted the need for improved operational efficiency and strengthened governance, stating, “This collaboration with Infosys will help us accelerate our transformation journey and create a scalable IT operation model that supports our evolving business needs.”

This partnership moves Valmet further from being a traditional manufacturer that uses technology to a technology-enabled industrial leader. By creating an agile, AI-first operating model, the company is better positioned to innovate, respond to market shifts, and integrate future technologies—whether from its own R&D, like the Valmet DNAe automation system, or through further partnerships. It provides the systemic agility required to not only serve but lead industries that are themselves undergoing radical transformation.