Wayne State University and Kyndryl have entered a multi-year collaboration to establish the IntelliMake research hub and a pilot-scale factory inside Wayne State’s James and Patricia Anderson College of Engineering, aiming to accelerate AI-driven manufacturing R&D and workforce training in Detroit. The partners said the on-campus facility will be used to co-develop and demonstrate intelligent and agentic AI manufacturing technologies, run joint workshops focused on AI, cybersecurity, and digital twins, and deploy hands-on demonstration “pods” inside the IntelliMake lab.
The collaboration is positioned as a response to widening readiness gaps as AI adoption accelerates. Citing Kyndryl’s 2025 Readiness Report, the company said most leaders expect AI to reshape jobs within a year, but far fewer believe their workforce is prepared—an imbalance the initiative intends to address through practical training and real-world demonstrations. Wayne State and Kyndryl plan to use the lab environment to train teams in agentic AI for manufacturing and to replicate customer challenges on a mock assembly line, with the goal of advancing from theoretical prototypes to deployable solutions.
In its initial phase, IntelliMake will pair advanced computing with modular orchestration to show how intelligent agents can identify disruptions, adapt to changes, and recover operations. The autonomous manufacturing and assembly line is intended to reduce scrap and rework, improve quality outcomes, and provide workers with more responsive tools and real-time operational insights. Kyndryl said it will support system orchestration by integrating technologies, including Kyndryl Bridge, to monitor and manage the end-to-end infrastructure powering the lab’s simulated production environment.
The partners framed the hub as part of a broader ambition to position Detroit and Michigan as leaders in smart manufacturing, citing a projected $10 trillion opportunity driven by AI agents, robotics, and digital twins that enable factories to self-optimize and reconfigure dynamically. Wayne State said the initiative leverages its location in a major manufacturing region and its industry relationships to address manufacturing modernization and workforce development challenges, while aligning university research with scalable industrial applications.
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“Despite significant advances in automation, many manufacturing operations remain rigid, siloed and reactive. Through our collaboration with Wayne State on IntelliMake, we are working to replace brittle, fixed automation with resilient, people-centered innovation by combining people, process, and technology in one integrated environment. This will also give customers a hands-on view of what’s possible by investing in and training the next generation of AI talent to lead the transformation.”
Onofrio Pirrotta, SVP & Managing Director, Kyndryl
“As an R1 university located in manufacturing heartland with strong industry ties, Wayne State is uniquely positioned to tackle the nation’s manufacturing and workforce challenges. IntelliMake exemplifies our commitment to advancing AI, automation and education — while preparing engineers for the factories of the future.”
Dr. Ali Abolmaali, Dean, James and Patricia Anderson College of Engineering, Wayne State University
