AI Process Solutions
Turning plant data into process intelligence.
AI Process Solutions™ (AIPS) is the AC+T group that supplies our companies with curated AI and digital technologies. We find and vet the tools, prove them on real problems, and put them to work inside our brands. Our brands use these tools to run their own businesses better, and take the best of them to market in what they offer customers. The goal is the same in every company: more revenue, lower costs and faster development.
Our vision starts with a pattern we see across industry. The companies pulling ahead with AI and digital technologies see their problems clearly, get to the right problem quickly, often several layers below where the symptom shows up, and adapt fast once they find it. Solving more problems frees up capital for more growth projects, and more growth projects mean plants and processes change more often. The AI underneath must be the right tool for the job . We built AIPS around technologies that are.
A Long Record of Digital Advantage
AC+T’s brands have used computational tools to design chemistry, catalysts and equipment for years. Through ActiveSite, we provide computational chemistry and engineering services to customers and to our own ventures:
Process modeling
Process modeling. Simulating units and whole processes to find bottlenecks, test changes and size equipment before anything is built.
CAD design
Detailed 3D designs for reactors, custom equipment and plant layouts.
Catalyst kinetic models
Rate models that show how a catalyst performs across temperature, pressure and feed conditions, and how it ages over time.
Density functional theory (DFT)
Quantum-level calculations of how molecules bind and react on a catalyst surface, used to screen materials and map reaction pathways before lab work starts.
AIPS builds on that foundation. Our internal AI tools support our operations to be effective at speed. Root™ is a new type of foundation model built for process industries. Root that shows what actually caused problems in the plant using the plant’s data. Having both skill sets on one team is what lets our engineers check every Root finding against the physics.
The right AI Tools for Every AC+T Company
Our brands use top-tier large language models (LLMs) and a range of other AI tools across the business, from sales and marketing to engineering and research. AIPS manages those tools and their use cases for every brand.
We review each tool before it is adopted, manage accounts centrally, and match each tool to a real use case. Our teams get strong tools without each company paying for several products that do the same job. What that gives our companies:
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More revenue.
AI support for market research, marketing and sales, plus proven technologies like Root that our brands can add to what they sell. -
Faster development.
AI support for technical research, analysis and writing, so ideas move from concept to test sooner. -
Lower cost.
Shared tools and integrations with the systems teams already use, and plant diagnostics that cut downtime and waste. -
Control.
One AC+T AI use policy covers every brand. AC+T approves new tools, and company data is handled under that policy.
Root: Causal AI for Process Plants
Root is the lead technology AIPS supplies to our brands. It finds the chain of events behind a plant problem, using the sensor, historian, and event data the plant already collects, and shows that chain on a causal map with a confidence score on each link. Root tells you what’s happening and why in a way you can trace, so you can determine what to do about it.
Root advises. The plant’s team decides.
Root is offered to customers through AC+T’s brands, each pairing it with its own technology and offering.
Built on TCPFN
Root runs on a temporal causal prior-data fitted network (TCPFN), causal AI built for the time-series data plants run on. It was pretrained once, so it reads a new plant with no plant-specific training. It scores its confidence in every link, returns a short list engineers can review, holds up as the plant changes, and can run on premises or on anonymized data.
Read more: why TCPFN is the right technology for process plants
TCPFN Proven in a Real Plant
20
independent sheet-break events traced
100%
began before the paper machine
~3 hrs
of median early warning before a break
~$600K
per year in estimated value from the #1 root cause alone
Pulp and paper case study, Oct–Dec 2025 data. Dollar value is an estimate based on the mill’s estimated downtime cost of $30K per hour. Customer not named at its request.
How AIPS Brings Technology to our Companies
AIPS
1. Find and Vet
Our team is constantly evaluating the market for tools and partnerships that make sense for our brands. This team performs the evaluation so our teams can focus on scaling their businesses.
TCPFN research and partnership →
AIPS
2. Prove it
We evaluate each technology against specific use cases and test the technology before any brand relies on it.
Pulp and paper pilot →
AIPS
3. Put it to Work.
AIPS rolls the tool out inside our brands, manages accounts and use cases, and connects it to the systems teams already use.
In use across our brands →
AC+T Brands
4. Take it to Market
When a technology can help customers too, our brands build it into what they offer, backed by their own engineers.
Offered to customers
Root followed this path. AC+T partnered with the developers of TCPFN, vetted the applicability to our industry, and now supplies it to our brands to offer their customers.
Why AC+T
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A long digital track record.
Through ActiveSite, our engineers already build process models, CAD designs, catalyst kinetic models and DFT calculations. AIPS adds AI technologies including causal AI to that toolkit.
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One team supplying every company.
AIPS picks, proves and supports each technology once, so every brand doesn’t have to.
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Process engineers behind the technology.
Our people have run plants. They know which problems are worth solving and how to turn a finding into an action operators and maintenance teams can carry out.
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Findings connect to fixes.
Our brands supply technologies, catalysts and materials, process engineering and custom equipment, so a confirmed root cause has a direct path to a solution.
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Built for change.
No plant-specific model to maintain, so turnarounds, upgrades and new campaigns don’t break the technology.
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Secure choices.
Our digital solutions are always built with security in mind.
Root is SOC 2 compliant and can run on premises or on anonymized data, and one AI use policy covers every brand.
The Technology Behind Root: why TCPFN is the right causal AI for process plants.
Talupula, S. & Sharma, S. (2026). Temporal Causal Prior-Data Fitted Networks for Panel Data with Learned Reliability Signals. arXiv:2606.20889
Ai Process Solutions FAQs
What is AI Process Solutions?
AI Process Solutions (AIPS) is the AC+T group that supplies our companies with AI technologies. It manages the AI tools our brands use, including top-tier LLMs, along with their use cases. It also leads Root, our causal AI for process plants.
How does AIPS help AC+T’s companies?
AIPS gives every brand access to proven AI tools that grow revenue, cut cost and speed up development, all under one policy. It also supplies technologies like Root that our brands can take to market in their own offers.
What is Root, and how can I get it?
Root is causal AI that finds the chain of events behind a plant problem, using data the plant already collects. It runs on TCPFN and is offered to customers through AC+T’s brands.
Why TCPFN?
TCPFN is traceable, adaptable, and secure. The model was pretrained once cause-and-effect data, so it reads a new plant with no plant-specific training. It scores its confidence and shows every link so engineers can understand why it found its answers. It is small and secure enough to run on premises or on anonymized data. The full case is on our TCPFN page.
Has TCPFN been used in a real plant?
Yes. In a pilot at a U.S. pulp and paper mill, TCPFN traced recurring sheet breaks to an upstream cause that the mill’s process experts confirmed, with about three hours of median early warning.
Partner with AI Process Solutions
Investors and technology partners: talk to us about the technologies behind AIPS, how our brands put them to work, and where we’re headed next.
AI technology providers: please let us know if you have a technology that can support one of our brands. We are always looking for new tools and partners.
Plant operators interested in Root: reach out to the AC+T brand that serves your industry.