The Physics Layer: Why AI Needs Real-World Engineering to Unlock Trillion-Dollar Industrial Value

What do a floating barge the size of four aircraft carriers, a Shell refinery, and the future of energy resilience have in common? They all depend on knowing, with precision, how much life is left in the steel.

In this episode of Augmented Ops, host Natan Linder sits down with Thomas Leurent, CEO and co-founder of Akselos, to unpack the often-overlooked world of structural performance management and why it might be the most important form of physical AI you've never heard of.

Thomas shares how Akselos helped Shell unlock over half a billion dollars in value on a single FPSO by using physics-based digital twins to skip a costly dry dock. He explains the technology behind it: a proprietary approach that runs structural simulations 100,000x faster than traditional finite element analysis by blending machine learning with physics, built over 20+ years since the technology was pulled out of MIT.

The conversation goes deep on what physical AI actually means in industrial settings, why hallucination is simply not an option in high-stakes environments, the role of humans in process industries (especially in emergency scenarios like what's unfolding in the GCC), and how data sharing — or the lack of it — is holding back offshore wind and the broader energy transition.

Thomas also shares a bold prediction: just as algorithmic efficiency transformed mechanical simulation, it will do the same to AI, making large language models far cheaper to run, potentially leading to an overcapacity of computing infrastructure in the years ahead.

If you think "structural performance management" sounds dry, wait until you hear what a $500M dry-dock skip, 52,000 workers with zero casualties, and the future of energy supply chains have to say about it.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cmhRmhyrU-Y

Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone who cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip, the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast or by following the show on LinkedIn.