Building a global automation powerhouse, AIR is transforming manufacturing through innovation, scale, and partnership
Founded by Brian Klos and Darragh de Stonndún, Automated Industrial Robotics (AIR) was born from a clear vision to build a scaled, world-class automation company capable of serving customers across continents. In 2023, two established, complementary automation businesses across the US and Europe came together to form one progressive, dynamic, and forward-thinking international partner and has since grown into six acquired businesses.
Today, AIR brings together more than 600 automation specialists across six facilities in the US and Europe, with approximately 450,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing space. Customers can access the capabilities, technologies, and expertise of a global organization, but AIR maintains the agility and customer focus needed to solve complex manufacturing challenges. CEO Darragh joins us to dive deeper into AIR’s unique approach to innovation.
“We build highly customized manufacturing systems that our customers use to bring products to market,” he begins. “We focus on three main areas. The first is enabling our customers to innovate their products; when a company has a new idea or wants to bring the next iteration of a product to market, we partner with them to understand the process challenges and automation requirements involved. We help them determine what it takes to design and refine the product so that it can be manufactured in the most effective way possible.
“The second area is building highly complex automated systems. Once we’ve helped our customers solve the technical challenges involved, we’re there to help them scale those solutions into production. Ultimately, that allows those products to reach consumers.
“The third is supporting our customers after the machines have been shipped. This involves a constant harmonization between their product, manufacturing conditions, staff, and the automation itself.”
Consistent collaboration
From life sciences and cosmetics to automotive and food and beverage, AIR helps manufacturers unlock more from every production line with lower costs, higher quality, greater efficiency, and faster production. With hands-on support, on-site expertise, advanced diagnostics, and AI-powered insights, the company views automation as an ongoing partnership focused on continuous improvement, shared success, and making what’s possible today even better tomorrow.
“We’re extremely customer-centric in everything we do, from our M&A activities to the continuous training of our employees,” Darragh explains. “Historically, when a company receives a specification from a customer, they look within their four walls. If a company has multiple sites, they might say, ‘The customer is in Germany, so let’s put them in touch with our closest facility.’ We do not look at location at all. When we receive an inquiry, the first thing we do is bring it to our consolidated commercial engineering group. We look at the technical requirements, then across the entire company and our subject-matter expertise to identify the best possible solution to put forward. It means that our working day is extended; when our colleagues in Europe finish, our colleagues in America can pick up the work. Our customers fit naturally into that model as well.”
By connecting expertise across regions rather than operating as separate facilities, AIR can bring the right people and capabilities to every project, regardless of location. Collaboration at that scale, however, requires consistency. Consequently, AIR has invested in aligning its operations across every facility, creating a common foundation that enables its global teams to work seamlessly together and deliver the same high standards to customers wherever they are.
“In an engineering business, details matter. That attention to detail is fundamental to our culture. Around that, we have a single ERP system. We put everybody onto the same ERP system. As a result, no matter which facility an employee walks into, the experience is consistent. The way we check in, the way customers experience our facilities, the way our shop floors are laid out, the way projects are released, and the way we design and manage the different phases of a project are all aligned across the company,” Darragh details. “Similarly, we have one quality management handbook. All of our engineers follow the same processes and that enables us to deliver projects across the globe consistently for our customers, and our customers expect that.”
Partner of choice
With a global footprint, unified approach, and relentless focus on the customer, AIR is building more than automated systems: it’s building long-term manufacturing partnerships. By combining deep engineering expertise with shared technologies, processes, and continuous innovation, the company is well-equipped to support customers from the first product conceptualization through to production and beyond. As AIR continues to grow across America and Europe, it remains dedicated to making complex manufacturing challenges simpler, smarter, and more scalable, wherever its customers operate.
“Over the next three to five years, we want to continue growing the business in the way we are today. We want to maintain intimate relationships with our customers and become their automation partner of choice. That’s what we’re building, and for us, that’s what success looks like,” Darragh says.
“It’s not about a number. The financials are simply a measurement of what we’ve achieved. Culturally and strategically, we want to be meaningful to the customers we work with today, as well as to customers who look at us and say, ‘You’ve got amazing technologies, and we’d love to utilize them.’ We want to welcome those customers, grow our relationships, expand our engagement, and become massively important to their businesses.
“As we grow, we don’t want the intimacy that customers have experienced with the companies we’ve acquired to be lost or diluted,” Darragh concludes. “We want to remain an agile, nimble, technology-focused company that can deliver systems at scale because we are an integrated business. If that’s what we are in five years, then we’ve done something very special.”
