Hitachi Digital Services Brings IT + OT + AI to Mission-critical Systems

From May 20 to 21, 2026, in Dallas, Hitachi Digital Services hosted close to 100 analysts and advisers for a two-day summit featuring Hitachi leaders, clients and technology partners. The following reflects TBR’s observations from the event, informal conversations with Hitachi leaders and clients, and TBR’s ongoing analysis of the overall IT services and professional services space.

Hitachi Digital Services perfectly positioned to take advantage of IT-OT convergence and AI adoption

Two tectonic technology shifts happening now and opening massive revenue opportunities play straight into Hitachi’s strengths, positioning Hitachi Digital Services for significant growth over the next five years. With IT and OT convergence accelerating and enterprises increasingly adopting AI at scale, Hitachi Digital Services can rely on Hitachi’s engineering DNA, deep expertise in specific industries, and firsthand experience in manufacturing as the foundation for a build-integrate-operate value proposition. The analysts and advisers event highlighted how well Hitachi Digital Services brings the entire Hitachi company to its clients, remains rooted in Hitachi’s engineering approach to everything, and maintains its focus on strategic priorities, even as the market shifts all around them.

 

Although smaller than the typical IT and professional services firms covered by TBR, Hitachi Digital Services warrants close attention in the coming years. Its distinctive business model, strategic direction and performance — particularly its combination of IT, OT, AI and domain expertise — position Hitachi Digital Services as a potential outlier in the IT services landscape.

Hitachi’s broader capabilities and assets help Hitachi Digital Services deliver unique combination of IT, OT and AI

Though only a two-day event, Hitachi included an impressive breadth of client speakers and panel participants, all from Hitachi Digital Services’ core industries, while also bringing technology partners into the discussion, occasionally simultaneously. One major telecom player described their relationship with Hitachi Digital Services as a client and with Hitachi overall as a go-to-market technology partner. An automotive client praised Hitachi Digital Services’ ability to “make our problems their problems to solve” and called out Hitachi’s “asset knowledge,” which blended IT capabilities with OT experience.

 

During onstage presentations and informal discussions with TBR, clients noted the importance of Hitachi Digital Services’ ability to seamlessly tap into the larger Hitachi organization and bring deeply technical engineering expertise to bear. Not surprisingly, clients attending the event also noted their well-established relationships with Hitachi, reinforcing Hitachi Digital Services’ messages around sustained focus on clients’ evolving issues. TBR’s assessment of Hitachi Digital Services’ client service value proposition and technology partner alliance strategy could be best summed up by a comment from a cloud vendor on stage with Hitachi Digital Services: “showing up together with Hitachi, delivering results, day after day.”

 

On Day 1 of the summit, a senior Hitachi Digital Services executive said the company maintained an “R&D and engineering first, consulting second mindset,” a sentiment echoed throughout the event. Another executive noted that innovation “starts with Hitachi engineering R&D.” Discussions around IT-OT convergence and Industry 5.0 included elements of consulting but remained rooted in engineering. For example, when discussing IT and OT convergence, Hitachi leaders described the company’s state-of-the-art railcar manufacturing plant in Maryland, a real, physical, operational test bed for digital innovations and Hitachi Digital Services’ IT + OT + AI value proposition. For Industry 5.0, Hitachi executives discussed Hitachi Digital Services’ overall AI strategy and noted the confluence of human and AI collaboration aided by AI agents.

 

In TBR’s view, the consistent undercurrent of engineering and R&D separates Hitachi Digital Services from peers in the IT services and consulting space, in part because of the credibility behind Hitachi’s “engineering first” assertion. Any company can say it has engineering capabilities; Hitachi builds railcars.

Domain expertise and organizational intelligence needed for broader AI adoption and agentic AI

Regarding AI, leaders at Hitachi Digital Services emphasized that effective AI begins with deep knowledge. Hitachi brings a strong foundation in business, operations, design, manufacturing and maintenance — an extensive base of expertise that it leverages to power its AI initiatives. In short, Hitachi Digital Services professionals argued they have more robust intelligence to feed into AI models and algorithms than most peers. Hitachi leaders also highlighted the company’s focus on organizational intelligence and its long-standing capabilities around “capturing the intelligence of complex organizations.”

 

In TBR’s view, Hitachi’s only complex organization likely provides a useful starting point for understanding the applicability of AI in organizational intelligence. Regarding agentic AI, Hitachi Digital Services leaders said AI agents must be specific to a domain, such as industrial AI, engineering AI or cybersecurity AI — an assertion that plays to Hitachi’s strengths. They also expect agentic AI adoption will accelerate in 2026, particularly around process and application modernization. One Hitachi Digital Services leader anticipated a shift from “minimum viable product” to “minimum viable agent,” a neat turn of phrase that might indicate both a shift toward a more consulting-focused mindset and internal pressures to deploy more AI-enabled assets. TBR notes that every one of Hitachi Digital Services’ competitors is working through those same shifts.

Mission-critical IT + OT + AI

In TBR’s view, Hitachi Digital Services’ ability to lean on the broader Hitachi company’s engineering expertise and real-world physical assets provides Hitachi Digital Services with clear separation from peers in the IT services space. If Hitachi Digital Services can deliver results in mission-critical — and constantly moving — settings, such as railway operations, clients in less dynamic environments can be assured of its capabilities.

Hitachi leaders noted shifts in the broader IT and OT spaces, such as the greater attention being paid to cybersecurity risks in OT and CFOs being generally more aware of the costs of funding fully separate IT and OT systems, which TBR believes may accelerate IT-OT convergence. Complemented by AI and infused with domain expertise, Hitachi Digital Services, in TBR’s view, should maintain a clearly differentiated position within the digital transformation and IT services space.

 

As a potential partner for large ISVs and cloud hyperscalers, Hitachi Digital Services’ combination of IT, OT and AI capabilities provides easily understandable differentiation. For large enterprises in Hitachi Digital Services’ target industries, Hitachi’s track record in mission-critical environments and the company’s sustained R&D and innovation create a compelling value proposition.

 

TBR will be more closely tracking Hitachi Digital Services’ evolution, particularly as IT-OT convergence accelerates and Hitachi Digital Services’ role in the broader ecosystem grows.