Persona AI Partners with Louisiana to Pilot Humanoid Robots in Heavy Industry

New updates have been reported about Persona AI.

Persona AI has secured a strategically important Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Louisiana to run a pilot deployment of its humanoid robots in active heavy-industry operations, positioning the Houston-based startup for early, real-world validation of its technology in a key industrial region. The pilot, hosted at SSE Steel Fabrication’s large-scale facility in St. Bernard Parish and facilitated by Louisiana Innovation and Greater New Orleans, Inc., will test Persona AI’s forthcoming rugged humanoid platforms in an operational steel manufacturing environment that closely mirrors target use cases such as shipbuilding and advanced fabrication. Persona AI will collect detailed data on human movement, workflows, and task execution on the shop floor to refine how its robots perceive, move, and collaborate with skilled tradespeople in complex, non-linear environments that are poorly suited to traditional fixed automation. CEO Nicolaus Radford framed the agreement as a way to accelerate commercialization by developing and hardening the technology in “one of the most industrially relevant regions in the country,” while aligning with Louisiana’s investment push to rebuild domestic heavy manufacturing and shipbuilding capacity.

The pilot is designed to prepare humanoid welding robots for future deployment in fabrication and shipyards, directly targeting Persona AI’s core market thesis around “4D jobs” – work that is dull, dirty, dangerous, and declining in available labor. By enabling robots to operate in facilities built for humans, use existing tools, navigate uneven terrain, and adapt to changing conditions, Persona AI aims to address persistent labor shortages and safety challenges in sectors such as steel fabrication, maritime, energy, and infrastructure. The program is expected to generate operational learnings that will influence product design, deployment models, safety frameworks, and workforce-integration strategies, with an emphasis on shifting human workers into higher-value roles like supervision, quality assurance, and robot operations. For Persona AI, founded in 2024 by veterans of space and deep-ocean robotics, this pilot serves as a foundational reference project that could underpin future scale-up across Louisiana’s core industries and beyond, and supports Louisiana’s ambition to become a national proving ground for embodied AI and next-generation industrial work, potentially catalyzing future commercial contracts, public-private partnerships, and investment in humanoid robotics.