It’s the 13th anniversary of IT in the D!

Andy Saldaña, founder and CEO of Denovo Studios, is this week’s guest. He here to discuss the use of AI at small and mid-size manufacturers. First, we talk about the what the businesses lack—usually it’s the time, money, and/or expertise required to build or refine their processes. We also talk about the challenges that these businesses need to overcome to implement AI successfully.

This week, we welcome Adam Youngblood, AI strategist, to discuss how AI and agentic AI are becoming pervasive, why early “super Google” use is giving way to assistants that perform work, and how non-technical users can start by asking AI questions when they don’t know where to begin.

The conversation covers Claude (including Cowork) for research, costing, and spreadsheet creation; the lack of effective onboarding and growing privacy concerns; and frustration with AI bots conducting first-round job interviews. Adam describes agentic tools like OpenClaw and emerging offerings from Google, Amazon, and others, plus practical business opportunities (reducing waste, after-hours call handling, predictive maintenance, and camera-based visual inspection), while also addressing job displacement, data center power/water demands, and calls for ethics and guardrails.

Bob’s coworker Rayfield Johnson, US Data & AI Leader at Avanade, joins us to discuss all things data. He’s been in the industry for almost two decades, so he has a lot of insight into the data landscape. We explore how data moved from basic BI to a foundation for AI, emphasizing the need for trusted, governed data before advanced AI initiatives succeed. The conversation highlights manufacturing-focused applications such as quality improvements using IoT/streaming data, mixing IT and OT machine data, safety monitoring with sensors and alerts, and more proactive “agent” experiences that provide recommendations without user prompts. We also cover capturing veteran plant-floor expertise to address workforce turnover, plus vendor delay prediction and supply planning, and briefly touch on automation trends like lights-out factories and self-driving Waymo rides.