AI in Manufacturing:
What’s Possible and What’s Missing
An AI conversation that cuts through the hype to focus on what actually matters in industrial environments. Starting with the outcomes that leaders, engineers, and operators truly want, the conversation works backward to the foundations required to get there. The panel explores why AI often falls short, the role of context, knowledge, and culture, and what organizations should focus on now to turn AI from a promise into a practical, repeatable capability.
What you’ll leave with
This is a practical, outcomes-first discussion. We’ll start with what manufacturing organizations actually want AI to do, then work backward to what has to be true for it to work reliably.
- Outcomes that matter: quality, throughput, uptime, safety, energy, and responsiveness
- Why AI initiatives stall: missing context, weak ownership, and brittle data foundations
- Context & knowledge: how teams encode reality so AI can operate with confidence
- Culture & trust: adoption, accountability, and “who owns the decision”
- What to focus on now: the smallest foundations that unlock repeatable capability
Speakers
Zach Etier is the Vice President of Architecture at Flow Software, where he helps to define the technical strategy and design of the company's industrial data platform. His work spans architectural strategy for industrial data, breaking down data silos across systems, and driving the application of AI and Agents. Prior to Flow, Zach worked as an Enterprise Architect for manufacturing, giving him a grounded understanding of the unique needs of end users. Outside of Flow, Zach is deeply involved in the AI Agent space and passionate around context and prompt engineering.
Mark Freedman comes from a background in manufacturing and has spent nearly two decades working alongside frontline operations teams on the shop floor. He believes execution improves not through determination or automation alone, but by seeing the problem as it really is—through the perspective of the people living it every day.
Throughout his career, Mark has viewed technology as a powerful problem-solving tool. Beginning with ERPs, Excel, and Access, he learned early how information systems could create meaningful leverage in operations. This path led him to become an early team member at Tulip Interfaces, where he worked closely with manufacturers to improve execution and visibility. Last year, he presented at Prove It on behalf of Tulip.
In 2025, Mark saw a fundamental shift emerging with agentic AI and chose to pursue it independently. He is now the founder of Make Yourself AI, an agentic execution system designed to capture and scale the judgment, context, and wisdom of operations professionals he has spent his career learning from and serving.
Sam Elsner is the Vice President of Product Experience at Litmus, where he works across teams to build alignment between users and products. Sam is an industrial systems integration expert and for many years directed Kepware’s technical consulting team. Over two decades in big data and industrial tech he has supported thousands of people and systems, managed global engineering teams and customer relationships, designed and delivered training programs, webcasts and seminars, authored blogs, articles, and technical guides, and regularly joins panel discussions and other industry events. Sam holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Maine.
Magnus McCune is Vice President, Product Strategy & Incubation at HiveMQ. He is a passionate technologist with a proven background solving complex business and technical challenges through the design, implementation and operationalization of cloud and edge technologies. His expertise extends to network, cloud, & infrastructure architecture, cloud-native solutions design and large-scale automation projects.
Walker Reynolds is the President and Solution Architect of 4.0 Solutions. His career spans more than 25 years with time spent in Mining, Steel, Printing, and Tier 1 Automotive industries prior to transitioning into systems integration. All those years on the plant floor with operators, supervisors, management teams, project and safety coordinators, and the like, taught Walker valuable lessons that he carried with him into architecting solutions as an outside consultant. Walker manages every aspect of his life with a few key principles in mind: authenticity, expertise, humility, servant leadership, and transparency. At his core, he wishes to serve the manufacturing community be leveraging his knowledge and partners.
Jeff Knepper is the President of Flow Software, where he oversees company strategy, sales execution, marketing alignment, and day to day operations. His background spans sales leadership, marketing, product oversight, and deep experience working with time series data in industrial and operational environments.
Throughout his career, Jeff has focused on bridging the gap between technical systems and the people who rely on them. He has worked closely with manufacturers, engineers, system integrators, and data teams to help turn raw operational data into reliable, usable information.
At the core of his work is a passion for community building and helping people find clarity, purpose, and connection. Outside of work, Jeff enjoys reading, primitive camping and forestry management, and serving others by helping them discover their mission and worth, grounded in Christian fundamentals centered on stewardship, mentorship, and service.
