Congratulations! Your Plant Has Been Selected for Digital Transformation.
A successful pilot doesn’t automatically travel well, especially when the next plant learns about its digital transformation through a calendar invitation. Scaling smart manufacturing requires local ownership, workforce involvement, and a clear understanding of what made the original pilot succeed.
IT/OT Convergence Is Not One Thing
IT/OT convergence can mean anything from connecting systems to reorganizing departments, which makes agreeing on it suspiciously easy. Inspired by The IT/OT Handbook, I explore eight common operating patterns, how they fit together, and why the right arrangement depends on the work you’re actually trying to get done.
Why AI Transformation Gets Stuck in Old Ways of Working
Everyone wants AI to transform the business, preferably without changing how anyone runs it. A rocket tied to an anchor got me thinking about the processes, incentives, and personal attachments we expect technology to somehow overcome.
AI Has Made it Much Easier to be Wrong at Scale
AI can now give your worst idea unlimited energy, perfect grammar, and a polished implementation plan. As producing convincing work becomes almost effortless, human judgment may become the most valuable expertise of all.
The Law of Conserved Indecision
We’ve taught technology to deliver answers in seconds, then built organizations that need three meetings to decide what to do with them. Meet the Law of Conserved Indecision, and discover why unlocking AI’s productivity gains requires rethinking who gets to decide, what requires approval, and why everyone else is still on the invite.
The AI Map Nobody Really Agrees On
AI categories sound clean until you try to attempt to draw them. This article explores how Consumer AI, Enterprise AI, Generative AI, Agentic AI, Traditional ML, Industrial AI, and Physical AI actually overlap, and why the messy spaces between them may matter more than the labels themselves.
Is Industry 4.0 working?
For more than a decade, manufacturers have invested heavily in the technologies of Industry 4.0, yet U.S. manufacturing productivity has barely moved. So is Industry 4.0 actually working, or are we measuring its impact in the wrong way?
Everything Matters. That’s the Problem.
Companies rarely struggle because they lack good ideas. They struggle because everything becomes a priority, and real strategy requires the discipline to decide what gets attention, what gets delayed, and what disappears entirely.
What Industry 4.0 Scale Actually Requires
A successful pilot proves that the technology can work. Scaling it requires something far more difficult: a dependable operating system of data, context, decisions, workflows, and standards that can survive different people, equipment, shifts, and plants.
Where AI Is Really Taking Hold Across the United States
AI may be accessible everywhere, but the talent, infrastructure, research capacity, and business readiness required to create real value remain highly concentrated. This article explores which U.S. states appear best positioned to lead, why Texas is close to the top tier, and where the map could shift next.
When Will Technology Actually Matter? The Two Clocks of Industrial Innovation
Technology impact depends on two clocks: when a technology becomes viable and when a company completes the prerequisites needed to use it. Reflecting on the WEF Intelligent Industrial Operations Outlook 2026, I explore where the timelines may be right, which technologies I would move and why the same future will arrive at very different times for different companies.
The Architecture Diagram Nobody Wants to Draw
Technical debt is rarely just an old system or outdated technology. It is the hidden architectural complexity that makes every new project slower, harder, and more expensive than it should be.
Everyone Wants the Last Domino
Everyone wants autonomous operations, intelligent agents, and self-optimizing factories. But industrial AI success does not begin with the last domino; it is built by standing up every capability that makes it possible.
Everyone Has a Strategy. Until You Ask What It Is.
“Strategy” may be one of the most used and least understood words in business. This article explores why companies so often confuse strategy with planning, how that creates misalignment, and why good strategy may be one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost investments a company can make.
What Matters Most When Scaling AI in 2026
The hardest part of scaling AI is not deciding what matters, it is diagnosing what matters most right now.
Why AI Strategy Feels Like the World’s Hardest Escape Room
AI strategy feels a lot like an escape room: everyone walks in confident, the clues are scattered across departments, the clock is ticking, and suddenly the hardest part is not the technology but figuring out how the business actually gets out.
The AI Boom Is Producing a Very Expensive Illusion
Most companies are racing to buy AI like it’s a magic vending machine, then acting surprised when the real value is stuck behind bad data, slow systems, messy processes, and the small inconvenience of organizational reality.
AI Will Not Save Broken Operations
Most companies are trying to build an AI-powered future on top of operations that still run like a group project held together by spreadsheets, workarounds, and the one employee everyone is afraid to let retire.
Automation Vs. Agency Vs Autonomy
There is a massive structural difference between a system that executes a rule and one that chooses a path, and mixing them up is an expensive mistake.
Why the Words Matter More Than People Think
The search bar may be telling us something: people still want the vision, but they are increasingly searching for the work.