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Agentic AI Isn’t the Future. It’s the Line Between Winners and Laggards
Automotive manufacturing leaders have no shortage of data, but only those who turn it into action are winning, and AI is the accelerator.
In this milestone episode, Jan Griffiths is joined by Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of QAD, and Dr. Bryan Reimer, MIT Research Scientist and author of How to Make AI Useful, for a grounded conversation about how AI is creating real advantage in automotive manufacturing.
The challenge facing automotive manufacturing leaders is not visibility. Leaders know where problems exist. The issue is that action often stalls between insight and execution. Dashboards explain what happened. They do not decide what happens next.
Sanjay and Bryan draw a clear distinction between systems of record and systems of action. Systems of record observe. Systems of action decide, execute, and learn. Agentic AI belongs in the second category. It creates value when it removes friction from work, accelerates routine decisions, and gives people better context at the moment action is required.
Frontline teams in automotive manufacturing do not resist AI. They adopt it when it respects their expertise and helps them do their jobs better. Adoption follows usefulness, not mandates. When AI amplifies human judgment instead of supervising it, execution speed improves and results follow.
This episode challenges automotive manufacturing leaders to stop treating AI as a reporting layer and start using it as an execution engine. The organizations pulling ahead are not waiting for perfect conditions. They are starting small, learning fast, and letting action build confidence.
Themes Discussed in this episode:
- Why data visibility alone does not drive performance in automotive manufacturing
- Systems of record vs systems of action
- How AI removes friction from automotive manufacturing operations
- Frontline-first AI adoption in plants
- Agentic AI as an execution multiplier
- Leadership ownership of decisions
- Building momentum with 60 to 90-day wins
Featured Guests:
Name: Sanjay Brahmawar
Title: CEO of QAD
About: Sanjay Brahmawar is the CEO of QAD, a cloud software company delivering cloud-based solutions for manufacturers and global supply chains. With more than two decades of experience leading global technology businesses, he brings deep expertise in digital transformation, AI, IoT, and data-driven platforms, built through senior leadership roles at IBM and Software AG.
Connect: LinkedIn
Name: Dr. Bryan Reimer
About: Dr. Bryan Reimer is a Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and a key member of the MIT AgeLab. He is also the author of How to Make AI Useful: Moving beyond the hype to real progress in business, society and life. His work focuses on how drivers behave in an increasingly automated world, using a combination of psychology, big data, and real-world testing to study attention, distraction, and human interaction with vehicle technology. He leads three major academic-industry consortia that are developing new tools to measure driver attention, evaluate how people use advanced driving systems, and improve in-vehicle information design, thereby guiding automakers and policymakers toward safer, human-centered mobility solutions.
Connect: LinkedIn
Jan Griffiths is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast, and is recognized as the Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan focuses on leadership, culture, and execution, bringing practical, real-world conversations to the forefront of industry change.
Mentioned in this episode:
- QAD Champion AI
- How to Make AI Useful: Moving beyond the hype to real progress in business, society, and life
Episode Highlights:
[03:16] Data Isn’t Enough: Automotive manufacturers often have abundant data, but without ownership, trust, and decisive follow-through, insights fail to drive real results.
[06:28] Trust Through Action: Leaders in manufacturing must embrace experimentation and small steps, because confidence in AI and new systems grows only when action precedes certainty.
[10:53] 90-Day Mindset: Transformative leadership in manufacturing means challenging norms, leveraging AI, and rallying teams to achieve ambitious goals in record time.
[15:20] Sandbox Leadership: Automotive leaders stall by overthinking and seeking perfect solutions, while real progress comes from small experiments, empowering teams, and proving concepts before scaling.
[19:53] Manufacturing Love: Sanjay’s passion comes from his shop floor roots and belief that AI and modern tools can empower people, attract talent, and transform the future of manufacturing.
[22:20] Process Passion: Bryan’s focus is optimizing workflows, amplifying teams with AI, and shifting the narrative from fear to the positive impact of technology in manufacturing.
[24:46] Start Small, Win Big: Leaders can kick off AI adoption with role-based agents, targeted problem-solving, and rapid implementation to achieve meaningful 60–90 day wins.
[28:06] Empower to Optimize: True AI adoption starts by giving teams low-risk space to experiment, share insights, and amplify their work while leadership fosters trust and transparency.
Top Quotes:
[03:42] Sanjay: “Manufacturers are very good at dashboards. But dashboards they explain yesterday. They don't decide what happens next. And when no one owns the next move, any kind of insight just sits there and it will just wait. That’s the core difference between a system of record, where you store and you record and you have data to a system of action. While the system of record observes; a system of action actually decides, executes and learns.”
[16:11] Sanjay: “Champion AI doesn't supervise the operators, it amplifies them. Gives them early signals, better context. Allows them to execute faster. People trust automation when it respects their expertise.
[16:31] Sanjay: “Adoption always follows usefulness, not mandates. You tell somebody you have to use AI; that's not the way it's gonna work. You've gotta create and show them the usefulness. And I think then it's not a change management problem.”
[23:43] Dr. Reimer: “We are going to blame a lot of layoffs on AI, and that is gonna drive more fear into the market. And I think that's something that we need to move away from. We need to look at the power of AI to amplify, and we need to be honest with ourselves when we need to do workforce reductions. It's not because of AI most of the time. It's really because of other processes or other business outcomes that we need to be more transparent with.”
[31:27] Sanjay: “I firmly believe Agentic AI and AI is not about replacing people. It's actually about augmenting, empowering. It's about elevating the human judgment when it matters the most. I think there's so much potential here.”
Follow the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast for more real discussions with leaders who are moving from insight to action and learning by doing.
And if you want to see how these ideas are being applied in manufacturing today, explore how QAD is helping teams remove friction, accelerate decisions, and turn AI into an execution advantage.
🎧 Follow the podcast: https://autosupplychainprophets.com/
🔗 Learn more about QAD: https://www.qad.com/
View all episodes
By QAD | Redzone
5
99 ratings
Automotive manufacturing leaders have no shortage of data, but only those who turn it into action are winning, and AI is the accelerator.
In this milestone episode, Jan Griffiths is joined by Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of QAD, and Dr. Bryan Reimer, MIT Research Scientist and author of How to Make AI Useful, for a grounded conversation about how AI is creating real advantage in automotive manufacturing.
The challenge facing automotive manufacturing leaders is not visibility. Leaders know where problems exist. The issue is that action often stalls between insight and execution. Dashboards explain what happened. They do not decide what happens next.
Sanjay and Bryan draw a clear distinction between systems of record and systems of action. Systems of record observe. Systems of action decide, execute, and learn. Agentic AI belongs in the second category. It creates value when it removes friction from work, accelerates routine decisions, and gives people better context at the moment action is required.
Frontline teams in automotive manufacturing do not resist AI. They adopt it when it respects their expertise and helps them do their jobs better. Adoption follows usefulness, not mandates. When AI amplifies human judgment instead of supervising it, execution speed improves and results follow.
This episode challenges automotive manufacturing leaders to stop treating AI as a reporting layer and start using it as an execution engine. The organizations pulling ahead are not waiting for perfect conditions. They are starting small, learning fast, and letting action build confidence.
Themes Discussed in this episode:
- Why data visibility alone does not drive performance in automotive manufacturing
- Systems of record vs systems of action
- How AI removes friction from automotive manufacturing operations
- Frontline-first AI adoption in plants
- Agentic AI as an execution multiplier
- Leadership ownership of decisions
- Building momentum with 60 to 90-day wins
Featured Guests:
Name: Sanjay Brahmawar
Title: CEO of QAD
About: Sanjay Brahmawar is the CEO of QAD, a cloud software company delivering cloud-based solutions for manufacturers and global supply chains. With more than two decades of experience leading global technology businesses, he brings deep expertise in digital transformation, AI, IoT, and data-driven platforms, built through senior leadership roles at IBM and Software AG.
Connect: LinkedIn
Name: Dr. Bryan Reimer
About: Dr. Bryan Reimer is a Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and a key member of the MIT AgeLab. He is also the author of How to Make AI Useful: Moving beyond the hype to real progress in business, society and life. His work focuses on how drivers behave in an increasingly automated world, using a combination of psychology, big data, and real-world testing to study attention, distraction, and human interaction with vehicle technology. He leads three major academic-industry consortia that are developing new tools to measure driver attention, evaluate how people use advanced driving systems, and improve in-vehicle information design, thereby guiding automakers and policymakers toward safer, human-centered mobility solutions.
Connect: LinkedIn
Jan Griffiths is the host and producer of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets podcast and The Automotive Leaders Podcast, and is recognized as the Champion for Culture Change in the automotive industry. A former automotive manufacturing and supply chain executive, Jan focuses on leadership, culture, and execution, bringing practical, real-world conversations to the forefront of industry change.
Mentioned in this episode:
- QAD Champion AI
- How to Make AI Useful: Moving beyond the hype to real progress in business, society, and life
Episode Highlights:
[03:16] Data Isn’t Enough: Automotive manufacturers often have abundant data, but without ownership, trust, and decisive follow-through, insights fail to drive real results.
[06:28] Trust Through Action: Leaders in manufacturing must embrace experimentation and small steps, because confidence in AI and new systems grows only when action precedes certainty.
[10:53] 90-Day Mindset: Transformative leadership in manufacturing means challenging norms, leveraging AI, and rallying teams to achieve ambitious goals in record time.
[15:20] Sandbox Leadership: Automotive leaders stall by overthinking and seeking perfect solutions, while real progress comes from small experiments, empowering teams, and proving concepts before scaling.
[19:53] Manufacturing Love: Sanjay’s passion comes from his shop floor roots and belief that AI and modern tools can empower people, attract talent, and transform the future of manufacturing.
[22:20] Process Passion: Bryan’s focus is optimizing workflows, amplifying teams with AI, and shifting the narrative from fear to the positive impact of technology in manufacturing.
[24:46] Start Small, Win Big: Leaders can kick off AI adoption with role-based agents, targeted problem-solving, and rapid implementation to achieve meaningful 60–90 day wins.
[28:06] Empower to Optimize: True AI adoption starts by giving teams low-risk space to experiment, share insights, and amplify their work while leadership fosters trust and transparency.
Top Quotes:
[03:42] Sanjay: “Manufacturers are very good at dashboards. But dashboards they explain yesterday. They don't decide what happens next. And when no one owns the next move, any kind of insight just sits there and it will just wait. That’s the core difference between a system of record, where you store and you record and you have data to a system of action. While the system of record observes; a system of action actually decides, executes and learns.”
[16:11] Sanjay: “Champion AI doesn't supervise the operators, it amplifies them. Gives them early signals, better context. Allows them to execute faster. People trust automation when it respects their expertise.
[16:31] Sanjay: “Adoption always follows usefulness, not mandates. You tell somebody you have to use AI; that's not the way it's gonna work. You've gotta create and show them the usefulness. And I think then it's not a change management problem.”
[23:43] Dr. Reimer: “We are going to blame a lot of layoffs on AI, and that is gonna drive more fear into the market. And I think that's something that we need to move away from. We need to look at the power of AI to amplify, and we need to be honest with ourselves when we need to do workforce reductions. It's not because of AI most of the time. It's really because of other processes or other business outcomes that we need to be more transparent with.”
[31:27] Sanjay: “I firmly believe Agentic AI and AI is not about replacing people. It's actually about augmenting, empowering. It's about elevating the human judgment when it matters the most. I think there's so much potential here.”
Follow the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast for more real discussions with leaders who are moving from insight to action and learning by doing.
And if you want to see how these ideas are being applied in manufacturing today, explore how QAD is helping teams remove friction, accelerate decisions, and turn AI into an execution advantage.
🎧 Follow the podcast: https://autosupplychainprophets.com/
🔗 Learn more about QAD: https://www.qad.com/