Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast How To Realize The Full Potential Of Connected Worker Solutions In The AI Era (Smart Industry)
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Oct 13, 2026 Inderpreet Shoker, research director at ARC Advisory Group, explores how connected worker solutions can reach their full potential. She discusses customizing tools for plant workflows, preparing people and data, and building trust in industrial AI. The conversation also covers agentic AI, scaling pilots across sites, system integration, frontline involvement, and continuous improvement.
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Connected Worker Tools Need Plant-Specific Design
- Connected-worker vendors provide capabilities, not finished solutions; plants must customize workflows, integrations, security, and operating context.
- IT typically handles architecture and cybersecurity, while OT supplies procedures, safety requirements, and plant knowledge.
Start With Problems Before Choosing Technology
- Start with operational problems, not technology, and involve operators, technicians, supervisors, and subject-matter experts early.
- Clean procedures, asset names, tags, links, and duplicate records, but do not wait for perfect data before beginning.
AI Needs Contextualized Operational Data
- AI requires more than clean data; it needs operational context about equipment conditions, past events, and prior solutions.
- Context lets AI produce meaningful recommendations instead of disconnected search results.