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How can OEMs retain customers beyond warranty, protect service revenue and grow their margins? Customers are increasingly looking beyond the OEM channel after warranty for multiple reasons including the rising cost of service parts and labor, or the ripple effects from ‘right to repair’ regulations. In this context, the ability to understand and contractually adapt to the customers’ perception of value as well as the speed to confidently provide a risk-based quote can be the critical differentiators for customer retention, predictable revenue and healthy margins. But operationalizing these concepts is anything but simple. Join us on Thursday, August 20th at 12pm ET for the next episode of the inService Podcast Live. Host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. will sit down with Ben Groeneveld, Industry Principal at Syncron, to explore how leading manufacturers are moving from estimating transactional service costs to predicting and shaping contract profitability over the asset’s lifecycle. We’ll look at how a better use of trusted data, smarter risk modeling, and more flexible contract design can help manufacturers price their agreements with greater confidence, respond faster to customer needs, and unlock more profitable service growth. Ben Groeneveld is a supply chain and aftermarket strategist with more than 20 years of OEM and enterprise software experience. As an Industry Principal at Syncron, he partners with manufacturers, dealers, & distributors to strengthen service parts performance, modernize legacy environments, and unlock profitable aftermarket growth. Previously, Ben has held multiple positions in parts organizations at two OEMs including leading dealer inventory optimization & collaboration initiatives. He holds CSCP and CPIM certifications and specializes in turning operational complexity into measurable margin impact.

The next competitive advantage in service won't come from having more AI. It will come from delivering the right guidance to the right person at the right moment. Join us on Thursday, August 13th at 12pm ET for the next episode of the inService Podcast Live. Host John Carroll will sit down with Tavant's SVP of Manufacturing, Roshan Pinto, to explore why “adaptive guidance” is emerging as the next service model. Whether it’s supporting a field technician, providing guidance for complex warranty claims, or navigating alternate parts inventory, AI becomes more valuable when it adapts to the person, not the other way around. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all platforms, service organizations are beginning to use AI to connect existing systems and business knowledge into purpose-built solutions that deliver value faster. Join us as we explore why adaptive guidance may represent the next operating model for AI in service and how designing technology around people could redefine the future of service operations.

AI is increasingly demonstrating it can improve efficiency, with a third of respondents to the 2026 State of AI and Service Technology survey saying they are ‘already experiencing significant benefits’. Going further, what happens when organizations stop thinking about AI as a tool and start treating it as a teammate that makes them better? Join us on Thursday, August 6th at 12pm ET for the next episode of the inService Podcast Live. Host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. Pelayo will sit down with Neuron7.ai Founder and CEO, Niken Patel, to explore the rise of industry-specific AI agents, and why organizations will gain the most by thinking big rather than settling for incremental improvements. Together, they discuss how agentic AI is transforming service with teammates that make field technicians, remote support engineers, and service leaders superhuman. Niken will spotlight Neuron7's agent library, where agents come prebuilt for specific industries, and its low-code/no-code Agent Builder. From compliance and parts ordering to sales quotations and customer retention, these agents unlock new ways to build trust in AI, improve productivity, and drive growth. The discussion will also look ahead to predictive service, where getting ahead of failures unlocks a higher tier of ROI than resolution alone, and why organizations that go bold today will shape the future of service, not catch up to it.

AI is everywhere, but how do service organizations move beyond capabilities-centric and right-fit conversations and towards a focus on quickly achieving measurable business results? Reframing the conversation as decision intelligence is a subtle, yet powerful lever. If you’re evaluating AI investments for service, you’ll want to tune into our next episode of the inService Podcast. We’ll be delving into how organizations are connecting and integrating tribal knowledge, service history, parts, and warranty data to increase the confidence, scope and speed of actionable intelligence. Join us as host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. welcomes Edward Krzysik, MBA, VP of Customer Success & Value, Circuitry.ai, to the podcast studio. We’ll look at how AI-powered decision support can help organizations improve their frontline’s experience and retain talent, while improving on measurable operational and financial results such as increased technician productivity or driving market share growth. Edward will also offer practical insights into where to start and how to maximize impact. Edward Krzysik brings more than 24 years of experience leading enterprise adoption of AI, augmented reality, and remote expertise solutions that modernize service operations and improve measurable outcomes. Prior to joining Circuitry.ai, Edward served as Vice President of Client Strategy at Help Lightning and held senior leadership roles at Xerox and RICOH, where he pioneered remote-resolution models and scaled large field service organizations. He has been recognized for innovation in remote service delivery, including receiving the CIO Top 100 Solutions Award. At Circuitry.ai, Edward leads Customer Success & Value, ensuring customers define, realize, and expand measurable ROI from Service Decision Intelligence.

Every service leader knows modernization is important—but when budgets are tight, priorities are competing, and new technologies seem to emerge every week, how do you know what deserves your attention first? More importantly, how do you distinguish between investments that simply solve today's problems and those that create long-term business value? Join us as we welcome Pyxtech CEO and Founder, Pulin Kumar to the podcast studio. Together, we'll explore why leading organizations are shifting from pain-driven modernization to opportunity-driven transformation: building trusted data foundations, connected intelligence, and scalable workflows that not only improve operations today but also position the business to capitalize on AI and future innovation. Drawing on industry research and real-world examples, we'll discuss how service leaders can prioritize investments, avoid costly modernization missteps, and build the confidence needed to turn modernization into a true driver of growth and competitive advantage. Pulin Kumar is Co-Founder and CEO of PyxTech, where he is helping define the AI-driven intelligence layer for the secondary IT asset ecosystem. With more than 20 years of experience spanning technology, supply chain, finance, and business transformation, Pulin has led large-scale initiatives, built global teams, and partnered with Fortune 500 organizations to drive measurable business outcomes. Beginning his career as a software developer and later earning an MBA in Finance, he developed a passion for solving complex business challenges through data, automation, and intelligent system design. Today, he helps organizations unlock greater value from their technology investments by improving decision-making, operational efficiency, and AI readiness.

For decades, service leaders were measured primarily on operational execution, such as managing technicians, controlling costs, and getting customers back up and running. Today, that mandate is fundamentally changing. As the scope of service becomes increasingly tied to revenue growth, customer retention, workforce strategy, and business profitability, service leaders are finding themselves responsible for far more than service delivery. They’re being expected to influence commercial outcomes, drive productivity at scale, preserve critical expertise, justify technological investments and ensuring their adoption and translation into tangible business outcomes.Join us as we welcome Tas Hirani, Global Director of Enablement, Aquant to the studio. We’ll address the ways in which the evolution of service has significantly expanded or reprioritized the role of service leaders, and discuss three critical actions service leaders must take to succeed in this new era of service leadership. Drawing on more than a decade of experience working with service organizations worldwide, Tas shares practical insights on how today's leaders can evolve from operational managers into strategic business leaders.

Traditional training models are struggling to keep pace with modern service demands. Service environments are growing more complex, and asset sophistication continues to rise, while organizations are facing mounting pressure to prepare technicians faster without sacrificing quality, safety, or customer experience. At the same time, experienced workers are retiring, workforce expectations are evolving, and frontline teams are being asked to solve more advanced problems earlier in their careers. Join us as we welcome Leila Rookstool, Senior Industry Advisor – Commercial for ServiceTitan to the studio. Together, we’ll examine how AI-powered guidance, diagnostics, and knowledge access are helping organizations accelerate onboarding, shorten training timelines, and enable technicians to troubleshoot and resolve issues with greater speed and confidence. The discussion will also explore the evolving role of the technician in the AI era, including how organizations can support continuous learning, improve technician engagement, and create career paths that encourage long-term retention. Leila Rookstool is a Senior Industry Advisor, Commercial, with more than 13 years of experience helping service organizations modernize operations, scale growth, and strengthen commercial service execution. A fourth-generation trades professional, Leila combines deep industry roots with expertise in end-to-end commercial service workflows, service sales strategy, estimating, and service innovation. Her career includes leadership roles within a Comfort Systems USA subsidiary and later at the corporate level, where she supported enterprise-wide service growth and technology adoption initiatives before serving as Vice President of Sales and Service for the Southeast region, overseeing organizations representing approximately $250 million in annual service revenue. She later transitioned into consulting, helping contractors align technology strategy with operational performance, before joining ServiceTitan, where she now advises contractors on scaling service operations with confidence.

What happens when critical service expertise exists only in the minds of a few veteran technicians? As experienced workers retire and service complexity increases, organizations are struggling to scale expertise across the workforce fast enough to meet rising service demands. Join us for the next inService Podcast Live as Service Council research and real-world examples reveal how video intelligence is emerging as a powerful new layer in AI-driven service operations — helping organizations capture expert knowledge, transform it into scalable visual intelligence, and make it accessible across the enterprise. Thomas Cottereau, CEO of SightCall, joins host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. to discuss how service organizations are evolving beyond basic remote assistance and using video to operationalize expertise at scale. From ride-alongs and technician training to AI-generated tutorials, contextual guidance, and accelerated onboarding, the conversation will explore how organizations are reducing the skills gap while creating faster, more scalable paths to service excellence.

What does it take to become the benchmark in service? Join us on Thursday, May 7th at 10am EST, as we welcome Emrah Ercan, VP of Service – North America at Hitachi Energy. He’ll share his firsthand experience transforming a traditionally reactive service organization into a proactive, digitally enabled lifecycle partner. Drawing on lessons from the field, he unpacks the critical elements behind that shift - aligning people, process, platform, and parts, all anchored by a clear sense of purpose. If you're a service leader aiming for step-change, this episode offers a grounded, experience-driven look at what it really takes to get there. Emrah Ercan is Vice President of Service North America at Hitachi, with more than two decades of executive leadership experience across global industrial technology and services organizations. He specializes in building and scaling service businesses across large installed bases, combining field execution, commercial discipline, and digital enablement to improve asset reliability, availability, and lifecycle economics. As a global P&L leader, he has driven profitable growth, margin expansion, and international scaling while maintaining strong performance in reliability, quality, and safety. He specializes in the development of high-performing teams and service-led cultures.

What happens when executive leadership steps out of the office and into the field? Gaining firsthand insight into the day-to-day realities of field technicians is essential to ensuring that strategy, technology, and execution are aligned where it matters most. Patrycja Sobera, SVP and GM, Digital Workplace Solutions at Unisys, shares first-hand insights from her own ride-along experience with a field technician. Together, we’ll unpack how frontline realities shape the success of tech investments, AI adoption, and service innovation. From the unexpected challenges onsite to redefining the role of the modern field engineer, this conversation highlights the critical importance of designing service strategies with the frontline, not just for them. We hope you’ll tune in to watch and share your own ride-along experiences and lessons learned with us! Patrycja Sobera is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Workplace Solutions at Unisys, where she leads teams focused on modern, user-centric technology experiences that drive client success. An award-winning service delivery expert and recognized thought leader in Experience Level Agreement (XLA) delivery, she has over 20 years of experience transforming technology services across industries including banking, capital markets, and telecommunications. She was named one of HDI’s Top 25 Thought Leaders of 2024 and holds a Master’s degree in Modern Languages and French Literature from the University of Wroclaw.

Service Council’s research has found that the drivers behind AI adoption are much more complex than many service organizations expect. While it’s common to point to generational differences as the reason for how people engage with new technology, the reality is far more nuanced.Join us on Thursday, April 16th at 12pm EST, as we break down what really drives AI adoption. We’ll hear from Adi Frenkenberg, Senior Customer Success Manager at Aquant, who brings her expertise in organizational behavior and AI to help unpack what’s influencing adoption. We’ll also share insights from our Voice of the Frontline research, which looks at the role of culture and the key touchpoints across the employee experience.Don’t miss this deep dive into the behavioral drivers and roadblocks shaping AI adoption in service, and how factors like culture, team structure, and organizational maturity influence what it takes to move from pilot to impact.Adi Frenkenberg is Senior Customer Success Manager at Aquant, where she helps enterprises in manufacturing, medical devices, and heavy equipment leverage AI to unify data, close skills gaps, and improve service outcomes. She also lectures on the Behavioral Science of AI Adoption at Reichman University, bringing her expertise in organizational behavior, management, and technology adoption to both students and professionals. Adi has a strong background in customer success, data analysis, and AI adoption, combining hands-on experience with academic insight to help organizations turn innovation into impact.

During the response to a service event and the process of quickly getting assets back up and running, a trove of information above and beyond the failure, data is visible but has historically been largely underutilized. In the face of greater complexity paired with higher expectations, service organizations have the impending need to transform data from the planning process, parts’ movements and customer management into greater intelligence applied to planning service, mining data or managing the customer and the asset from a less transactional perspective. Tune in as Denise MacDonell, Flash Global’s CTMO, stops by the podcast studio to talk about the shift she’s seeing from reactive operations to intelligence-driven service networks powered by AI, real-time visibility, and connected data. We’ll unpack how AI is evolving from reporting dashboards to embedded, decision-ready intelligence that reroutes freight, optimizes inventory placement, flags service risk, and integrates compliance directly into execution. From hyperlocal fulfillment to AI-powered control towers and outcome-based partnerships, this conversation outlines what separates high-performing service supply chains from the rest and why readiness will define competitive advantage in the next era of service.

One hundred episodes. One hundred powerful conversations. One incredible community. Join us for an extra special episode of the inService™ Podcast, celebrating 100 episodes! Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, what started as a way to make sense of uncertainty quickly became a trusted space for honest dialogue, fresh thinking, and meaningful connection across the service ecosystem. In this special edition, we look back at the moments that defined the journey, the lessons that stuck with us, and the themes that continue to move the industry forward… with a few laughs and a surprise or two along the way. From transformation stories to the rise of Service is Humanity, this episode honors how far the community has come and sets the stage for the next 100 conversations still to unfold —because if the first chapter taught us anything, it’s that the best insights are still to come.

As service organizations accelerate their investments in AI, many leaders are grappling with a critical question: to innovate and challenge the way in which processes are executed, or to settle for incremental gains without disrupting how people engage throughout a service experience. Voice AI sits at the center of that tension. It brings about a new way of interacting with data and technology, and such changes can create friction. However, experience shows that properly deployed under the right circumstances, voice capabilities can deliver meaningful efficiency gains and overall better experiences for the frontline and customers alike. Tune in on Thursday, February 19th at 12pm EST, as we’re joined by Indresh MS, Aquant’s VP of Product & Technology Labs. We’ll explore how service leaders are moving beyond novelty to practical, high-impact voice AI use cases grounded in real operational challenges. Drawing from hands-on experience working with field service teams, contact centers, and enterprise service organizations, this conversation brings clarity to the where, why and how behind getting value from successful voice adoption. From call intake and data capture to technician enablement and continuous learning, the episode offers a clear framework for thinking about voice AI maturity as a function of the organization, not the technology. Indresh is Vice President of Product & Technology Labs at Aquant. He brings nearly 20 years of experience building SaaS products at companies including ServiceMax and SAP. Over the past year, he’s focused on refining Aquant’s Voice AI capabilities and translating them into real-world value for frontline service teams.

As service organizations approach 2026, leaders must balance stabilizing operations with driving growth. Efficiency and cost control are key but not enough; operational choices need to align with commercial results. Service leaders should focus on investments that improve resilience and long-term revenue.Join us and Josh Weiss, CEO of https://www.syncron.com/, to discuss how economic uncertainty, labor issues, and AI skepticism impact priorities, and why parts strategy is crucial for revenue growth. The session will offer actionable insights on integrating parts, service, and supply chain to create a unified growth plan, highlighting concrete ways service can boost resilience and open market opportunities through 2026.Josh Weiss is the Chief Executive Officer of Syncron, bringing nearly two decades of global leadership experience in industrial technology and digital transformation. His cross-functional expertise in finance, operations, and digital innovation positions him to accelerate Syncron’s growth as a global leader in aftermarket solutions. Prior to joining Syncron, Weiss served as President of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, where he led the division’s global strategy and operations. Weiss began his career at ArcelorMittal and later served as a senior manager at Deloitte, advising on performance improvement and financial strategy.