How "Frontier Companies" are Scaling AI on the Factory Floor

AI Beyond the Chatbot: The Shift to Intelligence Transformation, with Jeff Winter

Is your AI strategy actually transforming your business, or just fixing small problems? In this episode of the Zeroed-In Podcast, host Olivier Bloch sits down with Jeff Winter, Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Belden, to deconstruct the hype surrounding AI in industrial automation. Manufacturing produces more data than almost any other industry, yet most companies are stuck in the "ROI Trap"—hitting small financial goals while failing to fundamentally change how they operate. Jeff reveals why the industry is moving beyond "Digital Transformation" into what he calls Intelligence Transformation. In this episode, we discuss: - The ROI Paradox: Why 99% of projects show a return even when the transformation fails. - Point vs. Enterprise Intelligence: Moving from predicting a single failure to understanding enterprise-wide impact. - The Digital Twin Myth: Why it’s an operating concept, not just a software you buy or a 3D graphic. - The Contrarian Take: Why AI itself is becoming a commodity and where the real competitive advantage lives. About Jeff Winter: Jeff is a leading voice in industrial automation. He is known for his research-backed, documented approach to industry trends and his ability to bring complex data into reality. Don't forget to subscribe to the Zeroed-In Podcast to stay ahead of the next wave of industrial innovation! 🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero — Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate. 📌 Follow Jeff Winter on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyrwinter/ 📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierbloch/ Follow Thing-Zero on: - YouTube: YouTube.com/@Thing-Zero - Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero - 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954 - Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com #AI #Manufacturing #JeffWinter

How "Frontier Companies" are Scaling AI on the Factory Floor

Can AI finally bridge the 30-year gap between IT and OT? In this episode of the Zero-in podcast, host Olivier Bloch sits down with Adam Bogobowicz (Microsoft) and Marvin Tansley (Thing-Zero) to discuss the reality of AI in manufacturing. While everyone "wants" AI, very few companies understand how to merge the precision of the factory floor (OT) with the scale of the cloud (IT). During the conversation, we zero-in on four key subjects: - The Frontier Company: What separates leaders from laggards in the AI era - Pilot Purgatory: Why industrial AI projects stall and how to focus on ROI - Agentic AI: Moving beyond chatbots to proactive, autonomous systems. - The Security Guardrails: How to maintain safety while giving AI agency. AI isn't the panacea; it’s the tool. The real magic happens when you ground AI in the context of your people, your processes, and your business rules. Chapters: 0:00 The "Don't" of Frontier Companies 0:17 Introduction: The IT vs. OT Problem 1:49 Meet the Experts 3:21 The Goal: Better Decision Making 5:19 The Blockers: Scaling Beyond the Dashboard 6:50 The Clash of Cultures 9:12 Governing at Scale 13:07 Escaping Pilot Purgatory 15:42 Context is King 18:49 The Secret Ingredients for Success 22:08 Replicability as a Strategy 23:54 Demystifying Agentic AI 27:02 Trust, Risk, and the Human in the Loop 32:34 Deterministic vs. Statistical Models 36:22 Closing Advice: Don't Lead with AI 🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero — Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate. 📌 Follow Adam Bogobowicz on LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambogobowicz/ 📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierbloch/ 📌 Follow Marvin Tansley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/ Follow Thing-Zero on: - YouTube: YouTube.com/@Thing-Zero - Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero - 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954 - Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com #Microsoft #AI #manufacturing

How to Discover Every Device in Your Factory (Without Touching a Thing)

Before you can secure your OT network, you have to understand it. In this episode of the Zeroed-In Podcast, our host Olivier Bloch sits down with Dan Frechette, OT security expert and former member of the CyberX Labs team (now Microsoft Defender for IoT). Together, they unpack the fundamentals of OT visibility, asset discovery, and passive network monitoring. They also cover how modern tools like Microsoft Defender for IoT help organizations identify risks before attackers exploit them. Topics Include: • Why you can’t secure what you don’t know exists • The critical differences between IT and OT networks • Real-world OT cyberattacks like TRITON • How to passively discover every device in your plant network • Why security may actually bridge IT and OT, not divide them If you work in manufacturing, utilities, or industrial cybersecurity... this is your crash course in understanding what’s really running on your network, and how to defend it. Subscribe for more conversations on Industrial IoT, OT Security, and AI in Manufacturing. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Intro: Understanding OT Infrastructure 01:42 Dan Frechette’s Background in OT Security 03:30 Why You Can’t Secure What You Don’t Know 06:15 The Old “Air Gap” Myth and Why It’s Failing 09:10 IT vs OT: The Two Worlds Explained 13:25 Real OT Attack Stories (TRITON, Oldsmar, etc.) 18:20 How to Map Your OT Network Passively 22:10 Monitoring and Detecting Anomalies 27:15 Defender for IoT: Setup and First Results 31:40 Bridging the IT/OT Divide with Security 36:00 Final Takeaways 🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero: Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate. 📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/ 📌 Follow Dan Frechette on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-frechette/ Follow Thing-Zero on: - YouTube: YouTube.com/@thing-zero - Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero - 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954 - Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com #IoT #OT #MicrosoftSecurity #DefenderForIoT #manufacturing

The OT–IT Bridge: How MQTT Actually Connects the Factory, with Kudzai Manditereza

In this episode of The Zeroed-In Podcast by Thing-Zero, we sit down with Kudzai Manditereza from HiveMQ and founder of Industry40tv, to get practical about data in manufacturing. We dig into MQTT’s real job in the stack, how to bridge OT and IT without breaking culture, and why a Unified Namespace is the backbone for reliable analytics and AI at scale. We talk with Kudzai about: • MQTT vs OPC UA vs field-bus protocols, and where each fits • The OT and IT priorities problem, and how to decouple with MQTT • UNS as an event-driven backbone for orchestration, not a silver bullet • Edge-first thinking: push rules to the edge, send only what matters • Governance that scales: RBAC, validation, and killing the “wild west” broker • Standardizing KPIs like OEE across plants without slowing teams downMake sure to subscribe for more real-world OT, data, and AI conversations. ⏱ Chapters:00:00 Intro 01:00 MQTT’s lane vs OPC UA and field buses 06:45 OT-IT culture and security priorities 12:40 MQTT in the DMZ as a data diode 17:10 Governance, RBAC, and broker hygiene 20:40 Edge intelligence and pushing rules down 26:30 Standardizing OEE and data models across sites 33:10 UNS today and where it’s going next 39:20 Wrap up 🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero: Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate. 📌 Follow Kudzai Manditereza on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kudzaimanditereza/ 📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierbloch/ 📌 Follow Ryan Kershaw on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryankershaw/ Follow Thing-Zero on: - YouTube: YouTube.com/@thing-zero - Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/thing-zero - 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954 - Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com #IndustrialAutomation #SmartFactory #IntelligentManufacturing #AI #OT

Augment + Automate: The Reality of Enterprise AI, with Alec Coughlin

AI in the real world isn’t a keynote... it’s a factory floor, a power bill, and a risk register. In this episode, Marvin Tansley (Thing-Zero) sits down with Alec Coughlin (AI with Alec) to map the jump from hype to hard results: securing brownfield OT, preparing a data/knowledge-centric estate, and using agents to augment operators—not replace them. We cover the shift from app-centric silos to platforms, prescriptive analytics that drive next-best actions, and the leadership moves that make it stick: psychological safety, exec bootcamps, incentives that reward smart risk, and “hands-in-dirt” adoption. If you’re a CTO/CIO, plant leader, or ops owner wondering how to compete when AI becomes table stakes, this is the playbook you've been looking for. ⏱ Chapters: 0:00 Intros & setup 0:24 Alec’s origin: RPA spark → “AI with Alec” 1:14 Marvin’s path: industrial engineering to AI 2:00 Practical vs hype; LLMs get “evolutionary” + Palantir/data platforms 5:31 Augmentation vs automation (factory story) 9:07 Brownfield OT realities & security-by-design 12:50 From app-centric to data/knowledge-centric (why it’s existential) 16:45 Analytics ladder: descriptive → predictive → prescriptive 19:08 Ransomware lesson ($20M/day) & designing safety in 40:56 Culture, incentives, “make the beer taste better” 42:32 Closing Thoughts → The Zeroed in Podcast is also now available on your favorite podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/zeroedinpod 📌 Follow Alec Coughlin on LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecchh/ 📌 Follow Marvin Tansley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/ 🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero — Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate. Follow us on: YouTube: YouTube.com/@thing-zero Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thing-zero/ 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954/ Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com/ #AIwithAlec #AI #Robotics #MachineLearning #ML