How Agentic AI is Transforming Complex Manufacturing
Show notes
Most agentic AI pilots in manufacturing produce impressive proof-of-concept results and then quietly stall. The data is not clean, the processes are not standardised, or the organisation simply does not change how it works. So what does it actually take to get from a compelling demo to an agent running in production, handling real decisions inside real SAP processes? Shashikant Walimbe, VP and Global Head SAP Practice at LTM and an SAP partner deeply embedded in manufacturing operations, gives a practitioner's answer: start with one decision that costs you money every week, measure it, put an agent on it with clear limits, and see whether the numbers move inside a quarter.
In this episode, Shashi walks through what agentic AI genuinely means for a manufacturing operation (and what it does not mean), why the skepticism of plant managers and COOs is earned rather than ignorant, the five specific reasons agentic projects fail to reach production, how LTM designed trust into a live deployment at a semiconductor manufacturer, and his honest view on when SAP's AI capabilities win on merit versus when specialist vendors or hyperscaler platforms are the better answer. The conversation closes with a direct discussion of workforce impact: which roles shrink, which change without disappearing, and what responsibility a deploying partner carries in that transition.
Episode Chapters
00:00 – Introduction: SAP Autonomous Enterprise Podcast
00:30 – Guest introduction: Shashikant Walimbe, LTM
01:10 – What agentic AI actually means in manufacturing
02:24 – Why plant managers and COOs are right to be skeptical
03:03 – The honest answer to the COO: start small, measure fast
04:33 – Commercial tension: how LTM draws the line on advice
06:23 – Why most AI pilots do not reach production
07:02 – Five reasons agentic projects stall before scale
08:40 – Semiconductor manufacturer case: agents in the SAP backbone
10:14 – Designing trust into agentic systems
12:53 – SAP versus competitors: when does the SAP route genuinely win?
15:29 – Workforce impact: which roles shrink, which change
18:52 – Closing thought: start with one decision that matters
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