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Michelle Bangert, managing editor of Quality, sat down with Sainyam Arora, our 2026 Quality Rookie of the Year, at the MAX event in Nashville.

Michelle: Could you tell us how your AI workshop went yesterday?

Sainyam: I started it off with a very insightful and powerful conversation. It was a lot of enriching conversation, so I actually entered the panel thinking maybe a lot of people might not show up, but we had a great audience.

We talked about diversity perspectives in AI, and my piece focused specifically on how AI can be integrated with legacy systems in the manufacturing area. I talked a lot about how, since the beginning of Industry 4.0, we've had the revolution from using checklists and paper sheets into having PLC programs and into process development and digitization. And now finally to AI. And how does AI interconnect with all these systems?

Our panel did a great job at using that perspective in different contexts and different industries. What I saw as a common recurring theme is that panelists divided their AI usage into two. One was systemic and strategic use of AI, and the other was operational use of AI.

The systemic being your everyday workflows, framing your work instructions, but then taking it one step ahead into integrating it into your PLC systems, integrating it into your KPIs and your dashboards that you use on the daily data that you collect. But the operational piece of AI was integrating it into the manufacturing.

So, smart manufacturing with sensors that can pick up equipment noise and predict failures from equipment ends and how that trickles down to quality. Amazing question. It's a very enriching, very insightful, great conversation.

Michelle: I know it was one of our most popular workshops. So, well done. So, can you tell us next about how you got started in quality?

Sainyam: Yeah, and I appreciate that question. It's funny enough because I did a bachelor's in chemical engineering, so, no experience of quality whatsoever. And I did a minor in energy leadership and development, which exposed me to the leadership aspect of manufacturing and the boom that conducted by Industry 4.0, and led me into my first role at KCF Technologies, where I was a predictive maintenance technical analyst.

And what I did over there was look at data from different clients that we used to work with, and their equipment health data and predicting failures before they occurred. So, my background started in reliability and systems engineering and that really doubled down my quality list. So, even before knowing that I could work in the quality space, because I did not know if I could make a career here either. I started in reliability, and that was my building block to quality. So, I applied for a process engineer role in the parent company I work at, Johnson Matthey and I was interested in doing chemical process technology and engineering.

And funny enough, the engineering manager for process development wasn't available on the day. And the quality manager instead took my interview. And they saw something in me that made them believe that I would excel in quality.

And, you know, the rest is history.