Why 80% of CEOs Feel Behind on AI

<p>Eighty percent of manufacturing leaders say they are behind their peers on AI. The math says that is impossible. So why does almost every CEO walk into a room believing the rest of the industry has already figured this out?</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycecarpenter/">Bryce Carpenter</a>, COO at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/conexus-indiana/" target="_self">Conexus Indiana</a>, sits on top of the data that explains it. Conexus runs the Advanced Industries Council, the state&#39;s primary convening body for the 9,700 manufacturing and logistics companies that produce 37 percent of Indiana&#39;s GDP. Bryce founded the AIC in 2019 and has watched 120-plus member companies move through the AI experimentation phase in real time.</p><p><br></p><p>In this conversation with Harrison Painter, Bryce walks through what he is actually seeing. Why Indiana&#39;s $29 billion in 2024 manufacturing investment paired with a 1 percent drop in employment is a retirement story, not an AI displacement story. Why the average tenure inside Indiana manufacturing collapsed from 30 years to 3. How a 52-person Northeast Indiana shop grew to 106 after a single equipment investment. Why the 9,700 companies running their own boutique soft-skill development programs is the most expensive inefficiency in the state. And why he gives Indiana an A-minus on AI progress when most operators inside the state would say B at best.</p><p><br></p><p>If you run a 100-to-5,000-person company and you are trying to figure out where your team actually is on AI, start with the free 7 Levels of AI Proficiency assessment at <a href="http://assess.launchready.ai/" target="_self">assess.launchready.ai</a>. It takes under ten minutes and tells you exactly which level your team operates at today.</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks for supporting the AI Ready Podcast!</p><p><br></p><p>Further. Faster. </p><p> Harrison Painter</p>