Building on the success of the ARM Institute’s 2025 artificial intelligence (AI) for Manufacturing webinar series, which saw nearly a thousand viewers tune in to learn AI best practices, the ARM Institute has launched a 2026 Physical AI Webinar series! Join our three-part webinar series this summer to learn how to get started with or further augment physical AI for your factory floor.

While headlines make AI feel like a new technology, it’s one that the ARM Institute has been working on for nearly a decade in collaboration with our member consortium. This summer, like last summer, we’re translating what we’ve learned from this work across ARM Institute-funded projects, our workforce development efforts, and through our members into webinars focused on best practices, practical solutions, and connections to help you unlock the potential of physical AI for your manufacturing operations.

This series will help manufacturers, technology providers, educators, defense experts, and others:

• Learn how ARM Institute funded technology projects are taking physical AI from theoretical to factory floor impact and how you can get involved in these efforts
• Understand how the ARM Institute’s new physical AI competency framework (created in partnership with our 500+ member organization consortium) is helping to build an AI-ready workforce on RoboticsCareer.org and what these capabilities mean for you
• Connect to transformative, but practical, AI technologies that can enhance manufacturing operations

We hosted the first webinar in this series in May. Stay tuned to this page and join our mailing list to learn when we announce our next two sessions.

Explore On-Demand Webinars from Our 2026 AI for Manufacturing Series:

Forged in Collaboration: Physical AI for Casting & Forging

AI-enabled robotics, often called physical AI, have the potential to augment workforce gaps, reduce costs, speed production, and improve quality. These improvements are key to securing any manufacturing sector, but can be particularly impactful when applied to the casting and forging industries, which are critical industries for our defense supply chains but plagued with personnel safety concerns, material availability, high costs, and other challenges.

This webinar featured briefs by four ARM Institute project teams who have worked on accelerating physical AI for use in the casting and forging industries through ARM Institute funding. We explored the technical approach for each project, the lessons learned, outputs that ARM Members can leverage, and opened the webinar up to audience Q&A.

This webinar featured the following expert presenters:

• Bhaskar Banerjee, Co-founder & CTO, GridRaster
• Michael Groeber, Professor, The Ohio State University
• Mingu Kang, Founder & CEO, ARIS Technology
• Alex Klinger, Director of Product & Systems Engineering, Titan Robotics
• Miguel Rodriguez, Senior Programs Manager, ARM Institute

Explore On-Demand Webinars from Our 2025 AI for Manufacturing Series:

AI in Manufacturing: The Basics

The first AI in manufacturing webinar in this series, led by Suzy Teele (ARM Institute Chief Strategy Officer), centered on AI in Manufacturing: The Basics. More than 250 individuals registered for this session, demonstrating the immense interest manufacturers have in AI solutions.

In this AI in manufacturing webinar session, Suzy explored:

• The components of AI and definitions of different types of AI
• The benefits of AI in manufacturing & how AI is being used in manufacturing
• The challenges to leveraging AI and pitfalls to avoid
• Steps to implementing AI in your manufacturing operations

AI-Ready: Building the Skilled Workforce Manufacturers Need to Compete

As AI rapidly reshapes manufacturing, the need for a skilled, AI-ready workforce has never been more urgent. The ARM Institute has been at the forefront of helping to build a future-proof manufacturing workforce by demystifying the skills workers need for robotics roles in manufacturing through our robotics competency framework that is integrated across the training programs and jobs posted on RoboticsCareer.org.

We’ve recently expanded these efforts by building a NEW AI Competency framework. The industry’s leading experts across industry, government, and academia provided key input into our AI Competency framework. This AI in manufacturing webinar session explored both this new framework and broader insights into the impact of AI on the manufacturing workforce.

This panel of experts featured:

• Suzy Teele, ARM Institute Chief Strategy Officer, ARM Institute
• Lisa Masciantonio, ARM Institute Chief Workforce Officer, ARM Institute
• Corey Adams, Education Program Manager, Universal Robots,
• Paul Boulware, Technical Fellow, ARCTOS
• Davis J. McGregor, Ph.D., Director of the MIRAGE Lab, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Fischell Fellow at the REF Institute for Biomedical Devices.

Specifically, in this AI in manufacturing webinar, we explored:

• What AI means for manufacturing roles today and tomorrow
• The skills and competencies needed for an AI-integrated manufacturing workforce and how you can leverage this AI competency framework
• Actionable steps you can take to evaluate and upskill your workforce
• How the ARM Institute supports manufacturers in building an AI ready workforce and plans to integrate AI
• Whether you’re just starting your AI journey or looking to scale existing efforts, this session will equip you with insights and tools to empower your workforce to work with AI.

Practical Applications of AI in Manufacturing

AI is rapidly and fundamentally changing manufacturing. Manufacturers who leverage AI are seeing more consistent outputs, greater efficiency, reduced costs, and other key benefits, particularly when AI is applied to robots. However, many manufacturers are missing out on this key competitive edge. In this webinar, we detailed practical applications of AI in manufacturing that can have a tangible impact on your competitiveness!

• The benefits to incorporating AI into your manufacturing floor, particularly in robotics, and how to get started
• Practical manufacturing use cases that can provide key wins for your firm
• Best practices to implement and pitfalls to avoid when integrating AI
• The answers to your questions about AI in manufacturing

• Suzy Teele, Chief Strategy Officer at the ARM Institute
• Pat O’Donnell, CEO of Shelfmark
• Changliu Liu, Associate Professor in the Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Founder of Instinct Robotics
• Ryan Kelly, Vice President of Technology at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology

Power Your AI Journey with the Nation’s Trusted Physical AI Partner

Navigating how to get started with or further deploy physical AI on the manufacturing floor can be overwhelming. The risks feel high, the sales strategies look untrustworthy, and the implications of a wrong move are steep.

The ARM Institute’s Automation Services help you navigate how robotics and physical AI can objectively:

• Enhance your manufacturing competitiveness
• Augment your workforce gaps
• Create new opportunities for your organization and better keep up with demand

With our automation services, you’re not going on your automation journey alone or even with one partner. By working with the ARM Institute, you not only gain the nearly decade of experience the ARM Institute has deploying robotics, physical AI, and automation as a trusted, public-private partnership, you also get the full power of our member consortium comprised of 500+ organizations and thousands of individual subject matter experts.

Our mission is to get robotics and physical AI into the hands of manufacturers and increase our nation’s manufacturing potential. By working with us, you can feel secure that we’re not looking to sell you equipment. We’re showing where robotics, automation, and AI can (and, equally importantly, cannot) solve your challenges.

Get started in building a de-risked, proven, and collaborative robotics and physical AI strategy for your manufacturing operations.

Get started with your collaborative strategy here

Join us in Building the Future of US Manufacturing through Robotics, Physical AI, and Workforce Innovations

ARM Institute Members lead the way to a future where people and robots work together to respond to our nation’s greatest challenges and to develop and produce the world’s most desired products. By becoming a member of our 500+ member organization consortium, you’ll join thousands of subject matter experts in building the future of US manufacturing through robotics, physical AI, and workforce innovations. Your membership to our robotics institute unlocks not only access to member-exclusive events and webinars, including our Annual Member Meeting, but also project funding opportunities, project outputs, networking, a digital platform for collaboration, and more.

Explore membership here