QAD | Redzone Releases AI Champions in Its Connected Workforce Application to Help Frontline Workers Make Better Decisions and Drive Manufacturing Performance

CHICAGO & MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Champions of Manufacturing — QAD | Redzone, the company behind the world’s number one platform for manufacturers, announced a major expansion of its agentic AI portfolio, extending ChampionAI for the frontline, the intelligence layer already running across more than 2,000 plants, into a full roster of persona-based Champions designed to help every frontline role perform at their best.

"We’re taking everything we’ve learned from thousands of factories and billions of hours of frontline activity and using it to make every person on the frontline more capable — and happier.”

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For years, manufacturers were told to accept a trade-off: productivity or a satisfied frontline, but never both.

“The frontline is where manufacturing performance is won or lost, and that’s where AI has the potential to make an enormous difference,” said Ken Fisher, President of Redzone. “These Champions put intelligence directly into the hands of the people doing the work, helping them make better decisions, solve problems faster and continuously improve. We’re taking everything we’ve learned from thousands of factories and billions of hours of frontline activity and using it to make every person on the frontline more capable — and happier.”

AI Agents Built for the People Who Make Everything

ChampionAI for the frontline is trained on the world’s largest and most diverse set of real manufacturing behavior data: more than 2.2 billion line-run hours and 5 billion frontline collaborations, reinforced by context from continuous improvement coaches with 800,000 hours of operational excellence experience.

This is not a chatbot searching for information faster than a keyword search. It is multi-agent orchestration that draws on large language models, images, video, production data, and machine learning to help teams win the day. Line leads make better decisions in real time, operators stay focused on the line while agents handle mundane tasks, and quality technicians catch compliance problems before they happen.

Introducing the Expanded Roster of Champions

At Champions of Manufacturing 2026, QAD | Redzone introduced the newest members of its frontline Champion roster:

• Line Lead Champion: flags upcoming changeovers early and drafts ready-to-use work orders for recurring downtime
• Operations Manager Champion: turns ideas into action without bureaucracy
• Inspector Champion: uses OCR and contextual AI to reduce defects and rework
• Kaizen Champion: accelerates engagement and follow-through on continuous improvement
• Yield Champion: closes the loop between quality events and preventive action
• Recognition Champion: surfaces highlights of exceptional team and individual performance
• Skills Champion: assesses actual performance and recommends targeted coaching and training

Alongside the expanded roster, new Implementation Agents are reducing launch timelines from 12 weeks to as little as one month, speeding time-to-value and cutting breakeven points in half for manufacturers standing up the platform.

Productivity, Engagement, and Retention Gains Across the Plant

Across more than 2,000 plants, QAD | Redzone customers are reporting results that once felt out of reach: higher productivity, deeper engagement and stronger retention, achieved together rather than traded off against one another.

“Supervisors can type into Redzone’s ChampionAI, 'send me my shift notes and my top downtime issues,' and it just gives it to them — instead of having to type everything up manually. I would have loved to have that as a supervisor,” said Alfred Carandang, VP, Continuous Improvement & Manufacturing Strategies at Ferrara.

Scaling with AWS IoT and Systems Integrator Partners

In support of its vision of having QAD | Redzone in every factory, the company has partnered with leading hyperscalers, consultancies and systems integrators to scale this system of action to factories of every size, across every region, from the mid-market to the Fortune 500. Through its partnership with AWS IoT, QAD | Redzone is also bringing AI-powered predictive maintenance to manufacturers previously locked out by cost and complexity.

How Frontline Intelligence Shows Up in Business Outcomes

Frontline intelligence is translating directly into the outcomes manufacturing leaders track: productivity, throughput, quality, cost and margin. It is also changing how manufacturing work itself is described. Not as repetitive or thankless, but as skilled, modern and meaningful. Every employee belongs to one or more teams, contributing to shared performance, sharing in the wins and getting recognized together. In larger enterprises, teams and supervisors across plants are now connecting to solve common problems and improve leadership skills together.

This announcement is part of QAD | Redzone’s broader Manufacturing Intelligence vision unveiled today at Champions of Manufacturing. For more information, visit the QAD Blog.

About QAD | Redzone

QAD | Redzone is redefining manufacturing and supply chains through its intelligent, adaptive platform that connects people, processes, and technology into a single System of Action. With three core pillars — Redzone (frontline empowerment), Adaptive Applications (the intelligent backbone), and ChampionAI (agentic AI for manufacturing) — QAD | Redzone helps manufacturers operate with Champion Pace, achieving measurable productivity, resilience, and growth in as little as 90 days. To learn more, visit www.qad.com or call +1 805-566-6100. Find us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.