ASQ RRD series webinar: Reliability Leadership in the Era of AI: Lessons from Failure
Presenter: Ananthakrishnan (Ananth) Narayanan
Thursday, June 11, 2026 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
(UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
https://asq.webex.com/weblink/register/rcfbb7b0af8961b2398e810483c94f336
Abstract:
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in complex engineered systems, the nature of reliability risk is changing. While AI introduces new capabilities, it also accelerates familiar failure patterns by increasing system opacity, decision speed, and organizational confidence. In this webinar, we examine what major historical reliability failures reveal about the challenges reliability leaders face in the era of AI.
Using well documented engineering failures from aerospace, energy, and large-scale system integration, the talk focuses on how breakdowns in communication, verification, authority structures, and organizational culture rather than gaps in technical knowledge led to catastrophic outcomes. These lessons are then connected to modern AI-enabled systems, where traditional inspection-based reliability methods are increasingly limited and where human judgment must operate under greater uncertainty.
The session emphasizes reliability leadership as an organizational discipline and highlights the importance of intentional decision making, intellectual and emotional curiosity, disciplined verification, and the ability to surface and act on uncertainty. This webinar is intended for reliability, quality, and systems engineers seeking a practical perspective on how established reliability principles continue to matter and must be applied thoughtfully in AI driven environments.
Bio
Ananthakrishnan (Ananth) Narayanan received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University. His interests include Reliability Engineering, Physics of Failure, Statistical and Probabilistic Modeling, and the application of Machine Learning and AI in Reliability Engineering. He is a subject matter expert in semiconductor/hardware reliability engineering and is currently the Principal for Worldwide Hardware Reliability at Lenovo, where he leads technical aspects of hardware reliability for the server division. Ananth is a speaker, educator, and reliability evangelist. He has held leadership roles in various top-tier journals and conferences in the field of quality and reliability engineering. Ananth lives in North Carolina with his wife and two boys.