Karpagam "Kay" Narayanan | Field Service Next West

Karpagam "Kay" Narayanan

Karpagam "Kay" Narayanan

Founder & CEO Ascendo AI
Karpagam "Kay" Narayanan

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

10:35 AM Morning Mingle Refreshment Networking Break & Tech Demo Theater in the EXPO

Start your day with fresh coffee, fresh connections, and fresh ideas. Join us for the opening of the Tech Demo Theater —your gateway to discovering the latest technologies transforming service.

Tech Demo Theater In The Expo
Live 10-minute vendor demos of cutting-edge solutions to support your service ambitions
  • 10:45 – 10:55 | Beyond Break-Fix: Why Critical Infrastructure Needs a Digital Organism
Most AI demos focus on search and summarization. In this session, Ascendo.ai Founder and Beyond Break-Fix author Karpagam "Kay" Narayanan will share a different view of how software has evolved—and why service teams need a new operating model for the physical world.
She will introduce the idea of a Digital Organism: a system of L4 autonomous agents that reason over messy dark data, coordinate physical workflows, and help technicians execute with more speed and confidence in real time.
You'll learn:
  • Why service AI must move beyond search and copilots.
  • How L4 agents help manage complexity across modern service operations.
  • How AI can act as a high-speed navigation system for human technicians.
  • What a new operating model looks like when AI and people work together.

Join Kay at the Ascendo.ai booth after the session for a live L4 agent demo and a complimentary copy of Beyond Break-Fix.

Kay Narayanan, Founder and CEO, Ascendo AI

  • 11:00 – 11:10 | Always-On Enablement: Closing the Gap Between Training and Performance

Skyllful is a frontline workforce enablement platform built for field service teams to deliver simulated workflow training across digital adoption, health and safety, technical skills, and compliance, with progress tracking at the individual level. In this session, CEO Justin Lake will share how Skyllful evolved from a digital adoption tool into a broad mobile training solution for the frontlines, and offer a first look at the Intelligence Layer: an expansion that integrates with native systems to surface the right information to the right person before they know they need it.

  • How always-on, mobile-first enablement drives higher performance than traditional training approaches
  • Why one platform can span safety, onboarding, skills, and compliance — without separate tools for each
  • What proactive, AI-driven enablement looks like in practice
  • How to measure whether your training is actually creating independent, confident performers

Justin Lake, CEO and Co-founder, Skyllful 

  • 11:15 – 11:25 Presented by Reliance IQ

Jaryd Keith Fisher, Founder & CEO, Reliance IQ

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

11:50 AM Track A: AI Advisory Lab: Proof of Concept Presentations

(10 min each) 

Join this session to learn two tried and tested proof of concepts for AI that service leaders are executing with solution partners. You'll have an opportunity to select which service leaders and their solutions providers that you would like to meet with for a hands-on one-on-one session to close out your learnings on day 3.

Case Study: Optimizing Service KPIs with Field Decision Intelligence 

Field service teams face mounting pressure to fix issues faster, reduce repeat visits, and control costs amid growing asset complexity and workforce constraints. This case study examines how service organizations are moving beyond static dashboards to enable real-time, AI-guided decisions across the service lifecycle. Using examples from industrial equipment, HVAC, automotive, and medical devices, attendees will learn how AI-supported decision frameworks help technicians, dispatchers, and service leaders consistently make the right decision in the field. The session highlights measurable outcomes, including improved first-time fix rates, reduced mean time to repair, and lower cost-to-serve, along with practical takeaways for service leaders focused on operational performance. 

What you'll learn: 

  • What Field Decision Intelligence is and how it differs from traditional FSM, analytics, and knowledge tools 
  • How AI can guide in-the-moment service decisions across call center, field, and parts operations 
  • Real-world case studies demonstrating ROI in 60–90 days 
  • Practical steps to start your journey toward Autonomous Service Journeys with AI Advisors, Analysts, and Agents  Case Study: Achieve Service Operational Excellence with AI Agents

Josh Russell, Vice President, Products, Circuitry.ai

Case Study: Achieve Service Operational Excellence with AI agents  

When customer escalations drop by 95% and technical documentation time falls by 80%, something fundamental has changed. In this real-world case study, we explore how AI Agents reshaped field service operations from reactive firefighting to predictive excellence. Through a tech-enbled approach, field teams are able to instantly find solutions for complex issues while bringing out operational excellence synthesizing insights across enterprise data, experts and customer environment. Find out how to map failure patterns to spare parts to ensure a future-proof, proactive service organization. Walk away with key insights to help:

  • Drastically Improve Service Efficiency: Achieve instant, expert-level AI agents by synthesizing data from vast multi-modal data stores. No cleanup or creating knowledge is necessary
  • Accelerate Knowledge Creation: Reduce technical documentation creation time by over 80% while ensuring consistent, accurate quality
  • Proactive & Predictive Service: Use log analysis to provide proactive failure alerts, shifting to a predictive field service model
  • Embed AI Across the Lifecycle: Strategically deploy AI Agents from NPI through product maturity to guarantee field readiness and continuous service excellence 

Chris Dickerson, VP, Service Planning & Logistics, Nokia 

Kay Narayanan, Founder and CEO, Ascendo AI

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Karpagam "Kay".

Download The Latest Agenda