Modernizing Knowledge Capture with AI

This 3-hour hands-on workshop is for manufacturers facing what every shop in South Carolina is facing: experienced employees retiring or leaving, and decades of institutional knowledge walking out the door with them. There’s no software product that solves this. But there are practical tools that, used well, can capture a meaningful fraction of what’s in those heads before it’s gone.

The workshop covers two complementary approaches: low-friction capture using AI tools that quietly ingest knowledge from conversations, meetings, and documents you already produce; and structured AI-driven interviews that work like a knowledgeable colleague asking questions of a senior employee. You’ll work with both, hands-on, using your own laptop.

In addition to live demonstrations of the major tools available today, we’ll:

• Define what counts as knowledge in a shop and what’s realistic to capture
• Run live demos of specific tools you can leverage for knowledge capture such as meeting notetakers, personal recorders, knowledge bases, email and document ingestion
• Talk frankly about privacy, trust, and how to introduce these systems to your team in a way that feels supportive rather than like surveillance
• Run a hands-on self-interview activity where you use an AI to extract knowledge from yourself on a topic you know well
• Provide a clear framework you can use to scope your first knowledge capture project

There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion throughout the workshop.

Who should attend:

• Plant managers and operations leaders
• Quality and safety leaders
• HR leaders and training coordinators
• Owners of small-to-mid-size manufacturers
• Anyone responsible for retention, succession planning, or preserving institutional knowledge

What to bring (for the interactive activity)

• Laptop