Service Council inService™ Podcast Series

Hosted by Service Council™

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Episodes

108

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Interviews uncovering best practices by world-class Service, Customer Experience, and Customer Support Executives

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June 5, 2026Episode 10639 min

EP106 - AI and the New Frontline: Rethinking Technician Enablement in Service w/ Leila Rookstool, ServiceTitan

Traditional training models are struggling to keep pace with modern service demands. Service environments are growing more complex, and asset sophistication continues to rise, while organizations are facing mounting pressure to prepare technicians faster without sacrificing quality, safety, or customer experience. At the same time, experienced workers are retiring, workforce expectations are evolving, and frontline teams are being asked to solve more advanced problems earlier in their careers.Join us as we welcome Leila Rookstool, Senior Industry Advisor – Commercial for ServiceTitan to the studio. Together, we’ll examine how AI-powered guidance, diagnostics, and knowledge access are helping organizations accelerate onboarding, shorten training timelines, and enable technicians to troubleshoot and resolve issues with greater speed and confidence. The discussion will also explore the evolving role of the technician in the AI era, including how organizations can support continuous learning, improve technician engagement, and create career paths that encourage long-term retention. Leila Rookstool is a Senior Industry Advisor, Commercial, with more than 13 years of experience helping service organizations modernize operations, scale growth, and strengthen commercial service execution. A fourth-generation trades professional, Leila combines deep industry roots with expertise in end-to-end commercial service workflows, service sales strategy, estimating, and service innovation. Her career includes leadership roles within a Comfort Systems USA subsidiary and later at the corporate level, where she supported enterprise-wide service growth and technology adoption initiatives before serving as Vice President of Sales and Service for the Southeast region, overseeing organizations representing approximately $250 million in annual service revenue. She later transitioned into consulting, helping contractors align technology strategy with operational performance, before joining ServiceTitan, where she now advises contractors on scaling service operations with confidence.

June 5, 2026Episode 10539 min

EP105 - How Video Intelligence Turns Service Expertise into Scalable AI Knowledge w/ Thomas Cottereau, SightCall

What happens when critical service expertise exists only in the minds of a few veteran technicians? As experienced workers retire and service complexity increases, organizations are struggling to scale expertise across the workforce fast enough to meet rising service demands.Join us for the next inService Podcast Live as Service Council research and real-world examples reveal how video intelligence is emerging as a powerful new layer in AI-driven service operations — helping organizations capture expert knowledge, transform it into scalable visual intelligence, and make it accessible across the enterprise.Thomas Cottereau, CEO of SightCall, joins host Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. to discuss how service organizations are evolving beyond basic remote assistance and using video to operationalize expertise at scale. From ride-alongs and technician training to AI-generated tutorials, contextual guidance, and accelerated onboarding, the conversation will explore how organizations are reducing the skills gap while creating faster, more scalable paths to service excellence.

May 21, 2026Episode 10433 min

EP104 - The 5 Ps of Service Transformation: A Blueprint for Becoming the Benchmark w/ Emrah Ercan, Hitachi

What does it take to become the benchmark in service?Join us on Thursday, May 7th at 10am EST, as we welcome Emrah Ercan, VP of Service – North America at Hitachi Energy. He’ll share his firsthand experience transforming a traditionally reactive service organization into a proactive, digitally enabled lifecycle partner. Drawing on lessons from the field, he unpacks the critical elements behind that shift - aligning people, process, platform, and parts, all anchored by a clear sense of purpose.If you're a service leader aiming for step-change, this episode offers a grounded, experience-driven look at what it really takes to get there.Emrah Ercan is Vice President of Service North America at Hitachi, with more than two decades of executive leadership experience across global industrial technology and services organizations. He specializes in building and scaling service businesses across large installed bases, combining field execution, commercial discipline, and digital enablement to improve asset reliability, availability, and lifecycle economics. As a global P&L leader, he has driven profitable growth, margin expansion, and international scaling while maintaining strong performance in reliability, quality, and safety. He specializes in the development of high-performing teams and service-led cultures.

May 21, 2026Episode 10335 min

EP103 - Executive in the Passenger Seat: A Ride Along with Service w/ Patrycja Sobera, Unisys

What happens when executive leadership steps out of the office and into the field? Gaining firsthand insight into the day-to-day realities of field technicians is essential to ensuring that strategy, technology, and execution are aligned where it matters most.Patrycja Sobera, SVP and GM, Digital Workplace Solutions at Unisys, shares first-hand insights from her own ride-along experience with a field technician. Together, we’ll unpack how frontline realities shape the success of tech investments, AI adoption, and service innovation. From the unexpected challenges onsite to redefining the role of the modern field engineer, this conversation highlights the critical importance of designing service strategies with the frontline, not just for them.We hope you’ll tune in to watch and share your own ride-along experiences and lessons learned with us!Patrycja Sobera is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Workplace Solutions at Unisys, where she leads teams focused on modern, user-centric technology experiences that drive client success. An award-winning service delivery expert and recognized thought leader in Experience Level Agreement (XLA) delivery, she has over 20 years of experience transforming technology services across industries including banking, capital markets, and telecommunications. She was named one of HDI’s Top 25 Thought Leaders of 2024 and holds a Master’s degree in Modern Languages and French Literature from the University of Wroclaw.

April 27, 2026Episode 10246 min

EP102 - AI Adoption: When Behavior Drives or Derails Success w/ Adi Frenkenberg

Service Council’s research has found that the drivers behind AI adoption are much more complex than many service organizations expect. While it’s common to point to generational differences as the reason for how people engage with new technology, the reality is far more nuanced.Join us on Thursday, April 16th at 12pm EST, as we break down what really drives AI adoption. We’ll hear from Adi Frenkenberg, Senior Customer Success Manager at Aquant, who brings her expertise in organizational behavior and AI to help unpack what’s influencing adoption. We’ll also share insights from our Voice of the Frontline research, which looks at the role of culture and the key touchpoints across the employee experience.Don’t miss this deep dive into the behavioral drivers and roadblocks shaping AI adoption in service, and how factors like culture, team structure, and organizational maturity influence what it takes to move from pilot to impact.Adi Frenkenberg is Senior Customer Success Manager at Aquant, where she helps enterprises in manufacturing, medical devices, and heavy equipment leverage AI to unify data, close skills gaps, and improve service outcomes. She also lectures on the Behavioral Science of AI Adoption at Reichman University, bringing her expertise in organizational behavior, management, and technology adoption to both students and professionals. Adi has a strong background in customer success, data analysis, and AI adoption, combining hands-on experience with academic insight to help organizations turn innovation into impact.

March 25, 2026Episode 10132 min

EP101 - Harnessing Data for Intelligent Service w/ Denise MacDonell, Flash Global

During the response to a service event and the process of quickly getting assets back up and running, a trove of information above and beyond the failure, data is visible but has historically been largely underutilized. In the face of greater complexity paired with higher expectations, service organizations have the impending need to transform data from the planning process, parts’ movements and customer management into greater intelligence applied to planning service, mining data or managing the customer and the asset from a less transactional perspective.Tune in as Denise MacDonell, Flash Global’s CTMO, stops by the podcast studio to talk about the shift she’s seeing from reactive operations to intelligence-driven service networks powered by AI, real-time visibility, and connected data. We’ll unpack how AI is evolving from reporting dashboards to embedded, decision-ready intelligence that reroutes freight, optimizes inventory placement, flags service risk, and integrates compliance directly into execution.From hyperlocal fulfillment to AI-powered control towers and outcome-based partnerships, this conversation outlines what separates high-performing service supply chains from the rest and why readiness will define competitive advantage in the next era of service.

March 11, 2026Episode 10039 min

Special Episode - 100 Conversations Later: The Voices That Shaped inService

One hundred episodes. One hundred powerful conversations. One incredible community.Join us for an extra special episode of the inService™ Podcast, celebrating 100 episodes! Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, what started as a way to make sense of uncertainty quickly became a trusted space for honest dialogue, fresh thinking, and meaningful connection across the service ecosystem.In this special edition, we look back at the moments that defined the journey, the lessons that stuck with us, and the themes that continue to move the industry forward… with a few laughs and a surprise or two along the way. From transformation stories to the rise of Service is Humanity, this episode honors how far the community has come and sets the stage for the next 100 conversations still to unfold —because if the first chapter taught us anything, it’s that the best insights are still to come.

March 11, 2026Episode 9942 min

EP99 - Caller is the New King: Service AI Without a Screen w/ Indresh MS, Aquant

As service organizations accelerate their investments in AI, many leaders are grappling with a critical question: to innovate and challenge the way in which processes are executed, or to settle for incremental gains without disrupting how people engage throughout a service experience. Voice AI sits at the center of that tension. It brings about a new way of interacting with data and technology, and such changes can create friction. However, experience shows that properly deployed under the right circumstances, voice capabilities can deliver meaningful efficiency gains and overall better experiences for the frontline and customers alike. Tune in on Thursday, February 19th at 12pm EST, as we’re joined by Indresh MS, Aquant’s VP of Product & Technology Labs. We’ll explore how service leaders are moving beyond novelty to practical, high-impact voice AI use cases grounded in real operational challenges. Drawing from hands-on experience working with field service teams, contact centers, and enterprise service organizations, this conversation brings clarity to the where, why and how behind getting value from successful voice adoption. From call intake and data capture to technician enablement and continuous learning, the episode offers a clear framework for thinking about voice AI maturity as a function of the organization, not the technology.Indresh is Vice President of Product & Technology Labs at Aquant. He brings nearly 20 years of experience building SaaS products at companies including ServiceMax and SAP. Over the past year, he’s focused on refining Aquant’s Voice AI capabilities and translating them into real-world value for frontline service teams.

February 13, 2026Episode 9840 min

EP98 - Service Parts: The Key to Service Growth in 2026 w/ Josh Weiss, Syncron

As service organizations approach 2026, leaders must balance stabilizing operations with driving growth. Efficiency and cost control are key but not enough; operational choices need to align with commercial results. Service leaders should focus on investments that improve resilience and long-term revenue.Join us and Josh Weiss, CEO of https://www.syncron.com/, to discuss how economic uncertainty, labor issues, and AI skepticism impact priorities, and why parts strategy is crucial for revenue growth. The session will offer actionable insights on integrating parts, service, and supply chain to create a unified growth plan, highlighting concrete ways service can boost resilience and open market opportunities through 2026.Josh Weiss is the Chief Executive Officer of Syncron, bringing nearly two decades of global leadership experience in industrial technology and digital transformation. His cross-functional expertise in finance, operations, and digital innovation positions him to accelerate Syncron’s growth as a global leader in aftermarket solutions. Prior to joining Syncron, Weiss served as President of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, where he led the division’s global strategy and operations. Weiss began his career at ArcelorMittal and later served as a senior manager at Deloitte, advising on performance improvement and financial strategy.

January 9, 2026Episode 9734 min

Designing Support Journeys with Multimodal AI w/ Shan Lilja

According to Service Council’s Voice of the Field Service Engineer survey, 60% of frontline workers report that the products they service have grown significantly more complex over the past five years. As assets grow more complex, so does the support required to install, maintain and repair them. While traditional text-based AI excels at addressing common and routine issues, support teams often face challenges when problems are nuanced or involve multiple data types, such as images, video, voice, or structured data. In these cases, incomplete context can lead to extended downtime, additional delays, and increased frustration for both technicians and customers.Join us as Service Council’s Chief Research Officer, Gerardo Pelayo, sits down with Shan Lilja, President and Founder of Mavenoid. Together, they’ll discuss how service leaders can design more effective escalation paths that capture the full context of a customer’s issue, enabling faster and more accurate resolutions while preserving the essential role of human expertise.Shan is the co-founder and CEO of Mavenoid. Prior to Mavenoid, he co-founded the internet startup Gruppi, acquired by 24 Media Network, and was an early employee at Palantir.