This week, Aquant hosted its first-ever Service AI Strategy Bootcamp, a no-nonsense, strategy-packed event for service leaders who are done waiting and ready to act. With the pressure on to modernize faster, reduce costs, and solve the talent crisis, the event delivered more than insights; it delivered a playbook.
Every session was designed like a field drill—with clear objectives, tactical frameworks, and lessons from the front lines. From decoding messy data to redefining leadership in times of change, this was AI strategy built for the battlefield.
Here’s a mission map of the knowledge shared in each session.
Own the AI Conversation: Driving Strategy, Not Just Adoption
Speakers: John Carroll & Gerardo Pelayo, Ph.D. (Service Council); Tim Burge (Aquant)
Bootcamp kicked off by addressing a hard truth: many AI initiatives fail not because the technology is flawed, but because service leaders don’t lead the conversation. This session gave attendees a critical edge—an insider’s view into what top-performing orgs are doing right now to gain buy-in and drive results.
The Service Council team shared eye-opening data:
- 45% of field techs plan to exit their roles within 3 years. The knowledge gap is real and growing fast.
- Leaders face a two-front war: navigating digital complexity (too many tools, fragmented data) and battling digital hesitation (waiting for perfection instead of acting).
- Service leaders can’t afford to be passive adopters. They must become strategic owners of AI.
We explored real benchmarks from the 2025 Service Leader Agenda and AI research:
- Organizations where service owns the AI agenda see the most impact, especially on frontline performance.
- Those who position AI as core to strategy, not a side project, are 3x more likely to report success.
- The “Build vs. Buy” debate is not a tech decision; it’s a decision about talent, time, and scalability.
The bottom line: if AI is everyone’s responsibility, it’s no one’s. The best orgs assign ownership early, align with business KPIs, and build cross-functional momentum from day one.
The Power of Voice (and Beyond): Transforming Service with Aquant’s Agentic AI Platform
Speaker: Edwin Pahk, SVP of Customer Success (Aquant)
Next, Edwin Pahk took us from strategy to action, showing how AI isn’t just transforming service on paper, but in real conversations, on real calls, solving real issues.
Enter Call Assist, Aquant’s AI-powered voice agent that acts like your smartest tech, service lead, and trainer rolled into one.
Attendees watched two live scenarios unfold:
- A tech calls the AI, gets guided through a diagnostic, and is transferred to a human when the AI doesn’t have the answer.
- The next time someone asks that same question, the AI remembers the human answer and delivers it on the spot.
The impact?
- Faster resolutions without sacrificing accuracy
- No more tribal knowledge bottlenecks
- AI that actually learns from human interactions, building expertise call by call
And for field techs stuck in a basement or on a remote site without Wi-Fi, Aquant’s Offline Mode ensures they still have access to machine history, manuals, schematics, and troubleshooting guidance—no connection is required.
The session made clear that AI adoption doesn’t start with dashboards. It begins by embedding AI into how your team already works. With voice, offline, and context-aware support, Aquant redefines what “AI in service” really means.
KEYNOTE: Extreme Ownership in Times of Change
Speaker: Jocko Willink, Leadership Expert & Former U.S. Navy SEAL
Then came the keynote and the moment everything clicked.
Jocko Willink, retired Navy SEAL and bestselling author, delivered a battle-hardened playbook for leading through uncertainty. His message: AI transformation isn’t just a tech shift—it’s a leadership challenge. And to win, you need more than tools. You need the right mindset.
He walked us through his Four Laws of Combat Leadership:
- Cover & Move: Tear down silos. Every department must protect and support each other to move forward.
- Simple: If the plan is too complex to explain in plain language, it’s doomed to fail.
- Prioritize & Execute: Chaos happens. The best leaders detach emotionally, identify what matters most, and act fast.
- Decentralized Command: Every level, from new tech to senior VP, must lead. Empowerment beats micromanagement every time.
Jocko didn’t sugarcoat the challenges. Implementing AI will create friction and shake comfort zones, but that’s exactly where leadership happens.
His takeaway: Good leaders make AI work. Great leaders turn AI into a competitive advantage. Own the process. Set expectations. Train through the chaos. And never outsource leadership.
AI Battle Drill: Build vs. Buy
Speaker: Tas Hirani, Director of Enablement, Aquant
In our final drill, Tas Hirani brought the clarity service leaders need to navigate one of the most politicized decisions in AI adoption: Should we build our own AI? Or buy one that’s built for service?
Spoiler: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. However, there is a right framework for making the decision.
Tas outlined a decision model grounded in:
- Time to impact (how fast do you need results?)
- Talent access (do you have the people to build?)
- Data maturity (how clean and structured is your data?)
- Cross-functional alignment (are IT, service, and ops moving in sync?)
She also highlighted the hidden costs of building:
- Delays in training and deployment
- Long ramp-up time for in-house AI talent
- Fragmented tools with low adoption
And showed how buying can provide:
- Proven outcomes from day one
- Access to battle-tested best practices
- A unified platform that scales with your team
One of the most powerful insights is that what works today might not scale tomorrow. Flexibility and future-readiness should be key decision criteria, especially as AI continues to evolve faster than internal teams can upskill.
Keep Your Edge: Take the 7 Day Challenge
Bootcamp may be over, but your mission isn’t.
Take the Aquant 7 Day Challenge. It’s a guided sprint that helps you apply everything you learned in just one week. There is no fluff, no delays, just real action.
Over 7 days, you’ll:
- Map your org’s AI readiness
- Clarify your top 3 strategic objectives
- Identify key internal stakeholders
- Choose one initiative to pilot immediately
It’s not about being perfect. It’s about moving forward with discipline, clarity, and extreme ownership.
Ready to lead the AI transformation from the front? Join the 7 Day Challenge and prove that your team is built for the next era of service.
About the Author
Courtney Stafford, Marketing Programs Lead, Aquant
Hi there! I’m the Marketing Programs Lead at Aquant. My passion lies in creating unique in-person and virtual experiences, crafting engaging content, sharing best practices—and, most importantly, empowering service teams like yours to thrive.
