Wednesday 6th May 2026 12:30-2pm BST
Topic: AI in Advanced Services – Opportunities & Challenges for our Partners
Host: Andreas Schroeder
The May Partner Forum on AI in Advanced Services brought together our partners to explore how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the way advanced services are designed, delivered and scaled. Rather than focusing on future possibilities, the discussion examined practical applications of AI being deployed today across sales, service delivery, knowledge management and operational support, alongside the organisational and commercial challenges that accompany adoption.
Key themes explored included:
- How AI is helping organisations capture, scale and share critical technical knowledge in increasingly skills-constrained environments.
- Why data quality, governance and structure are emerging as essential foundations for successful AI deployment.
- The growing challenge of developing sustainable commercial models for AI-enabled services.
- How organisations are balancing trust, transparency and human oversight with the benefits of automation and self-service.
- The importance of maintaining critical human expertise as AI becomes more deeply embedded within service operations.
Partners present gained practical insights from each other’s organisations. Sharing real-world experiences of applying AI to accelerate sales opportunities, support field technicians, preserve organisational knowledge, improve maintenance activities and enhance service delivery. Across all contributions, partners discussed both the value already being created and the strategic tensions that leaders must navigate as AI adoption accelerates.
This Partner Forum reinforced a powerful message:
Successful AI initiatives in advanced services are business-led, grounded in high-quality data and designed to enhance rather than replace human expertise.
The discussion left our partners with practical examples, fresh perspectives and a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of advanced services and manufacturing, while highlighting the strategic choices organisations must make to realise its full potential.
Meet The Team
Our expert team is made up of researchers, practitioners and business transformation pioneers.
Sasha is Senior Industrial Fellow at Aston Business School and the Advanced Services Group. He brings more than 22 years of senior leadership experience with Tetra Pak, where he played a pivotal role in shaping service-led growth, innovation and transformation on a global scale.
Throughout his career, Sasha has been instrumental in developing outcome-based service solutions that redefined how value is delivered to customers. His leadership supported Tetra Pak’s strategic development, helping to embed advanced services at the heart of its business model and enabling sustainable, profitable growth.
Sasha’s expertise lies in turning strategy into practice, guiding organisations through complex change and demonstrating how servitization can deliver competitive advantage. He continues to champion service innovation as a powerful driver of industrial transformation.
Sandra is a Senior Industrial Fellow with the Advanced Services Group and a business consultant based in Germany. She has extensive experience in and passion for accelerating company transformation through business model innovation and technology adoption. As Programme Manager for the Advanced Services Growth programme, she supported 80 UK-based SMEs to boost GVA by £19.2M and create 70 new jobs.
Sandra supports ASG’s advisory services across Europe, delivering organisational development workshops, executive education and commissioned projects. As an Enterprise Educator and Business Mentor, she has advised more than 500 senior executives and founders, applying expertise in business ideation, lean start-up, customer value proposition design and business model innovation.
She is also an International Telecommunication Union Digital Innovation Expert, working with governments worldwide to strengthen ICT-centric innovation ecosystems. Sandra holds an MBA with distinction from Aston University.
Ian is a Visiting Industrial Fellow at the Advanced Services Group, bringing more than 20 years of senior management experience in growing service businesses within the food manufacturing industry. Over the last 15 years, he has focused on service innovation, driving the shift from product support to advanced, outcome-based solutions through servitization.
Since 2008, Ian has held a series of global leadership roles with Tetra Pak, including Director Expert Services and Director of Service Solutions. In these positions, he designed advanced service strategies, built global organisational capabilities and deployed solutions that created measurable value for customers around the world.
Ian is motivated by the opportunity to help manufacturers unlock new ways of competing, showing how advanced services can deliver stronger, more sustainable business performance.
Dimitris is a Senior Energy Efficiency Business Developer Specialist at the Swiss organisation Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE). With more than 13 years of professional experience in the field of energy, entrepreneurship and sustainable technologies, Dimitris has experience in business model innovation, valuation principles and project execution.
Within BASE, Dimitris plays a key role in accelerating the deployment of Servitization worldwide, including the Cooling as a Service (CaaS) model.
Dimitris is part of the founding team of the Servitization for Energy Transition (SET) Alliance – aiming to further engage both private and public markets to adopt the model and accelerate the path to a more climate resilient and circular future. He holds an MEng Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College and and MSc of Management, Technology and Economics from ETH Zürich.
Denise is a qualified sustainability practitioner with over 30 years of experience working with businesses in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Her work at Wylde Connections helps diverse industries create and apply sustainability strategies, ensuring businesses can meet sustainability challenges while staying commercially viable.
Her aim is to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial practice, fostering innovation in sustainability and environmental stewardship.
