How Generative AI Turns Maintenance Data Into Action with Jay Hack

Send us Fan MailYour CMMS probably knows more about your plant than any one person does, but most of that information is buried in reports, menus and half-completed work orders.While we were at Accelerate 2026, we sat down with Jay Hack to look at four practical ways generative AI is being used to make maintenance and reliability work easier, faster and more accurate.The first was the ability to simply talk to your data inside eMaint. Instead of needing to know how to build reports or search through different parts of the system, you can ask a normal question and get an answer back from the CMMS.But as Jay explains, the AI itself is not necessarily the hardest part. The real challenge is making sure the right people have access to the right information, especially across different sites, departments and levels of the business.We then looked at two areas that could make a real difference on the plant floor.The first is automated SOP generation. The system can scan OEM manuals and technical PDFs and turn that information into practical procedures that can be added to work orders. There is still a human involved in checking and approving the content, but it could save a huge amount of time and help improve consistency.The second is voice-based work requests. Technicians and operators can speak naturally into the system, even while they are out on the plant, and the CMMS can then populate the relevant fields.Instead of receiving a work request that just says “pump broken”, you can capture what the operator saw, heard or experienced and create a much better maintenance history.We also discussed how AI could support global teams by searching document libraries, translating manuals and helping standardise maintenance and reliability practices across different sites and countries.Looking further ahead, there is also the potential for AI-powered competency mapping, using a person’s actual work order history and experience to better understand skills and identify development gaps.This was a really practical conversation about where AI can genuinely support maintenance teams, rather than just adding more technology for the sake of it.If you are interested in AI in maintenance, CMMS adoption, preventive maintenance and digital transformation that actually works, give this episode a listen.What is the first maintenance workflow you would want AI to improve?Support the show