(QAD Inc.: Santa Barbara, CA) -- QAD, a company transforming manufacturing and supply chains with intelligent, adaptive solutions, has outlined a bold shift to a reimagined manufacturing platform designed specifically for midmarket manufacturing companies and the plant facilities of large enterprises to help them seize today’s generational opportunities in manufacturing. The announcement was made at QAD | Redzone’s flagship customer event, Champions of Manufacturing, held Nov. 12–14, 2025, in Dallas at the Loews Arlington Hotel & Convention Center.

In unveiling the company’s latest offerings across three core pillars, QAD | Redzone said its manufacturing platform—Redzone Connected Workforce, designed to improve productivity through empowering the frontlines; QAD Adaptive, the intelligent backbone ERP software built for speed, intelligence and impact; and Champion AI, the agentic AI engine powering both of these platforms to amplify human potential—is ushering in a new era for manufacturing, replacing static systems of record with intelligent systems of action that move at the speed of change.

The Champions of Manufacturing event took place amid a tectonic shift in manufacturing influenced by geopolitical forces and innovative AI technology, a shift that requires a new operating approach, one where autonomous, goal-driven agents continuously learn, reason, and act on behalf of the business. Together, they form a manufacturing platform built to act, not just report, to work alongside teams—every shift, every day. The platforms are the first to combine modern ERP with a connected workforce solution and a smart, agentic layer—all designed to help manufacturers address trapped productivity, get out from under rigid, dated systems, and to modernize quickly to capture the value possible in today’s market.

Manufacturers must meet the moment

Manufacturers today face a rare mix of opportunities and challenges that cut across every size and sector. Manufacturing is a focus of the nation’s domestic policy agenda, tariffs have redrawn supply routes, reshoring has reignited domestic production, and government incentives are channeling billions into innovation hubs across America. At the same time, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is transforming how people work, how systems act, and how businesses grow.

Yet even as opportunity surges, challenges persist. Millions of manufacturing jobs are expected to open in the years ahead, but nearly half could go unfilled without urgent action on workforce development and technology innovation. And, in a world where the industrial ecosystem is reloading, many companies aren’t keeping pace. While large manufacturers operate at the cutting edge, many midmarket companies remain trapped in legacy ERP systems that are costly, rigid, and nearing end of life while lacking the automation, intelligence, and flexibility needed to keep pace with policy shifts, close skills gaps, and harness the power of AI-driven transformation.

“In this unprecedented moment for industry, at QAD | Redzone we’re transforming manufacturing from systems of record to systems of action where every employee, every machine, every decision drives measurable impact,” says Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of QAD | Redzone. “Using agentic AI, we’re building systems that learn, adapt, and act—anticipating issues, recommending decisions, and automating routine tasks. Manufacturers who lead the next generation of manufacturing will be those that are the most adaptive, turning speed into strategy, data into decisions, and people into catalysts of change. This isn’t just a better version of ERP. It’s a new model altogether.”

Systems built to anticipate what’s next; costs of inaction are real

At the Champions of Manufacturing event, QAD | Redzone unveiled a platform it said was built for this moment: one that leverages agentic AI to empower the entire workforce from shop floor to top floor; targets 90-day projects, not multiyear deployments; drives execution to match the speed of decision-making; and shifts from reaction to change, and to shaping what’s next. The powerful combination of Redzone workforce solutions, adaptive ERP, and Champion AI was designed to facilitate customers’ rapid transition to modern agentic solutions without ripping or replacing systems completely, and without totally losing the investment already made in systems.

The company said the debut of Champion AI provides a smart, action-first layer built with deep manufacturing expertise. Unlike traditional AI that primarily focuses on analysis, Champion AI’s purpose-built agents are designed to act, not just analyze.

The company unveiled an array of available agents purpose-built across three focus areas:

Productivity agents automate repetitive ERP tasks so planners, schedulers, and operators can focus on what matters most by making fast, informed decisions.

Optimization agents tackle challenges like reducing inventory carrying costs and balancing supply risk, analyzing variables in real time to optimize performance across the business.

Implementation agents drive a more rapid value return by enabling midsize plants to go live in as little as 90 days. From data migration to configuration, agents streamline setup and execution at unprecedented speed.

“Midmarket manufacturers can’t afford to stay anchored in static, transactional systems,” says Patrick Moorhead, founder, CEO, and chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Shifting to an event-driven model isn’t just modernization—it’s survival. In an environment shaped by investment surges, supply-chain transformation, workforce shortages, and new compliance demands, manufacturers that embrace automation, agentic AI, and real-time operations will gain a decisive edge. The cost of waiting now exceeds the cost of beginning through slower performance, higher costs, and the risk of being outpaced by AI-driven competitors.”

From top floor to shop floor: How speed becomes a competitive advantage

At the Dallas event, QAD | Redzone unveiled its platform designed to transform manufacturing by driving dramatic productivity gains and rapid ROI for its customers—often within 90 days—through real-time visibility, improved equipment effectiveness, and more empowered teams. QAD | Redzone enables leaner, smarter operations by accelerating onboarding, elevating less-experienced operators, and freeing skilled workers for higher-value tasks. With intuitive, AI-powered tools built for today’s digital-native workforce, QAD | Redzone is helping manufacturers modernize, compete, and lead in this defining decade.

Modern platforms equipped with intuitive interfaces and embedded guidance will enable leaner teams to perform at higher levels by reducing onboarding time, empowering less-experienced operators, and retaining skilled workers by eliminating repetitive, low-value tasks. Today’s new workforce comes into the enterprise already AI-savvy and digitally native, and they expect their employer to deliver a modern environment where they can put those skills to work.

“The imperative to modernize systems powered by agentic AI is only strengthened by increasing evidence that companies that accelerate their AI maturity can reap exponential growth in profit, quality, and productivity,” says R. “Ray” Wang, founder, chairman, and principal analyst of Constellation Research.

In keynote remarks at the Dallas event, Wang said, “For midmarket manufacturers, the goal is to accelerate decision velocity. Yes, speed is a strategy because the tension between strategic intent and system lag is becoming untenable. Companies must move from legacy solutions designed for yesterday’s back-office business environment and adapt quickly to modern, agentic ERP systems with fully connected workforce solutions that enhance the frontline worker if they are to meet today’s once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

Modern solutions on modern infrastructure

At the company’s customer conference, QAD | Redzone also announced a strategic collaboration to bring agentic AI to the midmarket manufacturing sector through Champion AI, a breakthrough platform built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure and AI services. The collaboration combines QAD | Redzone’s manufacturing expertise and AWS’s cloud capabilities to make AI practical, scalable, and secure for midmarket manufacturers.

Built on AWS cloud infrastructure and leveraging services such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, Champion AI delivers intelligent automation, predictive insights, and real-time decision support directly into manufacturing workflows—enabling measurable productivity gains, reduced downtime, and accelerated time to value. As part of this collaboration, QAD | Redzone is transitioning its global workloads to AWS’s cloud. This migration will create a modern, cloud-native foundation for QAD’s manufacturing platform, enabling faster delivery of new features, improved reliability, and seamless scalability for customers worldwide.

In addition to the AWS infrastructure news, QAD | Redzone also reinforced its strategic relationship with Boomi, announced in May 2025, enabling QAD customers to benefit from Boomi’s cutting-edge platform with rapid, prebuilt connections across systems—including QAD | Redzone. This powerful integration approach directly addresses the need for companies to benefit from the seamless integration of systems, a faster pace of integration, and the importance of moving data. All are essential to deriving the maximum value from systems. The result will be prebuilt integrations between QAD | Redzone and third-party systems to reduce implementation time and complexity. Embedded Boomi connectors within QAD | Redzone software enable plug-and-play connectivity across the manufacturing stack. AI-powered process insights from Champion AI and the Boomi agentic platform are all designed to remove integration as a barrier to scale and innovation.

Helping manufacturers move ahead quickly

With speed as a critical strategy in today’s market environment, QAD | Redzone also outlined the benefits of Champion Pace, the implementation engine that leverages Champion AI to deliver adaptive deployments in 90 days or fewer. Champion Pace is a standardized, AI-assisted delivery framework that uses automation, preconfigured best practices, and proven playbooks drawn from QAD’s experience across thousands of factories, delivering a repeatable, scalable process designed to help every customer go live faster, more smoothly, and more predictably, regardless of size or industry. It also builds upon the customer’s existing infrastructure, protecting prior investments while modernizing systems and accelerating performance.

QAD | Redzone also announced that the company’s new Adaptive release, along with Champion AI and its suite of agentic AI agents. Redzone Connected Workforce platform were all generally available for U.S. customers.