Abstract: The emergence of Agentic AI represents a fundamental architectural shift in how organizations deploy autonomous intelligence across enterprise operations. Moving beyond
traditional automation and conversational AI, organizational AI agents function as persistent digital workers capable of continuous observe-plan-act cycles, managing end-to-end workflows while autonomously making decisions within defined governance frameworks. I shall explain why industrial engineers are positioned to be the main people that bring, operate and interact with AI agents and agentic deployment. The presentation continues by examining the production and operational deployment of agentic systems in manufacturing and organizational contexts, drawing on recent industry transformations and best practices that have evolved from experimental pilots to scaled enterprise implementations. The presentation concludes by addressing the strategic implications of agentic transformation: the reshaping of organizational structure, the evolution of workforce skill requirements, and the imperative for governance frameworks that maintain human agency while unlocking the full potential of autonomous intelligence.
About the speaker: Dr. Yuval Cohen (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Industrial Engineering department of the Afeka Tel-Aviv College of Engineering. Previously, he was the Head
of the Industrial Engineering program at the Open University of Israel. His areas of expertise are in the intersection of: Intelligent Manufacturing (associate editor of the Journal of Intelligent
Manufacturing) and Operations management & Logistics (vice chair of IFAC TC-5.1 for Plant Control). In particular, he has published many papers in leading journals on these subjects. Before his academic career Prof. Cohen served several years as a Senior Operations Planner at FedEx Ground (USA) responsible for the five-year plan (Operation of 24 hubs and 400 terminals across the US). He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (USA), his MSc from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and BSc from Ben-Gurion University. Prof. Cohen is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineering (IISE), and a