CSIA 2025: Integrators Talk AI, Legacy Upgrades, and Industry Culture

Speaker A: Welcome to the Rivergate Marketing Podcast. In this episode hear from Keith Mandicit of hdr, Peter Moskal of Engineered Energy Solutions, Steve Molisco of Malisko Engineering, and Barry Bryan of drm. We discuss modernizing legacy systems, applying autonomous AI, navigating industry consolidation, and the value of community at the 2025 CSIA conferen. Please introduce yourself, name, title and company.

Speaker B: Yeah, my name is, uh, Keith Mandichet. I'm with hdr. My title is Control Systems Integration Team Lead.

Speaker A: What does HDR do?

Speaker B: So HDR is a very large engineering and architecture firm, so very well known for doing design. 13,000 employees and hundreds of offices all across the country. So, uh, yeah, very, very big company. Uh, you know, CSIA is kind of new to them. We're not even a member or certified company, but definitely looking into doing that. So. But yeah, that's, uh, HGR's bread and butters and doing water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities. And, uh, you know, I talk about design. It's like the whole thing. So, like very multidisciplined engineering firms. So we have structural, civil, electrical, mechanical, and even the controls engineers. So control system integration is a small portion of the business, but it's a growing part of the business.

Speaker A: Wow. Very diverse. So what are the biggest trends or challenges you're seeing in the industry right now?

Speaker B: For me, uh, now I'm on the design side. I mean, I spent 28 years working for a system integrator, and so that's been my world. One of the challenges I see in the industry is still having legacy systems out there. Even today, I'm working on a project involving a client that has, uh, some really old legacy systems that they really need to be upgraded. And, you know, as far as, uh, networking and cybersecurity is concerned, that's another area that they really need to do something. And so that challenge of like, you know, we have this large install base of control system hardware and software, but how do we get to that next step is. It is pretty challenging and daunting. So I feel like, you know, that's still a challenge in the industry. I mean, I've probably been talking about it for years, but, um, it's. It's crazy that, yeah, it's still. Still today in 2025, we're still, we're still dealing with clients that are dealing with that. And, you know, I really liked what I heard this morning. And the keynote speaker, you know, everybody's talking about the factory of the future. What is that? But really it's what the factory of the present, um, is really what the goal should be. And that really resonated with me and I think that should be the challenge, not, not the future, but the today.

Speaker A: There's been some good sessions. What technology innovations are you most excited about?

Speaker B: Uh, so, yeah, one of the things that I'm excited, most excited about is autonomous AI. So a lot of the, A lot of the talk and news has been about generative AI, you know, your ChatGPT and things like that. But one of the, you know, that next step of AI, which has kind of been referred to as autonomous AI, that is what I'm really excited about. Uh, so the example I can give is like you have an air handler that uh, is conditioning outside air before it goes to a piece of equipment. And so you tune the system so that it can condition the air to the right temperature, the right humidity, and the right airflow. Being in Nebraska. So if I did this and it's the middle of the summer, well, the outside conditions, it's in Nebraska. Summer is really humid. Summer very hot. Uh, but, you know, come winter, those parameters that I put in place for that system to make adjustments accordingly, well, they were done during the summer and now it's winter, which is very dry, very cold. So, uh, it's a very different set of conditions to be, uh, trying to adjust to. So a, ah, perfect example for autonomous AI would be to develop a model for this air handler unit and to have it learn the different conditions that, uh, it needs to adjust the equipment to and then develop that model and then put that model in place so that as the conditions change, it's analyzing and seeing that and then making those changes automatically in the plc. So, you know, what used to be a person that would have to like, realize, oh, you know what, the weather's changed and we need to make some adjustments to the tuning parameters for this air handler. So it would take an operator to manually do that. Well, now that can be done by an AI model. And you know, that's, that's one of the things I see that's very exciting is like things that have been traditionally operators that, you know, have 30 years of experience, they know exactly what buttons to push, what things to tweak while those guys are retiring. That craft of learning that is, you know, it's, it's hard to pass that on or capture that in some way. So, you know, these autonomous AI models, uh, is a great, great technology thing that I think is going to be solving a lot of problems that are going to be popping up here in the future, near future.

Speaker A: Interesting. I hadn't heard about that before. Here at the CSIA conference, are there any insights, valuable insights or takeaways, or is there a session you're particularly looking forward to?

Speaker B: Uh, so this is my 11th or 12th. Can't remember how many conferences I've been to. And one of the things I've always taken away from the conference is just the networking with other people and just, you know, talking about the same challenges that we're facing. You know, this was a conference that I wasn't sure I was going to be attending this year. Now that I am here, uh, very much looking forward to, uh, just reconnecting with people that I've developed relationships with because, yeah, it's in my mind. Yeah, relationships are key. And so being able to start new ones or also reconnect those old ones, um, has been real valuable.

Speaker A: I agree. How can people connect with you, Keith?

Speaker B: LinkedIn's probably the easiest way.

Speaker C: Very good.

Speaker A: Thank you so much.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Please introduce yourself. Name, title and company.

Speaker D: I'm Peter Moskul with Engineered Energy Solutions. I am VP of Operations.

Speaker A: What does EEs, uh, specialize in?

Speaker D: So we specialize in tunnel infrastructure, bridges, ventilation systems, and we have a separate division that deals with BMS building management systems.

Speaker A: And what geographic location is that in?

Speaker D: We're in the Tri State area of New York and Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Speaker E: Great.

Speaker A: What are the biggest trends or challenges you're seeing in the industry right now?

Speaker D: The AI, which I'm sure has been said quite often. I think the term AI is a bit broad and the true understanding of what AI is and what it can and can't do for you and the caveats that it has that come with it for copyright purposes.

Speaker A: Interesting. What technology innovations are you excited about? Anything coming down the pike?

Speaker D: I'm going to go back to AI. You know, as scary as it is, I think the change in technology is going to evolve so rapidly within the next five years that this quote unquote term of AI is going to be something that will actually be a more broad and detailed, more explained thing. You know, it's not just a computer with an algorithm now that's generating its own equation. It will evolve enough to actually be able to put stuff into it and get way more out of it than what you expected.

Speaker A: How do you think that's going to impact your work at ees? Any ideas?

Speaker D: I wish I could answer that question. I would like to say it's going to help consolidate some of the overhead costs that we have to bring those down and actually streamline a lot of our internal practices.

Speaker B: Great.

Speaker A: I know it's early in the conference, but do you have a valuable insight or takeaway or is there a session that you're particularly interested in?

Speaker D: Uh, there is one coming up for acquisitions that I'm actually looking forward to, to see the perspectives of what happens to people that have been acquired and still are now working for the new company and what the changeover has been like. That exchange, that to me is an interesting concept. It's not something that we're familiar with, but it is something that our company is looking into, possibly doing.

Speaker A: There's been a lot of consolidations in the industry, so I'm sure there's a lot of peers here at CSIA that will be talking about that. How can people connect with you?

Speaker D: You can reach us on, um, LinkedIn, ees or our website, uh, ees-inc.com and you personally, my LinkedIn. You can absolutely reach out to me.

Speaker A: Thank you. Please introduce yourself. Your name, title and company.

Speaker C: Thank you. My name is Steve Malisko. I'm co, uh, founder and CEO of, um, Malisco Engineering. We've been a system integrator, uh, since 1994. So we've been around for 31 years. And also too, I'm a retiring, uh, member of the CSIA board of directors.

Speaker E: Great.

Speaker A: What are the biggest trends or challenges you're seeing in the industry right now?

Speaker C: Well, there's a couple things. Uh, you know, first of all is trying to find good, qualified, energetic talent. I mean, that continues to be one of our biggest challenges, uh, in terms of having good resources. But the other trends we're seeing too is the thirst and the move for artificial intelligence being applied in the manufacturing space. One of the biggest parts of that though is for anyone who's used like ChatGPT or any of the AI, uh, platforms, the value of AI is that it goes out and looks at everything that's out there on the web. Well, in manufacturing, people don't want to do that. People don't want their intellectual property to be exposed to the rest of the world. So one of the biggest trends and one of the challenges that integrators, system integrators are seeing is that how can we leverage artificial intelligence in the manufacturing environment without relying on, uh, what's out there on the, on the web?

Speaker A: What technology innovations are you excited about?

Speaker C: Well, I've kind of already sort of said that in a sense that uh, right now artificial intelligence in the manufacturing space is something that is very, very Exciting. People are asking for it, people want to implement it, but they're looking for direction on how, how to do that and how to implement it, uh, in a safe and secure way.

Speaker A: I know it's early in the conference, but do you have a valuable insight or takeaway or is there a session that you're particularly interested in?

Speaker C: As far as the CSAA conference, our CSIA always strives to stay relevant with current technology, with current trends, and CSIA always works towards doing everything they can to help their integrator members become better business people. This year is no different than every other CSAI conference that I personally haven't attended in the last 19 years. That it's all about meeting new people, connecting, sharing ideas. The founders of CSIA always said give one idea and receive 10 in response and it's no truer then as it is today. And I hope, sincerely hope, that all CSIA members will continue to follow that plan.

Speaker A: Anything else you'd like to share?

Speaker C: You know, I've been, uh, fortunate that I've been affiliated and associated with CSIA on the various committees. Marketing committee, best practices committee, partner committee. They've all been great people. And I would suggest to every member of CSIA to leverage those resources, share with them your information. You will get a lot of feedback, uh, that will help you become better business people and better at doing what you do day in and day out.

Speaker A: That's great advice. How can people connect with you?

Speaker C: Oh, thank you. Um, as far as connecting with me, it's um, Steve Miliscoe. Uh, my, uh, email address is smiliscollisco.com and I'm always available and always willing to help any CSIA member.

Speaker A: Thank you so much. Please introduce yourself. Name, title, and uh, my name is

Speaker E: Barry Bryan and uh, I am the owner of DRM llc and you can find us down in sunny and exotic Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.

Speaker A: Tell me about drm.

Speaker E: Um, well, we are a, uh, systems integrator that we have suddenly found out that we are really an oem. Um, uh, over the years we started building a lot of more equipment. We used to just do software, but now we're finding as we build more equipment that we're really fitting in the OEM space a lot more than we are si.

Speaker A: Was that a surprise?

Speaker E: It was a surprise. Rockwell Automation is the one that brought that to our attention and let us know because they moved us from the SI over to OEM network and it made a lot of sense and it also helped us do a better job of focusing our efforts so we could Be better.

Speaker A: Wonderful. What are the biggest trends or challenges you're seeing in the industry right now?

Speaker E: For us, the biggest trends are autonomous mobile robots, amrs. That is one of the neatest things that's coming out. We've had opportunities to work with a couple of the AMR suppliers. So far they are getting a lot better AMRs out there. Software is getting better, the units are getting better, batteries are better, everything's better to where they're getting to where that they're just working really well for customers. They're really liking them. And now there's a lot of companies that's replacing their old systems that maybe are not working as good or starting to show signs of age with newer ones that are much better. And they're seeing a lot more advantages of getting data, uh, out of them, more tied into their erp, uh, MES systems, better and better tied into the cloud, anytime computing, data collection, anything they want to do is much better now with AMRs than they were before.

Speaker A: I'm a bit familiar with AMRs and I'm wondering, do you have to write custom software for that interface?

Speaker E: You can, uh, some do, some have their own, which every one of them has their own fleet manager that allows, uh, those uh, cars to move around as they need to. But there's also all the integration work that goes to take that to tie that into their MES ERP system as well as to tie it into their machinery, uh, out on the floor that it may be connected with.

Speaker A: Very good. What technology innovations are you most excited about?

Speaker E: Well, of course, IIoT we thought that was something that was more of a buzzword than anything and we're seeing that more and more becoming real. Uh, anytime we build a machine these days, we're always looking for, even if the customer doesn't want it, we're looking for reasons why to be able to sell them the data collection so they don't have to do it right now, they don't have to put the effort into it. The PLC is already there, data collection is already there, but with some slight modifications to the software then it's available. So we always think about that and we try to help our client realize that with the equipment the already have, with slight modifications, you can get a lot more value out of it into that IIoT, uh, segment.

Speaker A: Very cool. So here we are at the CSIA conference. We're finishing up day one. Uh, are there any insights or takeaways you've had from today or a particular session you're looking forward to tomorrow?

Speaker E: Everything so Far has been great. I really enjoyed it. I think it looks to me like it's a record crowd. It seems there's a lot more people here this year. It seems like everybody has been more open even than usual to networking. I've seen that happening a lot. And the biggest takeaway that I'm going to say, I have had two or more folks that this is their first time here, their first time attenders, and they have asked me, why is there such, uh, an attitude here of folks who want to work together instead of wanting to compete? And I told them that I've been around since CSIA for a long time and that's exactly what it was founded on. Because if we're all better at what we do, we're going to do a better job. And the thing that hurts us integrators as much as anything is an integrator who does a poor job or doesn't, uh, interact with the client the way they should, doesn't provide what the client was wanting, they get a bad taste in their mouth. And if we all do a better job and do better and know how to do better or make connections to where two or three of us can work together to provide the great solution, that's exactly what CSIA is all about.

Speaker A: I agree. I did notice that there have been more first time attendees this year than in past years.

Speaker E: It looks like there has been, which is wonderful.

Speaker A: We really need to grow this association, keep it fresh.

Speaker E: True.

Speaker A: Anything else you'd like to share?

Speaker E: Honestly, like I said, I just think this has been one of the best conferences yet. And I don't know if it's the location, if it's the way that the conference has been ran, if it's the way that, or maybe it's a combination of all that, but it just seems like this has been the best conference yet. I've seen more people engage, I've seen more people, uh, hang around. I've seen more people, uh, talk afterwards and not necessarily want to go back to their rooms, you know, than I've ever seen before. So that, that is one of the best things I think I've seen out of this. And everybody's just really glad to be here. I've heard a lot of people say it's like a reunion. And so that has been really nice too. And even some of the first timers almost feel that way because everybody's made them feel so welcome to be here.

Speaker A: Oh, nice. Yeah. I always call it my extended family reunion once a year. Yeah. How can people connect with you.

Speaker E: Well, uh, of course you can always look me up on LinkedIn. It's Barry B A R R Y Brian B R I A N. Uh, my email address, if you happen to, uh, want to eat, email me is barry.brianrmcontrols um.com. look me up. Um, I'm always glad to talk to anybody.

Speaker A: Thank you so much.

Speaker E: Thank you, Christine. As always.

Speaker A: Founded in 2009, Rivergate Marketing is a full service digital marketing agency serving small to mid sized B2B companies trying to reach technical and engineering buyers. We are passionate about building strategic and data driven marketing and PR programs to help our clients compete and be found in a crowded digital space against much larger companies with seemingly endless marketing dollars. For more information, visit us online@rivergatemarketing.com.