Ultimo, an IFS company and provider of AI-embedded enterprise asset management (EAM), today announced it will exhibit at PACK EXPO International 2026, taking place October 18–21 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Ultimo will welcome attendees at Booth #N-4886, where the company will showcase how industrial AI is helping maintenance, reliability, and operations teams make better decisions - not just track more uptime.
The show comes as manufacturers and processors face a compounding set of pressures on the plant floor. Nearly 7 in 10 maintenance professionals are already over the age of 50, according to a Plant Engineering salary survey, and JLL estimates that 2.1 million U.S. skilled-trades positions - including maintenance, electrical, and mechanical roles - could go unfilled by 2030. Average repair times have climbed from 49 to 81 minutes over the past five years - not because equipment has become harder to fix, but because the experience needed to fix it quickly is walking out the door. Meanwhile, unplanned downtime continues to cost Global 2000 companies an estimated $200 million a year, according to Splunk.
Against that backdrop, Ultimo says many operations are also hitting a wall of AI fatigue - a flood of vendors offering AI-products geared towards maintenance, with few offering proof it improves decision-making on the shop floor.
“Industrial AI, Built for How Maintenance Actually Works” is the throughline for Ultimo’s presence at the show, reflecting the company’s position that AI should be trained on industrial data - asset hierarchies, work-order history safety protocols - and run in advisory mode, where the AI suggests and a human decides. Ultimo describes its platform as “one platform that powers assets, people, and digital workers,” built to support technicians and engineers rather than replace their judgment.
“Every vendor at this show will tell you their system can handle maintenance. What they won't tell you is whether it's making better calls six months in than it did on day one, or whether it's capturing the judgment of the technicians who are retiring before that knowledge is lost,” explains Berend Booms, Head of Enterprise Asset Management Insights, Ultimo. “That's the problem Ultimo was designed to solve.”
Ultimo will also take the stage at PACK EXPO's Innovation Stage 2 (Booth N-4580, North Hall) with a session titled “You've Invested in AI. Now What?”
- Speaker: Kevin Price
- When: Sunday, October 18, 2026, 2:00–2:30 PM
- Where: Innovation Stage 2, Booth N-4580, North Hall
“Most manufacturers we talk to have already made the AI investment,” continues Booms. “The question we hear far more often now isn't 'should we adopt AI' - it's 'how do we know if it's actually working, and how do we build trust in it on the shop floor.' That's exactly what this session is for.”
Attendees can find Ultimo at Booth #N-4886 throughout the show, October 18–21 at McCormick Place, Chicago. Candi Robison and members of the Ultimo team will be on-site for meetings and product demonstrations. To schedule a meeting or learn more, visit https://info.ultimo.com/pack-expo-2026.
