Anna Bourdais
2026 Speaker

Anna Bourdais

Director, Maritime Training Center of Excellence

Huntington Ingalls Industries

About

Anna Bordais, Ph.D. , serves as Director of the Maritime Training Center of Excellence for Ingalls Shipbuilding. In this role, she leads the development, execution and continuous improvement of the Ingalls Apprenticeship Program and workforce training strategy. With more than 30 years of experience in talent development and human resources, Anna has designed and implemented numerous initiatives to strengthen organizational capability, including human capital strategies, leadership development programs, performance management systems and process improvements. Anna and her team are at the forefront of integrating AR/VR technologies into pipe welding, structural welding and shipfitting, helping to advance the company’s technical training capabilities. Anna holds a Ph.D. in Education, with a concentration in Adult Education and Program Evaluation, from the University of New Orleans. She is also a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She resides on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with her husband and daughter and enjoys reading in her free time.

2026 Sessions

Oct 1311:35 AM12:20 PM
Green BreakoutPanel

(Panel) Empowering the Workforce: AI & XR for Training, Remote Support, and Work Instructions

Atrium Ballroom A

Training, remote support, and augmented work instructions are among the most widely adopted AI/XR use cases, but success requires redesigned workflows and sustained adoption.  As organizations weigh return to office policies, distributed teams continue to rely on AI/XR tools to share knowledge, access information, and learn on demand. In this session, end users share how they address real-world constraints like legacy infrastructure and workforce variability to deliver just-in-time guidance, instant expertise, and standardized training across locations. Topics include: – Remote support : Enabling real-time expert guidance, including video assist, annotation, and session capture – Work instructions : Providing hands-free, contextual guidance via AR overlays, 3D models, and step-by-step instructions – Training & simulation : Delivering immersive, repeatable onboarding, upskilling, and soft skills development with AI-driven personalization; simulating high-risk, rare, or complex scenarios – Workflow integration : Embedding AI/XR into frontline systems (LMS, field service, knowledge bases) – Content development : Building and maintaining scalable 3D, video, and simulation content; capturing institutional knowledge – AI augmentation : Leveraging AI agents for knowledge retrieval, guided troubleshooting, and conversational support – Measurement & ROI : Tracking KPIs like time-to-proficiency, error rates, first-time fix, downtime reduction, and retention – Challenges & limitations : Device management, connectivity, certification/validation, cybersecurity, and organizational change