Georgia Technology Summit 2025: Ron McMurtrie with Honeywell

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Georgia Technology Summit 2025 at the Woodruff Arts Center. This is Business RadioX. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor. We’re broadcasting live at the Georgia Technology Summit 2025. So excited to be talking to my next guest, the diamond sponsor of this whole thing. It is Ron McMurtrie with Honeywell. Welcome.

Ron McMurtrie: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Um, so excited for you to be here. Tell the folks why it was so important for not only to attend here, but to be the diamond sponsor of this great event.

Ron McMurtrie: Look, uh, we’re a member of the community, just like, um, the rest of the sponsors here. And Honeywell has a large presence with our building automation business and our software business, uh, Honeywell Connected Enterprise, uh, right here on Peachtree, and being a part of this is important for us to support the community, have our colleagues be engaged and share our technology. And, uh, for Honeywell, this is our third year in a row being a sponsor at this level.

Lee Kantor: So now as an organization, Honeywell is all over the planet. But how do you typically when you have presence in a community, do you get this involved or is this unusual?

Ron McMurtrie: Now we have um, we are a global organization, of course, and have colleagues in literally hundreds of countries and serve a broad range of industries. But, you know, where we have major colleague hubs in Houston and in Charlotte and in Atlanta and in parts of the Middle East and Asia, we we tend to very much embrace the community. Honeywell is very much a colleague focused organization, and we serve the the same communities that serve us. And wherever we have large locations, our colleagues tend to rally around the environment and the communities that they’re a part of.

Lee Kantor: So when Honeywell decides to get involved to this level, uh, with a tag, how does that trickle down to all the employees in Honeywell here in Atlanta? Is that something that’s encouraged for everybody at Honeywell to say, okay, we need you to be joining Tag. We need you to take leadership roles. It’s no, it’s we’re not just cutting a check. We’re really immersing our team in our culture into tag.

Ron McMurtrie: We, uh, we don’t require anything of that nature. It’s, uh, it’s an opportunity for them. We treat it as, uh, an area for them to those leaders that are looking to develop, develop themselves or get involved or have special interest communities. We you know, we have I sponsor a lot of it in terms of driving engagement with the colleagues as well as the rest of the leadership team, but it’s inclusive of all colleagues within the market, and they want to be a part of it. We we teach them about the societies and how to get involved. If they’re looking on developing leadership skills, we help them get different positions in terms of serving on boards and serving on committees, but it’s strictly volunteer. We all get back in some way, and it not only develops the career, but gives back to the community and this ecosystem we have.

Lee Kantor: So if you were giving advice to a young person, um, how would you kind of recommend that they leverage an organization like Tag.

Ron McMurtrie: Get involved, experiment, uh, volunteer and find an interest that you want to develop or you can contribute to and participate. We do about 120 events a year. It’s a great way to get out to network. And building a network is important. Um, and then developing your own skills. So tag offers a broad range of ways to get involved in the community. Ways to develop leadership and ways to develop your trade. And with each of our colleagues, when I coach them, I talk to them about how they can do that. And in fact, that’s what’s paid off. A lot in my career is my involvement in Tag and the different chances people have given me by me reaching out.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, did you have a chance to speak at this, uh, summit thus far, or are you speaking later?

Ron McMurtrie: I did, as I serve as the chair of the tag board, and I helped kick it off, the program off. I also did, um, a keynote, uh, participating a keynote fireside chat at the opening.

Lee Kantor: Uh, what was the topic?

Ron McMurtrie: It was I, uh, and and, uh, we we had a fireside chat chat and talked about the future of AI and agents and how agents are going to serve, uh, how agents will take AI to the next level.

Lee Kantor: So how what’s that through the lens of Honeywell from.

Ron McMurtrie: Well, Honeywell has been involved with AI for many of our products for some time. We use a lot of deterministic AI, that is things that can help monitor our products so that they’re always operating and have great uptime. And we can help customers know about a challenge or an opportunity before a challenge or an issue before it comes up. Um, but we’re also heavily embraced gen AI and other types of technology that allows us to make sure that we’re serving our customers, and we’re also using as productivity tools within our business. So we’ve we’re all in on AI in terms of transforming, supporting our colleagues, and most importantly, baking it into our products to make them smarter and, and, uh, better serve the the customers that we provide them to.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a story about how you were able to leverage AI within Honeywell system in order to maybe solve a problem, or to take an issue maybe away or to a new level?

Ron McMurtrie: Yeah, we have a, a, a product called Carbon and Energy Management. Uh, that product, uh, is put within it’s a software application that monitors, monitors, building operations, the heating systems, um, all the environmentals and helps them manage their energy in a way that helps, you know, curate environments for the colleagues, but at the same time, make sure it’s comfortable and safe. And at the end, it gives helps them optimize their spend, uh, on those types of capabilities. So it’s both a colleague benefit, particularly with how workforces are on flex time now. Uh, so that’s a that’s a product that we have, uh, that we deploy across a lot of commercial, uh, operations. Uh, and that’s very much AI driven. So it’s using technology to predict experiences load in the environment. Uh, and and then helping operate the, the building uh, management systems. We also use AI internally. Uh, we use it to help our sales force. So as they’re out, we can help them look at their opportunities, pick the next best opportunity to address based on certain characteristics, and use data models to help predict outcomes. Uh, in in that selling process.

Lee Kantor: It seems like AI information is coming fast and furious, but at the same time, this is probably the worst AI is ever going to be, right? It’s only getting better from this point forward. We’re just scratching the surface, right?

Ron McMurtrie: Well, I don’t I don’t I view it as a technology, uh, evolution and a bit of a revolution. I don’t know that it’s worse, but it’s changing rapidly with each day. There’s new technology breakthroughs, there’s new models that come out, and I. I harken it back to when the internet first came out. It was a bit of a Wild West. And then supply supply side got defined, demand side got defined, and innovation really accelerated the same things happening with AI.

Lee Kantor: So are we at that tipping point where innovation is accelerating.

Ron McMurtrie: At at a pace like I’ve never seen? I don’t I don’t think I’ve seen a piece of technology in my career, been in 30 years of tech that has moved as fast as I have, both from experimental, from the return it drives and the pace in which capabilities are being rolled out.

Lee Kantor: So what if you were looking ahead even six months to a year? What do you foresee?

Ron McMurtrie: Look, I, I see businesses building more knowledge, capabilities to help their workers be more productive. I see products having AI baked into the capabilities so that they run better. They are more predictable and they provide better outcomes. So AI is going to touch every function, every type of operations, how legal works, how finance works. Simple audit functions can now be done with AI agents, uh, and provide those answers and those outcomes. You still need technical colleagues to review and do that. But a lot of that that labor intensive work can now be automated, and colleagues can move to higher order activities that help serve their customers.

Lee Kantor: Is the workforce prepared for this disruption?

Ron McMurtrie: I think it’s like any evolution, there are early adopters. There are some that are retooling their skills. Uh, in marketing, I’m the CMO for for Honeywell. Um, our marketers are going through a transition. They’re learning how I can help craft their content. Uh, they’re learning how I can help with graphics production. They’re learning about how I can help with demand Gen. So it’s like any new tool, you learn it, you adapt, you create, and you educate yourself. Um, are. We already know, but we weren’t ready when the internet came on board. We weren’t ready on that when servers were being virtualized, and we weren’t ready on that when telephone lines switched to virtual private networks and things changed. So technology has gone in phases. And as it as it adjusts, people adapt, they take on new skills, new industries get formed. And that’s what’s that’s what’s so amazing about technology.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the problem that, uh, Honeywell customer is having? That Honeywell is the best solution for them.

Ron McMurtrie: Well, um, I’ll give you it. It depends. But if you want your if you’re an industrial automation and you want the best precision, the best uptime and the safest operations, and you come to Honeywell. But Honeywell, uh, is focused on the future of automation, the future of aviation. And we’re focused on creating new energy solutions. So we have three major megatrends that we address. And we have capabilities that serve all of those around the world.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more about Honeywell or have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website?

Ron McMurtrie: It can come to honeywell.com.

Lee Kantor: All right, Ron, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Ron McMurtrie: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will be back in a few. At Georgia Technology Summit 2025.