Redefining Productivity: Opening CEO Keynote | Propulsion 2025

In a compelling opening keynote, Propel CEO Ross Meyercord kicks off Propulsion 2025 by recognizing today’s volatile global landscape—tariff swings, labor shortages, geopolitical conflict—and positions agility as the defining trait of tomorrow’s market leaders. From economic disruption to AI disruption, the session presents a clear challenge: it’s time to take control.

Ross details how Propel’s mission and architecture have matured over a decade, evolving from the bold vision of its founders into an award-winning intelligent single platform trusted by an ever-growing roster of customers. That foundation sets the stage for the next leap: the introduction of Propel One, an integrated Agentic AI layer that works natively within Propel to automate repetitive tasks, boost team productivity, and extend product data across the enterprise without compromising trust or control.

With a hands-on demo from VP of Solution Engineering Kevin Crothers and Director of Product Marketing Jill Mueller, the keynote illustrates how AI-powered workflows unify engineering and commercial teams around a shared product thread—accelerating launches, reducing service times, and enabling sales and field service teams to work smarter. Propel’s new notification engine, BOM cloning tools, and upcoming Design Hub add even more momentum to its customer-first innovation engine. View the Propel One demo at the 16:43 timestamp.

KEY INSIGHTS

ROSS: 
"We’ve all survived 2025—at least so far—and it hasn’t been easy. All kinds of challenges have been thrown at us, and having our businesses be nimble and agile is more important than ever. This is a time to put both hands on the steering wheel of your business. If you’ve been in cruise control or self-driving mode, it’s time to switch that sucker off and really take control."

"Agentic AI works alongside your users—it’s not about replacing people. It’s about making your existing people more productive. How do we take the more repetitive tasks off their plate so they can focus on higher-value activities? And at the end of the day, with this technology, your data is your data. This is 100% secure."

KEVIN:
(Propel One demo) "What we’re introducing now is the concept of deep BOM cloning. I can take a bill of material and, before putting any effort into changing the assembly, quickly make adds, updates, and deletes to reconfigure a new design. That becomes the starting point of my product."

JILL:
(Propel One demo) "By collaborating directly in Propel, I have all the information I need to do my job quickly—without passing spreadsheets back and forth. I really love working with my engineering team, but I don’t want to spend hours sitting in handoff meetings with them."

Click here to watch all the expert speakers, customer success stories, and forward-looking keynotes from Propulsion 2025.