Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025

Aaron Wagner

Chief Strategy Officer, Integer Technologies LLC

Integer Technologies is applying its expertise in engineering, AI and first-principles thinking to accelerate the development and deployment of solutions in digital engineering, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.

Since Aaron Wagner joined as chief strategy officer, the company has been building on its unique model of partnering with university research labs across the country, working to bridge the “valley of death” between research and practical implementation.

In particular, Integer is building new multiplicative business and government partnerships to transform early-stage innovations into delivered solutions, especially those addressing acute challenges in autonomous systems and in manufacturing, logistics and sustainment.

Why Watch 

Wagner and his team are intensely focused on scaling their ability to put research into action, particularly in enabling greater utility and effectiveness for autonomous systems and in expanding manufacturing capacity for defense industrial base priorities. They are leveraging digital engineering and decision support tools to create breakthrough solutions that lead to greater effectiveness, faster response times and more efficient operations for clients and partners. Across the board, they are focused on helping customers do more, faster and with solutions that are accurately targeting their key technical barriers.

“The most exciting innovations often emerge when we remove barriers between groundbreaking research and mission-critical operations,” Wagner said. “We are focused on being that catalyst, turning powerful ideas into impactful, applied AI-enabled solutions.”

Fun fact: Wagner’s work in AI-enabled hardware is shaped by his research on large carnivores in Africa, where he studied how intelligence, form and function evolve under competition and natural selection. That experience gave him a deep understanding of how intelligent systems interact with their environment, in both nature and technology.