Nikhil Pal is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with more than fifteen years of hands-on experience leading operational improvement and digital transformation programs across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and electronics manufacturing. He has worked directly with organisations including Roche, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Jabil, leading more than thirty transformation projects that span process stabilisation, AI-enabled quality systems, and supply chain performance improvement.His work sits at the intersection of two disciplines that are often treated as separate: the structured rigour of Lean Six Sigma and the analytical capability of artificial intelligence. The core argument in this book — that AI without a stable Lean foundation produces expensive waste — comes directly from what he saw fail on plant floors across four continents over the better part of a decade.Nikhil holds Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He serves as a reviewer for Emerald Publishing's International Journal of Lean Six Sigma and has been recognised with the IISE Lean Best Practice Award (2016) and the Best Lean Plant Award (2018). He is a member of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) and actively follows the Pharma 4.0 initiative.He publishes regularly on operational excellence, AI in manufacturing, and digital transformation with IndustryWeek, PEX Network, and TechBullion, and reaches a practitioner audience through the Process Masters YouTube channel and his LinkedIn presence, where he posts from direct project experience rather than from the sidelines.