Hello everyone and welcome to the MacRAE’S Growth Challenge Podcast. Inside with B2B and manufacturing leaders where we uncover their stories, strategies and solutions to overcoming growth challenges in their industries. I’m your host Maria and in each episode we will dive deep in with founders, CEOs and industry experts to explore how they scale, innovate and lead in today’s competitive landscape. So let’s get started.
Today we have Gretchen from AT sensors. Nice to have you. How are you today?
I’m doing great, thanks.
Awesome. So Gretchen, why don’t you introduce yourself, your role and AT sensors. Tell us a little bit about what is it that you guys do.
Sure. So AT sensors was founded in the late 90s in Germany. They started doing systems integration for various companies in Germany over several years, developed their own components for 3D laser triangulation and also thermal measurements. And in the last few years transitioned to just being a component supplier.
We opened our office just north of Boston in the US two and a half years ago to better support growth in our customers in the US and Canada directly from within the area. so all of our design and manufacturing is still done in Germany with sales and support for the US and Canada out of Boston. And so I started when we started the office two and a half years ago with the mission to expand our opportunities here and
enhance our customer service and that kind of thing.
Good.
So with you being so closely related to customer service and customer experience, how has the change in technology and AI and just the digital footprint has affected the expectations of customers now?
I think just people are seeing more possibilities to utilize AI to accomplish the measurement goals that they need, but they still need great hardware to get the data that AI could then analyze for them. So we still see a lot of need for, we people using 2D cameras, visual cameras, but also on the 3D side.
they can more quickly develop their algorithms to compare the results they’re getting to common defects. And so that’s where we see a lot of people using AI and it’s just helping them develop their measurements, sharpen their measurements more and more quickly.
So like the accuracy.
Yeah, yeah, they can.
Has there been any type of digital efforts or automation efforts that you guys have tried and they just really did not go well and then you had to pivot and go back to a more traditional way of doing things?
I mean, not that I can remember experiencing with a customer on that side. I’m trying to think about the way we use AI ourselves. I mean, we started with a chat bot on our website that was trained on our documentation to help people answer questions. When it started, it did not do a great job.
It helped a little bit, but it couldn’t quite answer the questions. Now it is really so much better. can answer, it brings you to the right answer. It can do it multiple languages and it’s bringing you to the right links. It’s not just kind of sending you off into nowhere. And so that’s, that’s a project on our marketing side I can talk to about the AI adoption that.
It took a few iterations, but now it’s really, really good.
Yeah, what else do you guys use AI
for on the marketing side of things?
you know, like probably everybody may be too sharp an ideas or maybe do as a first start to ideas and then kind of fueling the conversation to make sure we’re also using our own creativity in combination with some support of it. So just.
You know, we make a lot of videos, so we might use it as a starting point for a script or some topics, but then it doesn’t get it quite right or doesn’t exactly say what we want to say. But it gets you a good starting point and then we can personalize it ourselves.
Yeah,
that’s that we talk about that a lot in our ⁓ agency because we are an AI driven digital marketing agency. And even though AI is making our lives a lot easier and as far as client deliverables and all that stuff, but it has not replaced human creativity.
Yeah. And it can start to sound too generic if you use it too much. You’re like, well, we’re not really, and we’re trying to stand out. Like you mentioned that the point is standing out in a competitive marketplace. We don’t want to sound like everybody else. And nobody does. So you got to really add that unique language type explanation in there.
What is your competitive edge? How do you stand out in such a competitive landscape?
me.
So we are a really small player compared to a lot of huge competitors. And so we stand out in a couple of different ways. One is we offer full customization. So.
a lot of people come to us when they’ve tried some of the catalog products from our competitors. It doesn’t quite work. They need a little something different. We can quickly customize. We have a very adaptable platform that lets you do it with no NRE, lets you do it quickly. So we’ve kind of designed from the start with an open platform, open mechanically and open software-wise so that people have access to everything. Nothing’s closed off. So we’re ideal.
in a lot of applications where there’s just a little something different needed.
How do those
clients find you?
Typically our website and like the traditional Google search trade shows, that’s kind of still the main way and we’re trying to optimize our website for AI searches and those kind of things.
Yeah.
How’s that going? Because generative search engines are huge right now. So instead of like keywords, focusing more on prompts, how’s that been going for you guys? Have you been trying some things? What kind of results have you been seeing?
Yeah.
We’re just starting a big initiative on it, and we’ll be working on it for the rest of this year. We needed to seek some outside help to do that, because it wasn’t simple. we’re working on it.
Yeah,
it’s a whole different world. absolutely. When did you guys start with that initiative?
Yeah.
Maybe only a month ago where we really, yeah, Brandnew really focusing on that. Yeah, noticing that we had redone our website over a year ago. It looks great, has amazing content, and we were not getting the traffic we expected. It just didn’t make sense when we looked at ours compared to our competitors, that kind of thing, for just how much information we were adding, what was on there. And so we knew we needed to.
Okay, so brand new.
We needed to do some of the backend work probably to help people find us and get that content.
It’s so much more work than people realize when it comes to
We
think it’s writing great content and then it will work and making the graphics look amazing. We had all that and it still, it wasn’t enough. Yeah, yeah.
Was it nobody was finding you? Yeah,
the findability. I always like to talk about this with people. It’s the findability. Like is your website actually optimized from a content standpoint and from a navigation standpoint based on what Google will actually rank it as good content that is easy to find?
Yeah.
Yeah. And that changes, you know, what worked a couple of years ago for that is not the same today. So you could have learned it years ago and it doesn’t, it’s not the same anymore. So.
No, and how people search like Google was the main player for the longest time. He was the only guy around. But now there’s like six of them and seven of them.
Yeah, yeah. And that’s,
people might go right to chat GPT or right to an AI site and use that as a search engine instead now. So yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely. And now that you started this initiative, what are you seeing as one like a tricky part or maybe one of the top challenges that you’re seeing?
in the process.
Nothing I could think of as a specific challenge, just we were surprised by some of the keywords and some of the phrases and prompts we should optimize for what people are searching for and just really shifting some of our optimization around that. nothing, no big roadblocks yet, but like I said, we’re just getting started. So I’m sure there’ll be something that comes up. Yeah, yeah, yes.
Yeah, you just hired a partner to do that. So it’s going to it takes some time for sure. Yeah.
And then as far as like, like traditional forms of marketing, like what are you guys still focusing on that you think will never die for you?
What we focus a lot on, of course, there’s the website content, but it’s.
The general concept is trying to make our product easy to understand and easy to use because 3D and 3D measurements especially are challenging. It’s not a simple thing to get the setup right, analyze the data correctly, all of those things. And so our overarching goal, make it as understandable and easy as possible. And some people want to read that in a white paper, read it in a manual, receive it in a video,
it on a webinar so we just try to do all of those things, provide the information the best way clearly on every channel option so people can receive it the way they want to. So if we make a video
And it has great explanation. We also make a white paper. We also put on their website. However you best learn, it’s available to you. And I think there’ll always be people who like to receive the information in different ways when they’re trying to learn something and understand something.
That’s one thing that I’m hearing a lot of manufacturing ⁓ companies say in B2B. It’s like finding new ways to actually demonstrate their product in a way that is going to be in line with all these cool digital AI based innovations and how people like not only search, what they view is something as a modern way of displaying the products that they have.
We were, ⁓ I had recently a guest on the podcast and they do lights. ⁓ So they’re starting to create holograms in order to actually demonstrate their products in trade shows. That would be so cool.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, when you make a component, it’s hard to, you have to visualize an application or it doesn’t really translate exactly what the benefits are, what you’re doing. And so you have to be very creative and, showing it in use or in some interesting way to get people excited.
Yeah,
especially for a 3D like, you know, that’s the whole thing about like the 3D power is creating something just based by typing in some information. It’s like, you go. That’s really cool. Like, what do you think is one of the biggest opportunities that are coming up?
Yeah.
in your industry? doesn’t have to be marketing or digital related, but just like what are what are some opportunities that are coming your way in the near future that you’re really excited about?
think the, I mean, as far as our technology, adoption of 3D in general is growing. People want not just, in quality control, in all sorts of industries, they want not just a picture, but to have that depth information, to have that height information. And so that’s a great trend for us in general. And then just how that…
is expanding to all these different applications, things that surprise me, like in food, how much more automation is going to that, and then having 3D added on top of
to for a variety of things for for inspection of the goods, for robot guidance on the way that goods are packaged, all the steps there. There’s been a lot of work in logistics and parcel management that now they want 3D of all the boxes, not just a 2D photo. And so just to
a general trend of that further enhanced data. The more information they can get on just any good passing, passing through an automated system, they want all that as much data as possible.
Is there any type of clients that you guys will not work with?
and ease.
I mean, the 3D measurements that we work on take motion. Either the parts have to move or the sensor has to move. And so there can be 3D applications where they just want to do a snapshot of the object and get a 3D in one shot. There’s things like that that this technology is just not designed for. We really just have the one type of 3D technique.
So there’s that. But now we go from people using it outdoors, scanning roads and railways and in steel manufacturing, so to the dirtiest environments, to food and pharmaceutical, to the cleanest environments. So really it spans all of those.
crazy
So interesting. Technology is just really shaping so many aspects of our life. Yeah, it’s amazing. Let’s say five years from now, where do you see the company growing? Like in which direction? Like how do you see you guys evolving over the next five years?
Yeah.
I think that continued adoption of AI and integration will make the products easier and easier to use and make it faster for us to do development. would think the generic growth areas are faster and more resolution and those things, those are always needed. But I think probably
The biggest area is just to continue to make it easier and easier to adopt and integrate 3D as fast as possible. And maybe it means, you know, integrating more different types of imagery to enhance the images. I don’t know, maybe adding color cameras or something else to just get, do more with fewer components, things like that is always a trend.
That’s awesome. Is there a threat in the industry or a trend that you can identify for you guys?
⁓
Something that has been surprising as we keep talking about AI is some of the things that used to require 3D measurements now can be done with a couple of 2D cameras that are less expensive and are well-trained AI model. They can do a lot of defect detection, a lot of defect measurement with comparisons and that. So that’s a small threat in some.
some industries, I would say, but so far not tonight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So far, so far we see increased adoption versus, yeah, less.
but overall really helpful. A real helpful lack of opportunity.
That’s awesome.
I do have, ⁓ I guess, like one last question for you because you did mention that you guys just recently invested in, you know, content strategy and getting up to date with all that, even though you did a website and it was great, but it wasn’t doing anything for you. I think a lot of people that we talked to here and still they’re kind of hesitant about investing in their online presence. Can you maybe share an insight as to what made you guys decide
Mm-hmm.
to go ahead and do it and any piece of advice for people who are thinking that they don’t need it.
Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I just think for, okay, yes, the information you can get from AI is a good start from an AI search, for instance, is a good starting point, but you’re always going to want to go to the website for the company. helps you dig deeper than when you once you’re interested to find more information. And I mean, I know from for me personally, that’s my
first entrance into any company and I would, and if they don’t make a good impression then, then you walk away immediately. You’re not gonna call, you’re not gonna email. you can’t clearly understand what they do on the website, you already get a sense this is not gonna be an easy company to work with. I wouldn’t be able to make a case why you wouldn’t want to keep.
prioritize the website as I’d rather prioritize the website than go to trade shows for instance that that’s like such a much wiser investment there’s so many people viewing that that’s so many people’s first introduction to the company and their first sense were spread out all over the world and I don’t know how else you’d get that sense of who you’re working with and what they do and how it could work without that.
Yeah, especially for a company like yours with big, big competitors and trying to stand out like that. What you mentioned about being able to customize things a lot more compared to other big companies like that must be one of your biggest selling points.
Yeah. Yeah. And if you’re going to convince somebody that that’s worth considering and that they could trust you with, you know, making a product they’re going to rely on in their system. think if the website looked really outdated and didn’t work well, why would you trust the technical abilities of the company? just, yes, it’s different technical knowledge, but it just connects to.
giving you trust, starting that trust relationship with the company.
Yeah, especially as people search more and more for solutions online across different type of platforms, right? Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much Gretchen. This was super lovely. Of course. Okay. Bye. Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Thanks, Bye.
On a recent episode of the MacRAE'S Growth Challenge Podcast, Gretchen Alper from AT Sensors opened up about the unique challenges of competing in the 3D measurement technology market. As someone leading the company's US operations, Gretchen shared practical insights on how a smaller player can differentiate itself against industry giants while adapting to the AI revolution transforming how customers find and evaluate solutions.
AT Sensors, founded in Germany in the late 90s, started as a systems integrator before transitioning to become a specialized component supplier. Despite competing against much larger players, the company has carved out a distinctive niche through one key differentiator: full customization without non-recurring engineering fees.
"A lot of people come to us when they've tried some of the catalog products from our competitors. It doesn't quite work. They need a little something different," Gretchen explains. This flexibility, combined with an open platform approach that gives customers access to everything mechanically and software-wise, has become AT Sensors' competitive edge.
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