Seen & Heard at FABTECH: The Latest in Advanced Manufacturing

Updated 2026

FABTECH is North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing event—and offers a fascinating and forward-looking view of advanced manufacturing.

Launch President Michele Nichols was invited to present with other industry experts. From conversations with attendees, exhibitors, and co-presenters, here’s an inside view of the concerns and market drivers facing US advanced manufacturing.

Seen and Heard at FABTECH 2026:

• Industry leaders are prioritizing trade show budgets to exhibit at FABTECH over other conferences.
• On the floor, there were fewer machines and only a couple of big exhibits, but many companies invested in capability videos.
• Biggest industry growth in 2026 was industrial automation, with an emphasis on laser technologies being implemented in cobots. This is a fast-growing step for smaller high-mix manufacturing teams since it allows for automated shop floors.

Advanced Manufacturing Trends

FABTECH attendees were out in full force—especially in laser welding and automation. With the shift from traditional welding and subtractive manufacturing to venture capital inflow and investment in automation and additive manufacturing comes an ever-widening spectrum of sophistication and business models. From machinists to Italian suits, there’s no denying this industry is diversifying.

Companies that believe they’re well-known to their customers may be surprised to find how quickly their employee and customer base is changing. Our President, Michele Nichols, spoke on two topics, both of which reflect this shift: 

Prepping for Successful Exit: Sales and Marketing Moves Now to Maximize Valuation

In Q3, we saw a ramp-up in mergers and acquisitions. However, in our experience, many people put off succession planning until it's too late. In our talk, we discussed how to set yourself up for a successful exit. The moves you make right now, even if you're 5+ years away from exit, will set up the company for success and maximize your valuation. 

Almost 70%-90% of M&A deals fail due to incomplete integration, poor rebranding, and lack of change management. Common challenges we saw were sales processes leaning on the founder, dependence on product/service lines that grew by happenstance, and reliance on one or two big customers. 

Preparing for Your Exit: The Timeline

Maximizing Growth with CRM, AI and Automation in Sales and Marketing

Companies looking to scale with limited access to qualified technical sales talent and a changing customer base are eager to embrace sales efficiencies from CRM and AI. In the Q&A from our talk, most attendees were curious about AI applications that might fit their sales and marketing strategy, but most of their immediate needs were in CRM optimization and adoption, specifically in their sales process. 

Today, 76% of manufacturers have a CRM, but fully 2/3 of those implementations fail to deliver on the initial business goals. We learned that almost all of them were using AI, but only some were finding success in:

• Tapping old proposals to create new ones

• Note-taking (particularly with Plaud) to streamline use of CRM

• Cloud connections between CRM and ERP

Questions centered around how to motivate leadership and sales teams to move beyond the spreadsheet, ensure accurate customer data and forecasts, and how to create a sales process that fits today's customer expectations. Technologies like AI, automation, and CRM can drive revenue and margin —but not without people and process. 

“We need to create jobs — no, we don’t. We need to create people with the skills needed for our jobs.”

Low unemployment rates exacerbate an industry-wide concern over workforce development. Advanced manufacturing companies will have to work particularly hard on internal communications to retain employees through times of growth, ensuring that everyone has a voice and understands the company's direction, not just the front office. Engaged employees are retained and productive employees, and the same resources and tools you use for your external marketing may come in handy in helping your employees feel the impact of their work on the end consumer. 

Could you use an outside perspective on how your team is adapting to these changes in the market? Request a consultation!