What if I told you there’s a tool that can look at a photo of your weld and tell you exactly what you screwed up. The tool could also help you figure out that your machining problem isn’t your end mill, it’s actually your coolant, and it costs less than hiring one person?

On today’s show, I’m talking with Adam Marsh, president of Ledge Inc, who calls his company an “AI integrator” for manufacturing companies. Think robot integrator, but for artificial intelligence. His company provides tools that can analyze photos for quality issues, plan purchasing schedules, and analyze where your leadership team is wasting time. We’re exploring how manufacturers can move beyond having “one guy using ChatGPT to rewrite emails” to actually deploying AI to transform their operations.

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Interview Highlights

From ISO Consultant to AI Integrator

Ledge Inc has been a quality and management consulting firm for years, with Adam’s team of 10 industrial engineers providing ISO 9001 and AS 9100 services to over 300 manufacturers. But Adam’s personal interest in AI tools led to something bigger.

“I was using it pretty heavily personally, and we were looking for how can we build these tools and build safe tools that we can actually deploy to our customers,” Adam explains. After years of seeing the same problems at manufacturer after manufacturer, he could build AI solutions for those recurring pain points.

Now Ledge Inc offers both traditional consulting and AI integration, providing companies with secure platforms that give entire teams access to multiple AI models without the security risks of personal accounts.

Real Tools, Real Training, Real Solutions

For about $10,000 a year, companies can give 20 people access to secure AI tools across 49 different models. But the platform is only part of the solution. Ledge Inc provides both in-person and online training to help teams actually use these tools effectively.

“We’re providing both types of training for folks. A lot of it is just how can I get my team comfortable with it so they can start to use it,” Adam explains. The training focuses on helping people see use cases within their own operations rather than just showing them features.

The tools themselves solve real manufacturing problems:

Adam’s weld inspection tool came from a beautiful moment of serendipity—of course I had to mention that. When either he or his dad broke his tractor (he’s still not sure which), Adam needed to weld it back together. He bought a $150 welder on Amazon, convinced his wife this was his chance to practice, and went to work on the steel bracket.

After welding it back together, he took a photo and asked AI how well he did. It told him to immediately rework the weld and explained exactly what he’d done wrong.

“I was like, you know what? My customers could be interested in an (AI) tool like this.” What started as a personal frustration became a business solution that lets shops upload weld photos and procedures for detailed feedback.

His PPAP expert tool works similarly. “My goal is first pass on your first article and PPAP documentation. When you submit that to the customer, it passes the first time.” The AI reviews all documents before submission, catching everything from spelling mistakes to missing requirements.

Other tools include contract review, material certificate verification, and purchasing planning that optimizes inventory levels and delivery timing.

The Security Reality

A recent study found that 4% of ChatGPT prompts contained confidential information. Employees are using personal AI accounts, potentially feeding company data into systems that learn from every interaction.

Adam’s platform solves this by providing secure AI that doesn’t retain data. “I want to run a query, get an answer and get out. I don’t want it to take that data back to ChatGPT and train its model.”

Making People Better, Not Replacing Them

Adam’s philosophy is clear: “I’m not trying to eliminate them. I’m trying to make you faster, smarter, better.”

That said, Adam and I both agreed that AI tools are threatening jobs. The rookie lawyer who checks hairy documents for abnormalities, the analyst who starts at a finance firm proofreading documents—those are already marginalized.

AI is coming for the IT guy who troubleshoots people’s annoying computer issues. I marvel at all the problems I have solved on my PC, smartphone and email that would have tortured me for hours to figure out or wait for help.

The Adoption Challenge

Adam’s message is straightforward: this technology is spreading faster than anything we’ve seen before. “It took ChatGPT two months [to reach 100 million users]. The internet took 10 years.”

But many manufacturers are stuck at the basic level rather than deploying AI strategically across operations. The companies that start experimenting now with proper tools and security will have a significant advantage.

“This will hit everybody in the company, everybody from marketing to purchasing to receiving,” Adam explains. “When you look at the investment, your ROI is just through the roof.”

Question: What task in your work do you wish you had AI to do for you? To assist you with?

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