'Adopt or Go Home': Local manufacturers grapple with the AI wave
September 2026
Strata Design took the plunge into the murky world of artificial intelligence in April, seeking to get a leg up on competitors and boost efficiencies.
Dreher“We’re always challenged to do more with less in the environment we live in,” said Jon Dreher, Strata’s chief operating officer.
Strata, based in Traverse City, provides architectural millwork and custom fixtures for healthcare, education and hospitality businesses across North America. After being solicited by numerous vendors, Strata chose Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant, which it uses throughout the company’s business processes.
“There are a lot of companies trying to sell AI,” Dreher said. “We just decided to go out on our own and commit to one brand we thought was best for our business needs.”
Strata is at the forefront of what local industry leaders say is a nascent movement by local manufacturers to adopt AI, which experts predict will have a profound impact on the economy and workforce. Most local manufacturers have yet to implement AI and are first trying to understand how this revolutionary new technology might benefit their businesses before committing to it.
“I can’t have a meeting with a client or a partner in which the topic of AI doesn’t come up in the first 12½ minutes,” said Kevin Olds, regional vice president at the northern Michigan office of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC). “It’s top of mind.”
The MMTC, based in Plymouth, provides consulting services to small and midsize manufacturers. It has begun offering classes on implementing AI and held an event in August on the topic in Cadillac that drew about 60 attendees.
Olds said he’s had private conversations with manufacturers throughout the region about AI. Many are skittish about jumping in because of a lack of understanding about the technology and what it could do to improve business processes.
Olds“A lot of them are confused and overwhelmed,” Olds said. “They’re trying to sift through the noise.”
The Grand Traverse Area Manufacturers Council is working to help its members navigate the complexities of AI.
“We are only just beginning to try and understand what AI can do,” said Tim Healy, CEO of Century LLC and Clark Manufacturing in Traverse City, who also chairs the Grand Traverse Area Manufacturing Council. “We don’t have many examples of how it is being used, only that we want to learn.”
The council became a unit of Traverse Connect in 2024. The two organizations held an AI information session in August that included leaders from the area’s manufacturing, professional services, education, healthcare and arts sectors “to discuss the possible impacts of AI on our community,” Traverse Connect President and CEO Warren Call said.
“Our board and manufacturing council will be reviewing ways in which we can collaborate with partner organizations going forward,” Call said.
AI is a touchy subject for many companies because of its perceived potential to destroy millions of jobs, exacerbate income inequality and possibly wipe out humanity. And there is widespread public dissent over massive data centers required to power AI. But Dreher says reducing headcount wasn’t a consideration in Strata’s adoption of the technology.
“It allows us to do more without having to add more people,” he said. “We’re not trying to eliminate jobs.”
Strata employs 45 people. Like many manufacturing and construction companies in the area, it struggles to find new skilled workers and replace workers who retire or leave for other reasons. AI could make it easier for the company to identify workflow improvements and absorb those losses, Dreher says.
Manufacturing employment in the four-county Traverse City metropolitan statistical area (MSA) has hovered around 6,000 for years and is down from its most recent peak of 8,600 workers in 1998, according to state labor statistics. The Traverse City MSA includes Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties.
One reason for the static manufacturing jobs picture could be that employers have largely given up trying to grow their businesses by hiring more workers.
“There are many manufacturers who would expand their workforce if they could find more people,” Call said. “But part of the issue is the lack of affordable housing for their workforce.”
Call says the manufacturing council is pushing local governments to revamp zoning and building permit regulations and improve transportation as ways to grow the area’s labor force.
Age demographics are also working against growing manufacturing employment, one state official says.
“One issue you might be seeing is that in 2030 the youngest baby boomer turns 65. That's not great for manufacturing,” said Dylan Schafer, economic manager at the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics.
AI optimists say it could create millions of jobs that haven’t been thought of yet, similar to past technical revolutions.
Dreher says AI is saving time on tasks such as comparing engineering drawings from customers’ engineering drawings to its own in designing millwork and cabinetry. Strata also has integrated AI into its enterprise planning resource software, allowing the company to automate routine tasks and gain better data analysis for forecasting and decision-making.
The safe use of AI agents is another concern for companies implementing the technology. There have been recent reports of AI agents escaping human control and attacking other companies, something Dreher says Stata has taken steps to prevent. And humans still need to check AI agents’ work.
“Until it’s more trustworthy, it's hard to let go and let AI drive,” Dreher said. “But that’s coming quickly.”
About a third of Strata’s workers – department leaders and some of their direct reports – have AI subscriptions. They are “absolutely embracing it and moving us forward rapidly,” Dreher said.
“With AI your usage has a ceiling and when you hit it, you must purchase more ‘tokens.’ I am constantly getting requests to add more tokens with the amount of usage,” he said.
Olds of the MMTC says many companies will have little choice but to adopt AI in their offices and in automation on their factory to survive a technical revolution in manufacturing.
“It’s adopt or go home,” he said.
Manufacturing employment in Benzie, Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Kalkaska counties
2019 (pre-Covid) 6,300
2020 5,700
2021 5,800
2022 5,900
2023 5,900
2024 5,800
2025 5,900
2026 (through June) 6,000
Source: Michigan Center for Data and Analytics
