Now, let's learn
firsthand from a
manufacturing leader
who's using AI agents
to transform their
operational efficiency,
driving enhanced
sales and service.
I'm Lee Price,
joined here by Sabir
Dutt, Chief Sales
Officer of Zometry.
Sabir, so good to have
you with us today.
Lee, good to be here.
Wonderful. So to kick
off, could you tell
us a little bit more
about what Zometry
does and the path that
led you down to
looking at agent force?
Let me start with macro
and then I'll give
some specifics. So
if you look over the
last 50 years or so
with globalization,
the industrial base
shifted to Asia
primarily because of
lower cost of labor.
Over the last decade
or so with increased
robotics slash
automation and with AI,
labor is a smaller
portion of the cost of
manufacturing. So we
are seeing rejuvenation
of manufacturing in
the U.S. we formed
Xometry as the intersection
of the digital and
the physical. It's an
AI-powered platform.
And more recently, and
we've used Salesforce
from the beginning,
more recently with
Agent Force, we are
looking at leveraging
that to improve the
productivity we have in
our sales organization
and use that to
deepen our engagement
with customers' needs.
Yes, and we're certainly
seeing the most,
The customers that
are doing really well
are the ones investing
in that customer
experience. So I'd love
to dig a little bit
more into that sales
experience that you
were just chatting
about. So how has Agent
Force addressed some
of those challenges on
the sales side of
things? And are there
any interesting examples
that come to mind?
So when you think
about a sales team
and engagement with
customers, one of
the mantras is how
do you take friction
out of the customer
engagement cycle?
And leveraging
agent force and
looking at it from
a customer lens,
do you want to have
days pass by before your
query gets answered?
Do you want to have
an hours-long waiting
for a sales rep to
look up some information
or get it for you?
And agent force,
and particularly the
application of
agents, allows us to
do the work between
the work, which
means things which
would normally take
time are surfaced
instantaneously.
interacting with Xometry,
like being able to
meet the expectation
that someone's
engaging with you right
away, if you have
inquiries on your orders,
if you're trying to
figure out how to
make a complex part,
what's the lead time,
what are the different
options you have
in sourcing in the U.S.
versus international,
what are the pricing
deltas? Being
able to surface all of
that instantaneously
is a critical part
of our value prop.
When we first started
leveraging agent
force, one of our
goals was improving
reproductivity, and
that has certainly
improved. But what we
found, and in retrospect,
it's not surprising
at all, is the
bigger impact is on
speed and relevance.
what does that mean with
regards to relevance
so a year and a half
back when we would
reach out to customers
we had a response rate
of two percent and in
that two percent we
would have a conversion
of 40 so that's
about 0.8 now with when
we reach out we have
a response rate of 35
and then when we engage
with the customers
our conversion rate
is 80 percent so what
prompted that massive
swing and the key word
is relevance so the
ability to instantly
connect aka speed but
do so in a manner where
it's related to the
exact circumstances
requirements specification
of that customer
makes you relevant.
Yeah. And when you're
relevant, people buy from
you. Yeah. It's such
a great example of
helping you scale and
really freeing up your
salespeople's valuable
time to focus on the
things that matter most
and helping everyone
do more. So I'd love
to hear a bit more
about the day-to
-day experience with
salespeople. That's probably
changed now. So what
does that look like
for your sales field?
So when we take
a look at our
go-to-market
organization,
it's really easy
to get trapped into
all of the mundane
things you do,
from sending out
emails to getting
responses to looking
up information.
the macro point
is, like, we as
humans are
knowledge workers.
Like prior to
the Industrial
Revolution, we were
manual workers.
With the advent of
the Internet age, we
moved from manual to
knowledge workers.
But if you
think about it,
an AI agent
can extract the
And equally
importantly, it'll be
more accurate than
a human might be.
So with that, the
basics of knowledge
work is now being
taken over by agents,
and that's allowing
our sales team
to focus more on the
creative aspect of
how they engage
with their customer.
So the huge accelerant
in sales reps
moving from doing
knowledge work
to now focusing on
actual relevance,
understanding and
developing and deepening
the relationships
with the customer,
is the the fundamental
change in our dna
which allows us to
respond faster and more
impactfully yeah and
it's not just sales
either we know that
um there's a lot of
activity at dreamforce
this year around how
agent force is being
used to really scale
service so uh i understand
that's really had
an impact at zometry
as well on the service
side of things so i
would love to hear
a bit more about what
you're thinking in
terms of how agent force
can uh deliver that
better customer
experience through service
so one of the
capabilities amongst
numerous that we're
deploying is on platform
communication so imagine
shifting from the
paradigm of your customer
you have a question
you send us chat
or text or an email
someone gets it inside
my company then they
go to someone else
again email Slack. And
that whole cycle
consumes hours or days.
In service,
deploying on-platform
communication allows us
to instantly transcend
all of those layers.
And the ability
to go from the
questionnaire to the
source and have that
be bi-directional
while still secure
with regards to
the data or the
questions you're asking
is a huge impact in
customer intimacy.
Yeah, it has such
a big impact.
As we wrap up, just
very briefly, there
is a lot of
competition out there.
So ultimately, why do
you feel Salesforce
was the right
decision for Xometry?
Oh, I didn't
realize there was
competition. Should I
look at someone else?
So you're right
about that.
On a serious
note, though,
with AI, there's
literally hundreds of
specialist companies
in each domain in each
vertical and each layer
of the stack the challenge
as a consumer of all
of that technology
is how do you know
which ones of those are
going to be around
two years from now how
do you know which one
is credible so one
of the major reasons
for picking salesforce
is it's a platform
it's proven it's an
ecosystem So de-risking
our investments in AI
and technology, whereby
getting on the bandwagon
of a proven platform
and ecosystem, and
Salesforce is deeply
invested in being
ahead of the curve,
allows us a certain degree
of assurance as we
adopt technology. Yes.
Well, it's great to
hear that, Sabir. Thank
you so much for your
insights. Thank you
for watching. If you'd
like to learn more
about how to get started
with Agent Force for
Marketing, scan the
QR code on your screen
or go to sforce.co
slash manufacturingai.
