Factory automation has traditionally been expensive, fragmented, and heavily dependent on specialized system integrators. Vention is challenging that model by turning automation into something closer to a software platform, where manufacturers can design, simulate, program, order, deploy, and operate industrial equipment within a connected digital ecosystem.
Etienne Lacroix, founder and CEO of Vention, joins Greg to share how his early experience as a teenage system integrator exposed him to the inefficiencies of traditional automation and ultimately inspired a different approach. From modular hardware and browser-based 3D design to software-defined controls and physical AI, Etienne has spent the last decade building a platform designed to dramatically reduce the time, cost, and engineering complexity required to automate a factory.
In this conversation, Greg and Etienne explore:
- How Etienne went from designing machines and selling automation cells at 19 to identifying the fundamental problems behind traditional system integration
- Why approximately 40% of traditional automation costs can come from engineering and integration, and how a platform-based approach can dramatically reduce that burden
- The technological breakthrough that made Vention possible: bringing engineering-grade 3D design into the web browser and connecting design directly with purchasing and deployment
- Etienne’s simple mental model for Vention: combining 3D design software, industrial Lego, and Amazon Prime into one automation ecosystem
- How Vention connects machine specification, 3D design, programming, simulation, ordering, deployment, monitoring, and support within a single digital workflow
- Why reducing integration complexity can make automation accessible to mid-market manufacturers that historically could not justify the economics
- How Vention customers are achieving automation payback periods averaging around 1.3 years, while cutting deployment timelines by three to six times in some cases
- Why a new generation of manufacturers, particularly in defense, could be a leading indicator for the future factory, with engineers bringing Python, AI, and modern software practices directly onto the shop floor
- What software-defined automation really means, and how separating hardware installation from programming could fundamentally change the role of system integrators
- Why Etienne believes the industry is already moving beyond software-defined automation toward AI-defined automation
- How Vention’s MachineMotion AI controller, built with NVIDIA technology, is becoming the bridge between cloud-based digital twins and physical machines on the factory floor
- A real-world example of a complex 300-motor conveyor system that was largely vibe-coded and programmed in roughly three weeks instead of several months
- Where physical AI is genuinely production-ready today, including perception, pose estimation, segmentation, and collision-free path planning, and where generalized vision-language-action models still fall short
- Why application-specific field data and teleoperation data may matter more than the underlying foundation model when bringing physical AI into industrial environments
- Vention’s practical approach to AI validation, including letting manufacturers send in their own parts and proving cycle time and reliability before deeper commercial discussions
- The hidden challenge of industrial robotics: no matter how sophisticated the simulation becomes, real-world physics will always introduce edge cases engineers did not anticipate
- Why Vention partners with established robot manufacturers such as Universal Robots and FANUC rather than building robot arms itself, choosing instead to focus on the deployment platform surrounding them
- How Vention is gradually opening its ecosystem through developer tools while maintaining enough control to preserve a fast, seamless user experience
- Why manufacturing is becoming attractive again to top software, robotics, and AI talent as technology makes the industry increasingly scalable
- The performance culture inside Vention, and how transparency, meaningful work, and professional development help the company grow engineers into future business leaders
Etienne also shares his long-term ambition for Vention: having already helped shift automation from a system integrator-led model toward a platform-based one, the next challenge is building a company that permanently changes how factories around the world automate.
Learn more about Vention: https://vention.com/
Connect with Etienne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/etiennelacroix/
Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtoroosian/
