I’m Alison Wyrick-Mendoza, marketing, strategy, and transformation consultant with Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM. My job is to help organizations turn market insights into competitive advantages. But a strategy is only as strong as the data it’s built on. 

I recently sat down with my colleague, Dr. Mahdi Jamshid, Director of Market Intelligence at Wohlers Associates. I wanted to dig into the structural gaps that often prevent even the most ambitious projects or teams from succeeding. Here’s what he had to say: 

Q: Mahdi, why do you believe annual reports, while valuable, are no longer sufficient for informing business strategies? 

The AM industry’s dynamics have fundamentally shifted. We once had fewer players, with most activities still in R&D and prove-of-concept phases. Over the past decade, however, we’ve seen explosive growth in the number of AM companies, including vendors, users, and resellers ranging from startups to large corporations. The post-COVID era’s access to cheap capital accelerated this expansion, while the technology’s gradual maturation and early successes in producing actual engineering parts attracted more users and service providers. China exemplifies this trend particularly well. 

Traditional market boundaries have blurred considerably. The old distinctions between for example, desktop versus industrial machines no longer hold. Many service providers now purchase tens of low-cost desktop printers to establish AM farms rather than investing in a single industrial machine. 

The real issue is that our established market definitions are becoming obsolete. If you’re applying old categories and models to today’s ecosystem, you’ll miss competitors entering your space from unexpected directions. These rapid changes demand timely, specific data that annual reports simply cannot provide.  

Q: What have you learned in your market intelligence role that you didn’t appreciate before and can help readers and users of such data? 

We’re often comparing apples to oranges. The hidden danger is the Methodology Black Box. When you only see the final number once a year, you can’t see the “how” behind the “what.” Before diving into charts and forecasts, users need to understand the data, where it originates, and how representative and comprehensive it is. Without this context, you’ll face vastly different market sizes and forecasts from various intelligence firms, which creates confusion and frustration. 

Q: In many organizations, technical insights and financial decision-making never actually meet. Why is this ‘Silo Tax’ so expensive during major investment rounds, and how does a ‘unified landscape’ change the math? 

A: Because having the data isn’t the same as integrating the data. We often see a gap where the technical teams have great competitive insights, but the high-level resource allocation, things like government funding applications or major capital investments, happens in a separate room. That’s the Silo Tax. When the “landscape view” isn’t baked into the actual financial decision-making process, you aren’t just investing; you’re hoping. Access to a unified landscape provides a magnificent ROI because it ensures the people allocating the money and the people building the products are finally looking at the same map. 

Alison’s Take: In my work with strategy and transformation, I see the “Silo Tax” Mahdi mentioned playing out in real-time. We often try to transform a company’s marketing or product roadmap, but if the financial decision-makers and the technical teams are looking at two different versions of the truth, the transformation stalls.  

What I also love about Mahdi’s perspective is that it shifts the focus from “what” we know to “how” we know it. Transparency isn’t just a feature of good intelligence—it’s the foundation of a calculated risk. As we navigate this 2026 ecosystem together, ensuring that every person in the room is looking at the same map is the highest ROI move we can make. 

If annual reports feel more like paintings than maps, the solution isn’t another static snapshot. ASTM’s market intelligence platform is designed to provide a continuously updated, transparent view of the additive manufacturing landscape—so strategy, investment, and execution are grounded in the same reality. 

Explore how a unified, decision-grade view of the market supports smarter planning, faster alignment, and more confident action.

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