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May 11, 2026
Dow Chemical cut 4,500 jobs and replaced them with AI. That cut might be too deep.
Producers are thinning their bench, and the technical sales rep who walked customer sites and answered formulation questions is becoming rare.
That work does not disappear. It moves to whoever is closest to the customer.
If your bench has real chemistry depth, you become indispensable. If it does not, you lose accounts to the distributor who can solve a problem on a phone call.
They don’t teach chemical formulation in college. It must be learned by artists who hand down their craft or through rigorous trial and error. I was lucky enough to do both.
Hire formulators.
Train your sales team past the price book.