Growing from a turnover of less than one million Canadian dollars a year at startup in 2013 to nearly 60 million last year, Ascension has entered a new era of AI robotics success. Listed by The Globe and Mail as Canada’s ninth-fastest growing company in 2024, Ascension Automation Solutions Ltd. in Cambridge, Ontario is nationally recognized as a fast-rising star on the country’s economic horizon.
Committed to in-house excellence, this comprehensive services provider leads through creativity and innovation, along with generous investment in itself; the company reinvested approximately 20 percent of its revenue to further research and development last year alone.
As a result, Ascension is rich in both artificial intelligence capabilities and outstanding professionals who drive next-generation automation. The company’s goal across all its applications is to optimize the end-user experience through truly progressive technological advances, developing products that are impressively easy to use and maintain. As a result, the company counts some of the world’s biggest names in the automotive and aerospace sectors amongst its most loyal customers.
Thanks to outstanding work and meaningful relationships, Ascension has established longstanding working ties that have provided it with stability and strong foundations on which to expand. Founded in September 2013 and built on a passion for precision, the company blends artificial intelligence with robotics technology to deliver collaborative robotics that are in a league of their own.
A dedicated team of around 15 experts within its permanent team of 135 oversees the development of these high-quality, minimalist robots. These machines not only enhance end-user operations but also make ownership a pleasure. The result of this sophisticated response to the most urgent pain points of clients across the board has been continued growth, with Ascension recently doubling its local footprint and introducing a new facility in East Lansing, Michigan.
Continuously finding new applications for its artificial intelligence and robotics applications, the company is doing just what its name implies—ascending. With a laser focus on new technological territory and the determination to see it through, this team is as formidable as it is savvy.
To serve its large and varied client base across Canada, the United States, Mexico, and further afield, Ascension has also expanded its capabilities through diversification, adding a manufacturing outfit, steel construction, an electrical and millwright trades specialist, and a patented powder coatings provider to its service portfolio. This comprehensive approach also drives affordability, resulting in quality solutions that deliver optimal performance with efficiency.
One such product range includes standard robotics powered by the company’s premium AI, currently popular among customers in the agricultural sector as well as governmental departments. In this sector, by optimizing mechanical labour, the demand for human labour is removed from the packing equation by as much as 95 percent, according to Andrew Morgan, founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Automation Manager. “This is huge, because no one has automated agriculture to this level at this point,” he says.
At the same time, the company also provides material handling systems, assisting a personal protective equipment (PPE) outfit, for example, in dealing with potentially contaminated nuclear waste using AI-driven robotics. PPE is isolated from construction waste and sorted for appropriate cleaning, and in the process, equipment, people, and resources are protected from potential health hazards while preventing financial losses related to such an expensive function.
But there is much more to this company than the gains visible at the point of delivery. Approaching all its research and development with a mindset of providing customers with high-performance, cost-effective, AI-driven robotics, Ascension Automation Solutions is well-versed in creating back-end systems and models that not only cultivate and maintain innovation within the company but also secure more reasonable capital expenditure for customers in comparison to other similar companies.
“There are products like cameras that you can buy off the shelf that have built-in AI. But they have very limited scope and power and they’re expensive,” Morgan says, noting that many other comparable developers “charge outrageous amounts of money. You can pay upwards of 100,000 USD. And it will do the work really well, but cost an absolute fortune.”
Over the past year, the company set out instead to balance its high-performance, specialist customization offering with standard, ready-for-purchase systems that come without the added costs associated with fine-tuning instruments for unique functions within set environments. These off-the-shelf solutions not only mean express delivery but also translate into improved accuracy and flexibility within each customized system—a consequence of working with the bigger picture in mind.
What this all means for clients is that Ascension provides smart solutions guided by a team that truly cares. “We’ve hired really smart people and it’s the combination of the team we’ve built that’s led to our success,” Morgan says, highlighting his appreciation for their dedication to creating a thriving enterprise. “A huge thank you to them for the hard work and dedication. Our team definitely goes above and beyond.”
Driving change is also part of this company’s DNA, and “we’re working to bring AI to common, general industry problems that would not otherwise use it,” he says. The ranges available offer tremendous freedom, with some being automated, others enhancing automation, and another range being purely mechanical. The team also supplies software packages that can be purchased without equipment.
Ascension’s new products include boilerplates with significant improvements on similar products available elsewhere. These can, by definition, be reused thanks to the reusable codes that drive them. Other improvements include AI-integrated, high-speed roll-up doors favoured by large transportation companies for improving traffic flow.
Welcoming many new customers to such products over the past year has also meant growing its network of agents, associates, and industry partners who all assist in making the company what it is. As a means of giving back to the communities in which it thrives, the company is involved in charitable organizations to which it contributes time and funds. These include an organization supporting individuals navigating autism and another providing affordable housing. What becomes clear considering its choice of organizations is the wide-angle lens with which Ascension approaches philanthropy, which is reflected in how it approaches business as well.
By solving small challenges in big markets, this team has established opportunities in industries that have been running—up until recently—without such technologies. To date, all this innovation has culminated in well over 70 patents, some of which are currently pending but are underway. “It’s been a productive couple of years,” Morgan says.
With geopolitics reshaping the economic landscape, the company continues adapting to market demand by retaining a pragmatic vision of the future. The team’s focus remains on developing trailblazing new technologies that shift boundaries. Ascension Automation develops appropriate AI to change how the world, and especially agriculture, functions.
“Farming across North America is still beholden to a lot of manual labour,” says Andrew Morgan. “That’s what we’re going after right now.”
