An upper limit on the travel speed, and hence productivity, of Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) is often provided by the formation of a so-called “humped bead”. In this defect mode, surface tension, fluid dynamic and other forces contribute to an instability in weld shape that leads the molten weld metal to gather in a series of globules or humps. Past fundamental analyses have shown that liquid deposits with an acute wetting angle (less than 90 degrees) would not be susceptible to surface-tension related instability. This presentation describes studies leading to the development of a laser+GMA hybrid welding process that can produce welds having larger toe angles and hence higher travel speed before the onset of hump formation than those made with GMAW alone. In this hybrid process, GMAW is used to deposit filler metal in the usual manner, but laser energy is focused onto the substrate at the edge of the weld pool (i.e. in the region where the weld toe is being formed). The added heat allows the weld metal to spread further in the lateral direction than would be the case with GMAW alone. Weld metal is deposited with a variable-polarity GMAW process, allowing arc heat input to be varied independently of the deposited volume of filler metal. Conditions that produce spreading of the weld deposit over the laser beam focus spot are determined and maximum travel speed prior to humping onset is determined to be approximately 75% higher than for the un-aided GMAW process. The experiments are also simulated using a Volume of Fluid (VOF) code and the results are compared to the experiments. This work clearly shows the benefits of the hybrid process for producing welds at high travel speed.