The presence of aluminum cladding on the material’s surface can influence weld formation, both when joining with itself as well as with another material. It affects the process responses as well as the performance of the weld. Moreover, the analysis of the process responses can give useful information concerning the interaction conditions. Hence, in present work, welding forces and welding temperature were assessed during the welding of 0.5 mm thin ALCLAD AA 2024-T3 and AA 6061-T6. For the comparison purpose, dissimilar µFSW of UNCLAD AA 2024-T3 and AA 6061-T6 of the same thickness was performed at the same process parameters. It was observed that the ALCLAD layer between the tool and the alloy beneath the ALCLAD alters the interaction conditions and influences the weld formation. This results in different process responses in both cases. The fluctuation in the welding forces obtained with ALCLAD (= 633.7 N) was lower compared to that with the UNCLAD (= 856.6 N). Additionally, the average temperature obtained with ALCLAD (= 342 ℃) was comparatively lower. This was because of the less deformation of the material due to more tool slippage caused by the soft ALCLAD layer. This further affects the intensity of material mixing and deteriorates weld’s performance. As a result, the highest weld efficiency (= 76.1%) was achieved in the case of UNCLAD due to better material mixing as an effect of the absence of a soft layer.