Function-first AI solutions
Purpose-built tools that live inside one team's workflow and speak its language — not a general-purpose assistant hoping someone finds a use for it.
AI point solutions, built to the shape of one business function.
Not a platform. Not a year-long program. We build focused AI solutions around a single workflow — mixing the right proportions of people, process, and tools — and we measure success the only way that counts: whether your team still uses it six months later.
One conversation. No deck, no discovery fee.
What we build
Small solutions, aimed at the work that actually hurts.
Most AI initiatives stall because they were scoped to a technology instead of a job. We start from a business function — quality, supply chain, finance ops, field service, HR — and build the smallest thing that removes real friction inside it.
Agents and copilots with guardrails
AI that drafts, checks, routes, and summarizes — with the human decision points left exactly where your risk tolerance says they belong.
The plumbing underneath
Document pipelines, extraction, and integration into the ERP, CRM, or PLM you already run. Most AI projects die here — so we start here.
Adoption you can see
Enablement, change support, and instrumentation so usage and value are visible after go-live — not just impressive on demo day.
The recipe
Three ingredients. Never the same proportions twice.
Every bourbon starts with a mash bill — corn, rye, barley. Shift the percentages a few points and you get a completely different whiskey from the same three grains. Business solutions behave exactly the same way. We weigh the same three ingredients on every engagement, and the blend is different every time.
People
Who does this work today, what they trust, and what they'll actually pick up on a busy Tuesday. Roles, incentives, and the change that has to land for any of it to matter.
Process
The workflow as it really runs — including the spreadsheets and workarounds nobody documented. We fix what's broken before we automate it, because automating a bad process just makes it faster.
Tools
The systems you already own, plus the smallest amount of new AI needed to close the gap. New technology is an ingredient, not the recipe.
A sample mash bill
Illustrative only — the point isn't the numbers, it's that the blend changes. Two companies with the same problem rarely need the same solution, and the difference is usually people and process, not the model.
How we work
Weeks, not quarters. Then a real decision.
A small batch is deliberately small. You should know whether this works — and whether your people will use it — long before anyone asks you to sign a transformation program.
Step 01
Discovery
A short, focused look at one function. We map the workflow, sit with the people doing it, and find where AI genuinely helps — and where it plainly doesn't.
Step 02
The recipe
A written plan: what we'd build, the blend of people, process, and tools it needs, what it costs, what it should return, and how we'll know if it worked.
Step 03
The batch
We build and pilot small, with real users and real data. Tight loops, visible progress, and something in your team's hands early enough to change our minds.
Step 04
Proof
Measured adoption and measured value, then an honest decision: scale it, adjust the recipe, or stop. We'll tell you when the answer is stop.
Why small batch
Most AI projects don't fail on the model. They fail on adoption.
Small by design
Senior people, small teams, direct access. The person you talk to is the person building it — there's no layer between the conversation and the work.
Scoped to a function
We don't sell enterprise-wide transformation. One function, one workflow, one solution that earns the right to the next one.
Adoption is the deliverable
A pilot nobody opens is a failed project, however good the demo was. That's why the tagline isn't a slogan — it's the acceptance criteria.
Start a conversation
Have a function that's drowning in manual work?
Tell me what the workflow looks like and where it hurts. If there's a small batch worth building, I'll tell you what it would take. If there isn't, I'll tell you that too.
michael@smallbatch.solutions