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AI for manufacturers$2M to $20M revenue
AI for manufacturing that starts with the quote, not the robot.
Your estimators spend hours reading RFQs, retyping specs and chasing missing details before they can price anything. We build AI that does the reading and the first draft, so a person checks it and the quote goes out sooner.
A free call, up to an hour. Bring the job your team hates most. We'll tell you plainly whether AI can take it.
- WBENC-certified
- 15 years
- 300+ engagements
- 5★ on Clutch
Where the days go
An RFQ lands at 4:55 on a Friday. What happens next?
Same request, same team. The only difference is who does the first read.
Today, by hand
- Sits in a shared inbox
- Opened on Monday
- Specs retyped by hand
- Missing finish found on Wednesday
- Quote goes out a week later
With AI doing the first read
- Read the minute it lands
- Specs filled into the intake sheet
- Missing finish flagged to the buyer
- Estimator checks and prices
- Quote goes out days sooner
The situation
Most AI for manufacturing talk is about robots, vision systems and digital twins. That work is real, and it's mostly built for plants with a data team.
In a $2M to $20M shop, the hours usually go somewhere less photogenic: reading RFQs, pulling specs out of drawings, retyping purchase orders and answering the same customer questions every week. That's reading and writing, it already has a person checking it, and it's where AI pays back first.
You might recognize this. Tap to see the fix
What we do: AI reads each RFQ and its attachments and fills in the intake sheet, so the estimator starts at pricing instead of data entry.
What we do: Each request is read the minute it lands, missing details are flagged and the acknowledgement is drafted for a person to send.
What we do: AI reads the PO, matches it to the quote and puts it in a review queue or your ERP, depending on what your system allows.
What we do: We ground the AI in your own documents, make it show where each answer came from and keep a person checking every output.
The numbers
AI use is climbing, and it's not just on the floor.
The Census Bureau asks US businesses every two weeks whether they use AI. When it widened the question in November 2025 from making products to any business function, reported use in manufacturing jumped more than in any other industry the Federal Reserve tracked.
- 19.8%of all US businesses use AI (Census, May 2026)
- 37%of firms with 250 or more employees do
- +159%reported manufacturing AI use once the question covered the office too
- 7%of manufacturer websites say when they'll reply to a quote (our study)
What we build
The jobs AI can take off your plate.
Front-office jobs that are mostly reading and writing, happen many times a week and already have a person checking them. These are the ones we build first.
- 01
RFQ intake
Reads each incoming request and its attachments, fills in the intake sheet (customer, part, material, quantity, due date) and flags what's missing.
- 02
Drawing and spec reading
Pulls the title block, part number and material and finish callouts from clean PDFs. Scans and dense GD&T still go to a person.
- 03
First-draft quotes and replies
Drafts the acknowledgement and the quote letter from your templates and past quotes. Pricing stays with your estimator.
- 04
Order entry from purchase orders
Reads each PO, matches it to the quote and puts it in a review queue or your ERP, depending on what your system allows.
- 05
Answers from your own documents
Search across your specs, certificates and past jobs that shows the page each answer came from, for sales and customer service.
- 06
Repeat customer questions
Drafts answers to lead time, order status and certificate requests, for a person to check and send.
- 07
A person checks every output
Review steps built into the workflow, so nothing reaches a customer without someone who knows the job seeing it first.
- 08
Measured against today
Time per job measured before and after, so within about 90 days you know whether it paid off and can keep, fix or stop it.
Not sure which of these is worth automating?
A free call, up to an hour. Bring the job your team hates most. We'll tell you plainly whether AI can take it.
The Made to Sell System, at your stage
One methodology, applied to exactly where you are.
- 01
Pick one job
We score your candidate jobs on volume, time per task, the cost of a mistake, whether the data exists and whether a person can check the output. The top score goes first.
- 02
Build it on your past work
We test it on the last few months' RFQs, drawings or POs before it touches a live customer, so you see the misses while they're cheap.
- 03
Run it with a person checking
It runs live with a person reviewing every output. At about 90 days we compare time per job with the baseline and decide together: keep, fix or stop.
Proof at this stage
Real outcomes for businesses like yours.
300+
engagements delivered over 15 years
5
across 19 verified Clutch reviews
4 to 10 wk
typical AI integration timeline
The right-sized starting point
AI integration
A fixed fee scoped after a discovery call, with guardrails, testing and cost ceilings built in. You own what we build.
Questions
What manufacturers ask us about AI
The quickest wins are usually in the front office: reading incoming RFQs and drawings, filling in the intake sheet, drafting acknowledgements and quote letters, entering purchase orders and answering repeat customer questions from your own documents. Floor AI such as vision inspection or predictive maintenance makes sense later, when you have a specific, expensive problem and the data to go with it.
No. Pricing stays with your estimator. AI does the reading, the data entry and the first draft of the letter, so the estimator spends their time on the part of the quote that needs their judgment.
Often, but it depends on what your ERP allows. Some systems take orders through an import or an API; others are safer with a review queue a person keys from. We look at your system during discovery and scope it then, before you commit to anything.
It can be, with the right setup: business or API terms that keep your data out of model training, access limited to the people who need it, and no customer drawings in free consumer accounts. If any of your work is ITAR-controlled or under a customer NDA that limits where drawings go, we bring in whoever owns compliance before anything is built.
Most AI integrations run four to ten weeks to build. For a narrow front-office job, plan on about 90 days to a clear answer: pick the job and measure today's baseline, build and test it on past examples, run it live with a person checking every output, then compare and decide.
It depends on the job, how much of your data it needs and how deep the integration goes. We scope it as a fixed fee after a discovery call and give you a clear range before you commit. Ongoing model and hosting costs are yours, and we build in cost ceilings so they stay predictable.
Our research
Worth reading before you call anyone
Not sure where you fit?
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start here
Send us one job your team hates. We'll tell you if AI can take it.
On a free call, up to an hour, we look at the job the way we'd build it: how often it happens, what it costs today and whether a person can check the output. If it isn't worth automating, we'll say so.
