Operational AI systems for industrial growth and execution
First Article identifies expensive operational bottlenecks and builds connected operational AI systems across the tools already running established industrial and project-based companies—where critical work still depends on inboxes, spreadsheets, disconnected software, and tribal knowledge.
Built for established industrial and project-based companies with 25–500 employees.
Delivered through existing tools · Source-linked where supported · Human-controlled approvals · Recorded in the system of record
*Timeline begins after required documents, access, and approvals are received. Custom implementations start at $35,000 and increase with scope, complexity, and required integrations.
Built around your existing stack
First Article connects operational agents to the software, communication channels, records, and data sources your team already relies on.
Integration feasibility depends on the exact product, version, permissions, licensing, and required actions. These are validated during the Current State Assessment.
How the engagement works
A clear path from current-state assessment to a controlled system embedded across the tools your team already uses.
Step 1 · Assess the current state
Before recommending a system, First Article examines how the work operates today: where requests enter, which systems and communication channels are involved, where decisions happen, what still depends on manual coordination, and what the delay, error, or missed opportunity is costing the business. We then validate the business case, integration paths, human controls, implementation boundaries, and recommended future-state architecture. The $3,500 assessment fee is credited toward implementation.
The First Article Operational Systems Library
Every First Article engagement begins by identifying where your company is losing the most time, money, visibility, or operational leverage. We then design the connected operational AI systems with the strongest business case and embed them across the software, documents, communication channels, and approval paths already running the workflow.
A secure, company-specific knowledge foundation built from your approved documents, workflows, policies, systems, and operating knowledge. It can support a focused internal assistant while providing governed context to every operational agent working across your existing stack.
Browse examples of the operational AI systems we build across your business. These are not standalone applications your team must remember to open. During the Current State Assessment, we determine which workflows to improve, which existing systems to connect, where people should receive decisions, and where approved actions must be recorded.
Operational systems in this category
Your Implementation Architecture
The Current State Assessment maps your workflows and determines which existing systems the agents must read, where events originate, which channel each role already watches, what the agent may execute, what requires approval, and where approved actions must be recorded.
Step 3 · Run and improve the system
Your team can own the deployed systems after training and handoff, use First Article for ongoing management and optimization, or add embedded AI engineering capacity.
Common questions
Your Company GPT is a private internal AI assistant built around your approved company information. Employees can ask normal questions and receive clear, source-linked answers through a focused interface. It also serves as the governed knowledge layer behind connected operational systems, so not every employee needs to work directly from the GPT interface.
The seven-day Quick Start covers one approved knowledge area, a focused set of priority documents, one user interface, basic access, initial setup, employee training, and one revision cycle. The clock starts after we receive the required files, access, decisions, and approvals. The goal is to put one useful capability in your team’s hands while the larger connected system is being built.
The Current State Assessment ranks opportunities by financial impact, workflow importance, feasibility, data readiness, integration complexity, and speed to value. It also maps the systems and channels involved, validates the required read and write actions, and defines the human approval model before First Article recommends the implementation scope.
The assessment is a paid working engagement offered after a 20-minute discovery call confirms likely fit. We map the current workflow, quantify the cost of time, errors, delays, and missed opportunity, assess the systems, channels, data, and knowledge involved, validate integration feasibility, define human authority and write-back requirements, and recommend the future-state architecture. You also receive success measures, a delivery roadmap, and a fixed custom implementation proposal. The $3,500 fee is credited toward an approved implementation, and the readout is targeted within 10 business days after required information and access are received.
Custom implementations start at $35,000 and are planned around a 90–120 day delivery window. The final investment is based on workflow scope, technical complexity, data readiness, human-control requirements, and the integrations required. The Current State Assessment defines the recommended architecture, implementation boundaries, timeline, and fixed proposal before the build is approved.
Not by default. The system can gather information, prepare drafts, compare options, create tasks, and route work. Purchases, vendor awards, pricing commitments, payments, customer promises, and other high-impact actions stay behind named human approval steps. Any different authority model must be designed, documented, and approved on purpose.
Your Company GPT Quick Start is targeted for seven business days after the required inputs are ready. Custom implementations are planned around 90–120 days, depending on workflow scope, technical complexity, integrations, testing, and data readiness. The final timeline is defined during the Current State Assessment and written into the implementation plan.
Often, yes, but the exact product, version, deployment model, permissions, licensing, and required actions matter. We validate whether each connection has a supported API, webhook, structured file exchange, database method, or approved integration path. If a legacy system, partner-controlled environment, or large cleanup effort changes the scope, we explain that during the Current State Assessment before the build is approved.
Usually not for normal daily work. First Article designs employee interactions around the inboxes, collaboration channels, operational applications, and approval processes your team already uses wherever the underlying systems support it. Some workflows may require a focused interface for knowledge access, administration, operational traceability, or exception handling, but it is not intended to replace your ERP, CRM, project, maintenance, quality, or production system as the system of record.
Your team can take ownership, keep First Article on a managed-services plan, add another operational system as a separate phase, or build internal capability with an Embedded AI Engineer. Managed AI Systems is $5,000/month and covers agent and connector monitoring, failed-action support, maintenance, performance reporting, and controlled improvements. Expansion is based on measured use and results, not on adding features just because they are possible.
After the first implementation establishes the architecture and standards, First Article can recruit and place a dedicated AI engineer for your company. Typical monthly investment is $18,000–$25,000. We can manage payroll or contracting, provide technical oversight, help set priorities, review quality, and offer replacement coverage. The engineer works inside your operation while First Article helps keep the work aligned with the system already in place.
See if the Assessment Is Right for Your Business
Tell us what is slow, manual, fragmented, or easy to miss. In a focused 20-minute discovery call, we’ll learn how the workflow operates, where it breaks down, and whether a paid Current State Assessment is the right next step.
Book a 20-Minute Discovery CallFor established industrial, project-based, technical, and field-service businesses with a meaningful operational bottleneck and the ability to invest when the business case supports implementation.