Integrating AI · Claude, GPT and other models
AI integration that plugs into the systems you already run.
Not a chatbot bolted onto your website. We connect AI to your mailbox, your files, your job history and your pricing rules, so it reads the paperwork and drafts the work, and your people make the call.
A real integration: Quest Industries
One AI layer, wired into the systems a manufacturer already had.
Quest Industries, a Michigan mold-tooling and machining shop, wanted AI to do the reading and typing their people did by hand, without changing who makes the decisions. So we connected it to the places where the work actually lives.
AI proposes. Code and people decide.
48 named AI tasks · each on the model that suits it · cost tracked per task and per user
- 01
Quotes mailbox
Microsoft 365Reads Requests for quote, with the drawings, spreadsheets, slide decks and 3D CAD files attached.
Does Turns the whole package into one brief and flags what's missing, like an annual volume or a finish, before an estimator starts.
- 02
Customer POs
OutlookReads A customer's purchase order, dragged straight in from Outlook.
Does Compares it with the quote line by line (price, quantity, terms, ship-to), with a one-click fix for any difference.
- 03
CAD files
3D modelsReads Size, volume, draft and undercuts, pulled from the 3D model by a CAD service.
Does Maps materials and dimensions into the mold estimate, then a stronger model makes the engineering calls.
- 04
Job history
Quest's own dataReads Comparable finished jobs with their actual hours, and 23,000 old machining notes.
Does Plans and prices machining work the way Quest really does it, writes the notes in Quest's house style, and flags operations the shop has sent out before.
- 05
Customer standards
Quality manualsReads Each customer's quality, packaging and mold standards, split into rules by work type and department.
Does Applies the right customer's rules whenever it works on their quote, so nobody has to remember them.
- 06
Pricing engine
Quest's own rulesReads Real numbers from Quest's pricing engine, recalculated after every AI decision.
Does Proposes, while the engine does the math. Numbers that land in stock or money are read by code, never retyped by a model.
named AI tasks, each of which can be switched to a different model
for a typical deep read of a messy request package, far less than an engineer's time
documents and 69 parts read into a single brief
documents from one customer, turned into rules the AI follows
Figures from our Quest Industries case study, 2026.
What AI Does at QuestToday
Six jobs people used to do by hand, each connected to a system Quest already used.
Reading Requests for Quote
Quotes mailbox · Microsoft 365
Problem: A mold quote took 35 to 45 minutes of hand work, and a large multi-part request could take days and several people.
What we did: Connected AI to Quest's quotes mailbox. Anyone can forward a request, and it reads every drawing, spreadsheet and 3D file into one brief, with the gaps flagged.
Result: Packages of up to 69 parts and 95 documents read into one brief, for a few dollars per request.
Checking Orders Against Quotes
Customer POs · Outlook
Problem: Customer purchase orders were checked against the quote by a person reading both, line by line.
What we did: Drag the PO in from Outlook. AI reads it, and the system compares price, quantity, terms and ship-to with the quote, with a one-click fix or a note for intended differences.
Result: Quest called it “the first step to getting rid of the audit process.”
Machining Estimates
Job history · shop machines
Problem: Quoting depended on a few experienced people. Quest's VP of Operations had even built his own AI prompt to route machining jobs, tuned against real work.
What we did: Turned it into a production feature grounded in Quest's finished jobs and real machines: one AI pass plans the work, a second prices that plan and can't change it.
Result: “We're down to a few clicks now and maybe a few edits.” Quest's VP of Operations
Bills of Material Into POs
Purchasing · CAD spreadsheets
Problem: The purchasing manager typed designers' CAD bills of material into purchase orders line by line, up to “1000 lines of materials.”
What we did: AI maps the spreadsheet's columns and matches supplier names, but never retypes a number. One step releases the materials to the job and raises one PO per supplier.
Result: Purchasing no longer types a bill of materials into POs by hand.
Every Customer's Rules
Customer standards library
Problem: Customer rules lived in people's heads or in hard-coded macros, and one customer's requirement was missed twice after the job was won.
What we did: Built a library from each customer's quality manuals and packaging and mold standards. The AI reads the matching rules whenever it acts for that customer.
Result: A new or junior estimator no longer has to remember each customer's quirks. One customer alone sent 163 documents.
An Assistant Inside the Quote
Estimate Assistant
Problem: Only the owner could quote some work at all, and he did it on paper.
What we did: An assistant inside the estimate that can edit the working quote, explain a spec, list vendors for a material grade and draft a request for quote to a vendor.
Result: “Now that we have it somewhat automated, I have less concerns about somebody screwing it up.” Quest's VP of Operations, on letting an intern quote
How we do it
How we integrate AI into your business
The same steps we followed at Quest. You keep your systems; the AI learns to work inside them.
- 01discovery
Watch the work
We sit with the people who do it. At Quest we walked through the estimating workbooks and watched the scheduler plan real jobs.
- 02hand work
Find the reading and retyping
Emails read by hand, numbers copied between systems, documents checked line by line: that's where AI pays off first.
- 03connect
Wire AI into what you have
Your mailbox, your files, your history and your rules. What the AI produces goes through the same checks as anyone's work.
- 04shadow mode
Switch it on carefully
Every automation has an On switch and a Shadow switch, so it can log what it would do before it acts. Every rule ships switched off.
- 05ai trace
Keep people in charge
Anything sent to a customer is reviewed by a person, and every AI decision is kept in a trace your staff can read.
- 06cost
Know what it costs
Each AI task runs on the model that suits it and can be switched at any time. Cost is tracked per task, per model and per user.
After the first real request
Quest's first real request for a quote went through the new AI intake: every file read, every gap flagged, one brief for the estimator.
The extraction for the intake side, it worked out great. Like it picked up on everything perfectly.
Bring us the work your team keeps retyping.
Show us the emails, documents and spreadsheets that eat your people's day. We'll show you where AI fits in the systems you already have, and where it shouldn't.
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