AI & Automation

Pragmatic AI. Built by Operators.

We help family-owned and mid-sized businesses put AI and automation to work where it matters most. Drawing on years of operating and advising companies across manufacturing, distribution, and services, we bring a practical point of view to every engagement, from a focused pilot to a company-wide platform.

Our Perspective

The best AI investments start with a clear view of the work.

Every business has hours lost to re-keying purchase orders, chasing quotes, and rebuilding the same report each week. We start by understanding where that time goes, then match the right technology to the opportunity. We believe in starting small and moving quickly: a tangible win in weeks beats a perfect plan that takes a year. Speed matters, but direction matters more, so every pilot is tied to a real business priority. The goal is to free your people for more valuable work, not to replace them. When your AP clerk can handle three times the volume, she can take on the strategic work that grows the business.

01

Process First

We map and tighten the workflow using lean and Six Sigma discipline, so automation amplifies a process that already runs well.

02

Built for Your Business

We work with your ERP, accounting system, CRM, and shared files as they are today, and scale solutions to your goals, team, and budget.

03

We Do the Work

Operators at heart. We design, build, test, and support the tools ourselves, then train your team to own them with confidence.

04

People Stay in Control

AI drafts, flags, and recommends while your people approve. Every tool ships with guardrails and exception flagging that build trust over time.

Signature Offering

The Five-Day AI Opportunity Assessment.

AI rewards speed. In five days we find where AI and automation can create measurable value across your business. We spend time with your leaders and front-line teams, apply Six Sigma discipline to your core processes, study your systems and data, and deliver a prioritized roadmap your leadership team can act on with confidence.

  • Six Sigma certified
  • AI certified
  • 25 years improving businesses
Discuss an Assessment
01 · Discover

Interviews and workflow walkthroughs across sales, operations, finance, and administration to find where manual effort concentrates.

02 · Evaluate

A review of your systems, data quality, and integrations to understand what is ready to automate today and what needs groundwork.

03 · Prioritize

Each opportunity is scored on value, effort, and risk, producing a clear sequence of quick wins and longer-term initiatives.

04 · Recommend

A findings review with leadership, a prioritized roadmap, and a recommended first pilot with scope, cost, and expected payback.

Where AI Earns Its Keep

Four places we free up capacity. In nearly every business.

Sales & Order Administration

Turn inbound requests into clean orders and fast, consistent quotes.

  • PO extraction and automated order entry
  • Auto-quoting from specs and pricing rules
  • RFQ intake, triage, and routing

Finance & Back Office

Give your finance team back the hours spent on manual reconciliation.

  • AP intake, matching, and approval workflows
  • Automated financial statements with exception flags
  • AR reconciliation and system integrations

Operations & Maintenance

Keep the floor running with less coordination overhead.

  • Automated job scheduling and digital job boards
  • Machine fault triage and maintenance scheduling
  • CNC program review and tool wear prediction

Data & Decisions

Get answers from your data the moment you need them.

  • Data query agents in plain English
  • Company GPTs trained on your SOPs and documents
  • Market data scraping to find growth opportunities

Use Cases

What this looks like in practice.

Manufacturing · Maintenance

When a machine goes down, the clock starts. So should the response.

Most plants already capture fault codes. An AI maintenance agent connects the alarm, the maintenance manual, and the maintenance calendar, so the right technician reaches the right machine in minutes instead of hours.

What we measure

  • Mean time to repair
  • Unplanned downtime
  • Fault to technician time
  • Technician utilization
  1. 1
    Detect

    A fault code posts from the machine controller.

  2. 2
    Diagnose

    The agent checks the OEM manual and repair history.

  3. 3
    Grade

    Severity is scored: monitor, repair this shift, or stop the line.

  4. 4
    Schedule

    The first qualified technician is booked from the calendar.

  5. 5
    Close the loop

    Supervisors notified, parts flagged, every event logged.

Sales · Connected Systems

Smarter selling starts with connected systems.

What a salesperson needs to know is spread across the ERP, the CRM, the inbox, and a few long-tenured memories. AI logs meeting notes to the CRM, pulls history and recent orders before each call, and drafts the follow-up for the rep to review and send.

What we measure

  • Selling time per rep
  • Admin hours saved
  • Follow-up speed
  • Account coverage

Pre-Call Brief

Illustrative

Midwest Fabrication Co.

Ordering has slowed. Last order 47 days ago against a typical 21-day cadence.
Open quote awaiting reply. Sent 9 days ago for a repeat part family.
Suggested next step. Confirm the Q4 forecast and reference the open quote.

Illustrative use cases. Every deployment is scoped to your equipment, systems, and practices.

Proven Results

Built, deployed, and in use.

Case Study · AMPG

200+

new SKUs added, with immediate distributor adoption

Connecting Market Data to Manufacturing Decisions

AMPG, a high-mix, low-volume precision manufacturer, took on a rotary shaft line that had been unchanged for over 45 years. We used automated web scraping and advanced analytics to map motor manufacturers' shaft specifications against AMPG's sales and distributor records. Weeks of manual research were compressed into hours, and the analysis revealed where demand was strong but supply was missing.

"Cosgrove Partners helped us use AI to uncover over 200 new product opportunities that our distributors have already adopted. It opened our eyes to the speed to market that this new technology, used correctly could offer."

Matt Goldberg, Founder, AMPG

Download the case study →

The Five-Day AI Opportunity Assessment

From first visit to a clear roadmap. In five days.

Two days on site with your team, followed by three days of analysis and close-out. Grounded in Six Sigma process discipline, the week ends with tangible, prioritized action items your leadership team can move on right away.

  1. 01
    Discover

    Leadership kickoff, interviews, and walkthroughs of core workflows across sales, operations, finance, and administration.

  2. 02
    Observe and Map

    Time with front-line teams, Six Sigma process mapping, and a review of your systems, data, and integrations.

  3. 03
    Evaluate

    We size the time and capacity at stake in each workflow and match every opportunity to the right technology.

  4. 04
    Prioritize

    Opportunities are scored on value, effort, and risk, then sequenced into quick wins and longer-term initiatives.

  5. 05
    Recommend

    A findings review with leadership, a prioritized roadmap, and a scoped first pilot with expected payback.

What you leave with: an inventory of AI and automation opportunities, a prioritized roadmap, and a recommended first project your team can act on immediately.

Schedule Your Assessment

What comes next: Proof of concept in 4 to 6 weeks, followed by production rollout and ongoing support.

What Else Is Possible

A few ideas to spark the conversation.

Sales Administration

Auto Quoter

Builds consistent quotes from customer requests, part specifications, and your pricing rules, so estimators focus on the complex jobs.

Order Entry

PO Extraction

Reads purchase orders arriving by email or PDF and prepares them for entry into your ERP, with discrepancies flagged for review.

Data & Reporting

Data Query Agent

Lets leaders ask questions of company data in plain English and receive answers drawn directly from your systems.

Finance

AP Automation

Captures vendor invoices, matches them to POs and receipts, and routes exceptions to the right approver.

Knowledge

Company GPT

An assistant trained on your SOPs, manuals, and policies so new and tenured employees find answers in seconds.

Operations

Digital Job Board

Gives the floor a live view of job priorities, status, and schedule changes without the whiteboard.

Is This a Fit?

If any of these sound familiar, let's talk.

  • Your team re-keys orders and POs from emails and PDFs.
  • Quotes take days because pricing knowledge lives with a few people.
  • Month-end close depends on spreadsheets and manual reconciliation.
  • Maintenance is reactive and scheduling runs on a whiteboard.
  • Your sales team spends more time updating systems than talking to customers.
  • You see the potential in AI and want a trusted partner to help decide where to start.

Start the conversation. We will show you what is possible.

Bring us the process that frustrates your team most, or the question of where to begin. In 30 minutes we will share a candid view of where AI and automation can help, what it would take, and a sensible first step.

What to expect on the call
  1. An AI strategy discussion focused on your business
  2. Potential AI applications specific to your operation
  3. A recommended first step, whether a pilot or a Five-Day Assessment
Schedule a Call

info@cosgrovepartners.com · 317.210.0021