AI integration · $10M–$100M businesses
We fit AI into the business you already run.
Joined, not bolted on.
Mortise Lab builds AI into your existing tools, workflows, and team: working systems people actually use, measured in hours saved, not demos shipped.
3 min · 12 questions · instant score + 90-day plan
Your score, your readiness breakdown, and a prioritized plan for the next 90 days. Free.
Fig. 01 / The AI IQ report
mor·tise /ˈmôr-təs/ n. A cavity cut into a beam, sized to receive its tenon. Two pieces joined so precisely they work as one. No fasteners. Done right, the joint outlasts the building.
01 / The problem
Knowing AI matters isn’t the problem. Knowing where it fits is.
Everyone says “use AI.” No one says where.
You've seen the demos and read the headlines. Mapping any of it onto a real operation, from quoting to service tickets to month-end close, is a different problem entirely.
There's no R&D department at your size.
A $10M–$100M business has real operational complexity and nobody whose job is to evaluate forty tools and babysit a rollout. So “look into AI” stays on the whiteboard, quarter after quarter.
The gap compounds quietly.
Competitors are already citing AI in their proposals. Cost structures that used to match across your industry quietly don't anymore. Nothing announces the gap. It just widens.
02 / Where it fits
Where AI pays for itself first
Not moonshots. The unglamorous work that quietly eats payroll hours every single week.
Proposals & quotes
First drafts assembled from your past wins in minutes, not afternoons.
Customer email triage
Inquiries sorted, summarized, and answered with drafts waiting for one-click approval.
Invoices & documents
Data lifted from PDFs and forms straight into your systems. No re-keying.
Meetings → CRM
Calls logged, action items captured, follow-ups drafted before you're back at your desk.
Weekly reporting
The numbers compiled, formatted, and in your inbox before Monday's coffee.
Instant internal answers
An assistant that knows your SOPs, policies, and files, so people stop interrupting each other.
03 / The process
Measure twice. Build once.
Measure
AI Opportunity Audit · ~2 weeks
We map how work actually moves through your company and find the joints: the handful of places where AI pays for itself fastest. You get a prioritized 90-day plan with projected hours saved. Fixed fee, and it's yours to keep whether or not we go further.
Fit
Integration Sprint · 30–60 days
We build the top opportunities into working systems, joined to the tools you already run. Tested against your real work and your real people, not demoed on a slide.
Hold
Team Enablement · ongoing
Training, playbooks, and sensible guardrails so the systems keep working long after we leave. Adoption is measured, not assumed. Everything is documented, so your team owns it.
No jargon · No 12-month roadmap · No vendor kickbacks · No systems your team won’t use
The AI IQ Test
How AI-ready is your business? Measure it in 3 minutes.
Twelve plain-English questions. You get an AI IQ score, a readiness breakdown across four dimensions, and the moves worth making in the next 90 days.
Free · no credit card · results are instant
04 / From the founder
“Companies this size keep getting offered one of two things: a hype pitch or a forty-page strategy deck. Neither ships anything. I build the systems myself, fit them to how your company already runs, and stay until your team can run them without me. And if AI can’t save your business real hours, I’ll tell you that too.”
Ryan Smith
Founder, Mortise Lab
05 / Questions
Fair questions, straight answers
We're not a tech company. Will any of this work for us?
You're exactly who this is for. The businesses getting the most from AI right now aren't tech companies. They're distributors, manufacturers, agencies, and professional-services firms automating unglamorous work. You don't need engineers on staff; you need someone to build the first systems and teach your team to run them. That's the job.
What about our data and client confidentiality?
Handled first, not last. We use business-tier AI services that don't train on your data, set up access controls, and write a plain-English usage policy for your team. You'll know exactly what information goes where, and what never leaves your walls.
How disruptive is this to day-to-day operations?
The audit is mostly observation and a few interviews. Your team keeps working. Builds run alongside normal operations, and new systems land as drafts-for-your-approval before anything runs on its own. No big-bang switchover, ever.
What does it cost?
The audit is a fixed fee, quoted before we start. Integration sprints are scoped from the audit's plan, so you approve every number in advance. The honest benchmark: weigh it against the payroll hours the plan projects saving. If the math doesn't work, we'll tell you.
Couldn't we just figure this out ourselves?
Some companies do. It typically costs months of a smart person's attention and a few abandoned tools. We compress that trial-and-error into weeks, sidestep the known dead ends, and leave your team trained. You could also do your own bookkeeping.
Will we end up dependent on you?
The opposite is the goal. Everything we build is documented, runs on accounts you own, and comes with training so your team operates it. Enablement exists to make us unnecessary. A good joint doesn't need the joiner standing next to it.