Who Builds It
Ben Jacobs
Founder — Fractional AI Integration Expert
I build and run production AI systems end-to-end — voice AI receptionists, product-spec assistants for manufacturers, AI concierges for service businesses, and automated content pipelines. Not prototypes: working systems that live inside real operations and run every day. When you hire the department, you work directly with the person who builds it.
20+ production AI systems live right now.
The Math
An AI department, without the AI department's cost.
Hire It In-House
- Months to recruit & onboard
- Salary, benefits, taxes, overhead
- One person, one skillset
- You manage them
A Fractional AI Department
- Building & running this week
- One flat monthly fee, cancel anytime
- A whole department's range of work
- Nothing to manage — it just runs
Hiring an AI team costs $150k+ a year. So the work that should be automated keeps landing on your people instead.
Staff copying, pasting, reformatting. Every single day.
Leads going cold because nobody had time to respond.
No real-time visibility into what's actually happening.
Your fractional AI department fixes that — we find where AI can take over, then build and run the systems that do it. For a fraction of a hire.
How It Works
Audit
We map your operations, find exactly where AI can take over, and show you the ROI — and the scope — before writing any code.
Build
We create completely custom AI systems — no templates, no Zapier, no off-the-shelf tools. Built specifically for your workflow.
Run
This is the department part. We don't hand it off and disappear — we run it: monitoring performance, tuning as models evolve, and shipping new systems as your business grows.
Departments We Can Run
One department. As many functions as you need.
These are the functions businesses hand to AI most often. Run one, or run several — your department is scoped to exactly what you need, nothing you don't.
Customer Support
Instant answers across chat and email, pulled from your own docs. Tickets triaged, routed, and drafted before your team logs in — around the clock.
Reception & Phone
An AI receptionist that answers every call, books appointments, captures details, and routes the urgent ones — so no lead ever hits voicemail.
Sales & Lead Follow-Up
Every inquiry answered in seconds, qualified, and followed up automatically. Your CRM stays current without anyone touching it.
Operations & Admin
The repetitive back office — data entry, document processing, scheduling, invoicing — handled by systems instead of your staff.
Marketing & Content
Content, social, email, ads, and reviews — produced and published on schedule, in your brand voice. (More below.)
Reporting & Insights
Real-time dashboards and automated reports that pull themselves together — so you make decisions on live numbers, not month-old spreadsheets.
Don't see yours? If it's repetitive and rule-based, it's a candidate. The free audit finds it.
By The Numbers
AI is already reshaping every industry
Saved per physician per day using AI clinical documentation — time that goes back to patients.
80% Legal FirmsFaster contract review when AI handles clause extraction, risk flagging, and cross-referencing.
360K hrs Finance & BankingLawyer-hours eliminated annually at JPMorgan using a single AI contract analysis system.
28% E-commerceLower inventory holding costs when AI manages demand forecasting and automated replenishment.
75% Staffing & RecruitingFaster time-to-fill when AI screens, scores, and ranks applicants before a recruiter touches them.
40% Real EstateReduction in manual admin work when AI handles lead follow-up, scheduling, and CRM updates.
What We've Built
Production AI integrations, live right now.
A sample from the stack, not the whole portfolio — every one running in production today.
Ben — Forward Deployed Engineer & Founder
About
We don't build demos. We build the department your business runs on.
Voice pipelines that handle inbound calls and qualify leads. Document intelligence that extracts, routes, and acts on unstructured data. Automated data engines that give operators real-time visibility without a single manual report.
Swell & Stack is built on Forward Deployed Engineering — embedding inside your operations to build systems that work in the real world, not a sandbox.
Right now, your department is me plus the stack of AI systems I've built — which means you work directly with the founder, no handoffs to juniors, fully inside your business before a line of code is written. As demand grows, so does the team — but you'll always have the principal accountable for results.
Common Questions
Everything you need to know before reaching out
What does it cost?
A fraction of the $150,000–$200,000/yr it costs to hire and manage an in-house AI person. Pricing is scoped to your business — the audit is free, and you get a fixed monthly quote before any work begins. No hourly surprises, no long contracts, cancel anytime.
How long does a project take?
Most systems are live within 2–4 weeks from the audit. Simple automations can be running in days. We don't do multi-month engagements that delay your ROI.
Is this a custom build or an off-the-shelf tool?
100% custom. No Zapier, no no-code wrappers, no templates adapted from a previous client. Every system is built from scratch around how your business actually operates. That's also why ongoing tuning matters — a custom AI system needs to evolve as your business does, or it starts underperforming within months.
Why not just hire someone in-house?
A capable in-house AI hire costs $150,000–$200,000/yr loaded — plus months to recruit, onboard, and manage. A fractional AI department gives you the same capability immediately, for a fraction of the cost, with nothing to manage and no long-term commitment. Every system also ships with error logging and failure alerts, so it keeps running without you watching it.
Do I need a technical team to work with you?
No. We handle the audit, build, deployment, and handoff documentation. You just need to know your business operations. We handle the rest.
What kinds of businesses do you work with?
Any business running on repetitive manual work — data entry, follow-ups, reporting, scheduling, document processing. We've built for service businesses, agencies, legal firms, e-commerce, and more.
Get In Touch
Get a free AI integration audit
Tell me how your business runs. I'll map exactly where AI belongs in it — and what it would cost you to build. No pitch deck, no retainer required.
Prefer email? [email protected] — we reply within 24 hours.