For precision manufacturers and fabricators
Do you know who in your business is already using their own AI?
Someone in your estimating or quality team is pasting drawings and specs into a free tool. It saves them time. It also puts customer data somewhere you cannot see.
Fixed fee, written scopeOne hour of your time a weekFully remote
Where the hours go in a job shop
None of this needs your best people. All of it takes them.
Estimating
Every RFQ is read, costed and typed up by one of the two people who know how. When they are off, quotes wait.
Quality and compliance paperwork
ISO records, certs of conformity, first article reports. Written up by hand, after the job.
Chasing
Suppliers, customers, drawings, approvals. One email at a time.
Read, copy, type. That is exactly what a well-configured tool does first, and your people check second.
What that costs, as an illustration
Built from the same maths we use on every engagement: hours a week, times a £30 loaded cost, times 52 weeks. On the call we replace it with your numbers.
10 hours × £30 × 52 weeks = £15,600.
What this looks like in your business
Intelligent automation handles the rules. AI handles the reading, writing and routine decisions, and flags what it is unsure about. Your people handle the exceptions.
When this happens
An RFQ email arrives, or a job is marked complete on the shop floor.
This runs on its own
The RFQ is logged, the drawing and quantities are captured, material costs are looked up, and a first-pass estimate is built in your format. On job completion, the quality record is drafted from the job data.
These people are told
The estimator gets the draft with one button: approve. The MD sees quotes waiting more than four hours. The quality manager gets records to sign, not to write.
Where AI sits: reading the drawing notes and customer email, building the first estimate, and drafting the quality write-up. It flags the lines it is unsure about. Your estimator reviews those and signs off the price.
Process first. Automation second. AI where it earns its place.
We never start with a tool. We start with where your time is going. Then we make the routine run itself, and add AI at the steps that need judgement.
Uncover
Two weeks. We map estimating, quality and admin time and put a number on it.
Fix one thing
Six to ten weeks. Usually first-pass quoting from RFQ documents, or drafting quality records from job data. Configured to your formats. Tested with your estimator.
Make it safe
A one-page rule for what AI may see in your business, so the shadow use stops without a ban.
Your time
One named person. One hour a week. That is the entire commitment on your side.
Scheduling
Weekday evenings and Saturday mornings. Sessions never collide with your working day.
Your cost
Fixed fee, written scope. Agreed before any work begins.
Your people
People stay. Work changes. 86% of SMEs using AI report no change to headcount (BCC and University of Essex, 2026).
Steel fabrication: where the money leaks
RFQ to delivery, mapped step by step. Estimating bottlenecks, quality paperwork, the chasing in between. Published, free to read.
Open the mapThe fastest first step
Tell us how many RFQs came in last month and how many went out same day. That ratio is the whole conversation.
Book 15 minutesA message from the founder
Hello there, thanks for checking us out. My name is Isaac, and I am the founder of Shift Engine AI. I launched this business to serve established businesses that like the sound of AI but do not know where to start.
Our team brings a decade of experience working with organisations at every growth stage, first on intelligent process automation, and in the last few years on AI adoption alongside it.
Working with many business leaders, we have watched the same problem repeat. Leaders like the sound of AI, so they buy whichever tool jumps out at them, without a proper diagnosis of what the business needs. Just as often, they forget that intelligent automation matters as much as generative AI. AI can read emails, draft documents, send replies, even make calls. But it needs a solid workflow, configured intelligently, for a business process to run smoothly.
When the two are paired well, we have seen the same results again and again: better client retention, healthier margins, growth without extra headcount, and, dare we say it, happier employees.
So reach out directly. What is the number one challenge in your business right now? We are confident we can help you move in the right direction, with clear guidance on your processes and the right combination of intelligent automation and AI.
Isaac and the Shift Engine AI team
Three fair questions
Our work is too bespoke.
We are not a tech company.
How much of my time?
Fifteen minutes. One process. Your numbers.
You leave knowing what late quotes and hand-written quality records cost, and whether it is worth fixing.