Actonics
Senior AI engineering · Fixed-price delivery
Most AI pilots never make it to production. Yours will.
Actonics is a senior engineering team that gets AI systems past the demo stage, working on your real data at production volume, and keeps them running once they ship.
Built by two staff-level engineers who took a venture-backed enterprise AI company from first commit to a $90M+ valuation.
Pilot eval report
Week 4 deliverableworkflow: claims-intake · field extraction
Measured on 1,240 real documents
GO → productionThe gap between a demo and a system
The demo is the easy part. Production means edge cases, measured accuracy, monitoring, guardrails, and someone accountable when the model changes underneath you.
88%
of AI agent pilots stall before reaching production, per S&P Global research.
2×
higher success rate for AI projects built with external partners vs. internal-only builds, per MIT research.
30 days
is how long we need to put one of your workflows live on your data, with the accuracy numbers to prove it.
We sit in the gap: senior enough to ship production systems, small enough that the engineers you talk to are the engineers who build.
How we engage
Every stage has a fixed price, defined deliverables, and an exit ramp. No open-ended consulting meters.
Step 1
30-Day Production Pilot
$9,500
fixed price · credits into Step 2
- One workflow, live on your real data
- Measured accuracy: a written eval report
- Go/no-go production plan with cost estimate
- Fully credited toward the build if you proceed
Step 2
Production Build
$80K–$250K
typical range · scoped after pilot
- The pilot system hardened for production
- Integrations with your existing systems
- Monitoring, guardrails, human-in-the-loop
- Security review and staged rollout
Scoped in your Week-4 production plan
Step 3
Reliability Retainer
from $5K/mo
keeps production systems accurate
- Evals re-run as models and data change
- Drift monitoring and continuous improvement
- Expansion to new workflows at pilot pricing
Optional — starts after launch
Where we do our best work
Text-heavy, repetitive, high-stakes back-office work, where accuracy is measurable and the ROI shows up as a number.
Legal ops & contract workflows
For in-house legal, compliance, and procurement teams buried in documents.
- Contract & NDA intake and triage
- Clause and obligation extraction
- Review routing with human sign-off
Operations document workflows
Paperwork turned into structured data your systems can act on — with measured accuracy.
- Claims intake: from PDF to decision-ready
- Bills of lading & customs paperwork
- Purchase orders and compliance packets
Internal knowledge & workflow agents
Assistants and agents inside your existing systems, with human control where it matters.
- Company-knowledge assistants for ops teams
- Approval and reporting workflows
- Cross-system data entry, automated
Don't see your workflow? If it's text-heavy and repetitive, it probably fits. And if AI turns out to be the wrong answer, we'll say so in week one.
Describe your workflowWhat 30 days looks like
One workflow on your real data, with results you can measure. Whatever the outcome, you keep everything.
Week 1
Discovery & data
We pick the workflow together, define what "correct" means in numbers, and get a sample of your real documents and data flowing. Under NDA, and in your environment if you prefer.
Weeks 2–3
Build against evals
A working system on your real data, iterated against a growing evaluation set, so every improvement is measured and every failure mode gets written down.
Week 4
Evidence & decision
A live demo in your environment, a written accuracy report, and a production plan with real costs. Then you decide. If it is a go, the $9,500 credits toward the build. If not, you keep the report, the prototype, and the roadmap.
Why teams pick Actonics
Staff-level engineers only
The people on your first call are the people who build your system. There are no account managers in between, and nothing gets handed to juniors.
Evals, not vibes
Every system ships with a measured accuracy report on your data. If we can’t measure it, we don’t ship it.
Production-first engineering
Monitoring, guardrails, human-in-the-loop controls, and rollback paths are designed in from day one instead of bolted on after the demo.
Honest scoping
If AI is the wrong answer for your workflow, or the ROI simply isn’t there, we tell you in week one while it is still cheap to hear.
Built for serious environments
- Your data is never used to train public models
- Deployment in your cloud (VPC) or on-premise
- Human-in-the-loop controls for high-stakes steps
- NDA, DPA, and SOC 2-aligned engineering practices
- You own all IP: code, prompts, and eval sets
Who's behind this
We're two engineers with a bit more than a decade each in machine learning and full-stack work. Before Actonics we co-founded a venture-backed enterprise AI company and stayed through the whole climb, from the first blank repository to a $90M+ valuation and more than $20M raised.
Most of that time went into AI systems where "mostly correct" isn't acceptable: regulated, high-stakes workflows that had to be built from the ground up and then survive in production.
Every engagement starts under NDA, and on the intro call we'll gladly walk through our background, past work, and references one-on-one.
Frequently asked questions
What if the pilot shows AI is not a good fit for our workflow?
Then we tell you that, in writing, with the evidence. You keep the eval report, the working prototype, and a roadmap of what would need to change. You will have spent $9,500 to avoid a six-figure mistake. That is the point of the pilot.
Who owns the IP?
You do. All code, prompts, eval datasets, and documentation we produce for you are yours, in full, including everything from the pilot.
How do you handle data security and privacy?
Your data is never used to train public models. We deploy inside your VPC or on-premise, work under NDA and DPA, and follow SOC 2-aligned engineering practices. Human-in-the-loop review gates are available for any high-stakes step.
How much does it cost to build an AI system with Actonics?
Every engagement starts with a fixed-price 30-day pilot at $9,500, fully credited toward the build if you proceed. Production builds typically run $80,000–$250,000 depending on scope, integrations, and compliance requirements. Ongoing reliability retainers start at $5,000/month. You will always know the price before we start.
Which AI models and stack do you work with?
We are model-agnostic: Claude, GPT, Gemini, and open-weight models, chosen per workflow on measured accuracy and cost rather than preference. Systems deploy into your cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) or on-premise, and integrate with the tools you already run.
Where is Actonics located?
We are a distributed senior engineering team serving US companies, with full US business-hours availability. Contracts and invoicing are in USD.
Is there anything you don't do?
Yes. We do not build voice or call-center AI, and we do not serve banks, lenders, or asset managers. We stay where we are strongest: text-heavy back-office and operations workflows for mid-sized companies.
One workflow. Thirty days. Measured results.
Tell us about the workflow that's eating your team's time, and we'll give you an honest read on whether AI can fix it.
Book an intro callor write to info@actonics.com