We've worked with enough operators in Portland to know that the brief that arrives in our inbox is rarely the brief that ends up shipped. The first thing we do on any AI email triage project is sit with your team for a day before we propose anything.
For Portland operators who want a working pilot in weeks, not a year-long programme.
Our goal is to give Portland businesses a three-day weekend, so people can spend more time with their families and the people they love :)
What AI email triage actually does
Inbox gets the AI treatment - drafts replies, files quotes, escalates the urgent, and snoozes the noise. Your team starts the day at zero, not 200 unread.
- 01 Drafts replies in your tone, ready to send
- 02 Auto-files attachments to the right job folder
- 03 Detects complaints and pings the right person
- 04 Weekly digest of what was handled while you slept
Built on: Claude Gmail API Microsoft Graph Vercel
What you actually get
Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. This is what is in the box.
- A working pilot, in productionNot a prototype on someone's laptop. The first slice of AI email triage runs against real work within weeks.
- Your data stays yoursIt runs on your accounts and your tools. If we part ways you keep the system and everything in it.
- The workflow mapped before codeWe write down what good looks like for Portland businesses first, so nobody is guessing at handover.
- Support after it landsThe people who built it stay reachable when the business changes shape around it.
How AI email triage compares
The two things most businesses do instead, and where each one runs out.
| Hiring for it | An off-the-shelf tool | Kiwi Dynamics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit to how you work | Fits perfectly, costs a salary | You bend your process to suit the tool | Built around the workflow you already run |
| Time to something useful | Immediate, and permanent | Quick to switch on, slow to make fit | A working slice in weeks, then hardened |
| Who owns the data | You do | The vendor, on the vendor's terms | You do, in your own accounts |
| When it breaks | That person sorts it, if they are in | A support queue and a ticket number | The people who built it |
| What it costs | A salary, every year, forever | Per seat, forever, used or not | Scoped and quoted up front |
What's different about doing this work in Portland.
- Portland runs on a mix of tech, manufacturing and a famously independent small business scene - AI here has to respect a market that's skeptical of hype by default.
- A semiconductor and tech manufacturing base (the 'Silicon Forest'), and a dense scene of independent retailers, restaurants and makers. Portland businesses want AI that's genuinely useful, not just the current trend.
We work with teams across Portland: Downtown Portland · Pearl District · Hawthorne · Beaverton · Hillsboro · Lloyd District.
Talk to us about this →How we build AI email triage for a Portland team.
We scope narrow, ship a working pilot, then harden it into production. The first slice is the highest-leverage workflow for your Portland business, so value lands before the build is finished. AI inbox manager.
Talk to usHow the work runs
- Find the one workflowWe look for the job costing Portland businesses the most hours or the most leads, and deliberately ignore the rest for now.
- Ship a working sliceA narrow version goes into production in weeks, against real work, so the value shows up before the build is finished.
- Prove it, then widenWe measure it against what the work cost before. If it does not pay for itself, we say so rather than scaling it.
- Harden and hand overLogging, fallbacks and a real handover, so it keeps running when we are not in the room.
The outcome for Portland teams
Inbox time cut from 2 hours/day to under 30 minutes. For Portland teams, that almost always shows up as fewer interruptions and a calmer week, not a dashboard chart.
Not your typical AI agency.
Honest about what AI can and cannot do
Ships the one workflow that pays for itself
Hours given back, never the size of the invoice
*Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. Results vary by workflow and business.
FAQ
How long does AI email triage take to ship for Portland businesses?
We aim for a working pilot inside 4-6 weeks - narrow scope, real Portland businesses data, measurable outcome. From there it's another 6-8 weeks of hardening before you'd consider it production. Full rollouts (multiple sites, multiple teams) typically land in 3-4 months.
How do you price AI email triage engagements?
Fixed-scope pilots first, then either project pricing or a small monthly retainer for the ongoing work. No long lock-ins, no 18-month black-box deals. Most Portland businesses are surprised how small the first cheque is.
Can you walk us through a comparable build?
Yes - on the first call we'll pick the closest engagement we've shipped to what you're describing and walk through the outcome, the headcount and the time it took. Inbox time cut from 2 hours/day to under 30 minutes.
Who owns the code and the model setup?
You do, on delivery. We deploy AI email triage into your own cloud account where possible, with the model setup, prompts, evals and integration code all checked into a repo you own. Claude sits in your account too - we don't operate it from ours.
The honest version of a sales call.
No deck. No discovery doc. Just whether this is worth building and what it would cost.
Talk to us about this
Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll reply with how we'd build it - no obligation.