Custom AI Development
A US-based custom AI development company that ships production AI. No pilots, no demos, no strategy decks gathering dust.
The Team Behind Production AI
A custom AI development company is an independent firm that designs and builds AI software tailored to one client’s specific workflows, data, and systems. It’s a different model from buying an off-the-shelf AI product or wrapping a generic GPT layer around your business. The software is built around how you actually operate.
LaunchPad Lab is a Chicago-based product team, founded in 2012, focused on shipping production AI. Not strategy decks. Not demos. Real systems running in real environments, doing real work for the people using them. There are no siloed handoffs between strategy and build, no separate teams for delivery and support. That structure is intentional. It’s how we keep AI projects moving from idea to production without losing the thread.
As a custom AI development company, we cover the full stack: LLMs, AI agents, machine learning, and predictive systems. Whatever the use case calls for, we build it. The promise is simple. One team from discovery to deployment. The same people who scope your project will build it, ship it, and support it in production.
From AI Strategy to Production Deployment
What a custom AI development company actually builds depends on the client in front of them. For us, that ranged from LLM-powered internal copilots for professional services firms, to document-processing agents for financial services teams, to predictive ML systems for healthcare operations. No two projects look the same. What stays consistent is real engineering, real integrations, and real production deployment.
-
Custom AI Applications
Full-stack AI software, built from the ground up. LLMs, agents, ML models, and custom reasoning systems. Frontend, backend, integrations, and data pipeline. We handle all of it. This is the right path when an off-the-shelf tool can’t get specific enough to fit how your business actually runs.
-
AI Agents and Intelligent Workflows
Autonomous agents that handle multi-step business processes. Think document parsing, approval routing, CRM updates, and customer intake. We connect them to the systems your team already uses, including Salesforce, HubSpot, and your own internal tools, so the work flows where it needs to go.
-
AI Readiness & Opportunity Assessment
Test the idea before you commit to the full build. In 2–4 weeks, we will put together a working prototype using your real data and a real workflow, so your team can see how it behaves in practice. If it’s ready to scale, we’ll say so. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.
-
Generative AI Integration
LLM capabilities dropped into the products you already have. Semantic search, document summarization, content generation, chat interfaces, and decision support. We work with GPT, Claude, and open-source models, picking what fits the use case rather than defaulting to one provider.
-
AI Strategy and Discovery
Before any build, we run a 2-week discovery sprint to map your workflows, validate the use case, and produce a ranked AI roadmap. If a custom build isn’t the right answer, we’ll tell you. You can take the roadmap and stop there.
Problems We Solve
When you're evaluating a custom AI development company, the real question is whether the team can take an idea all the way and transform it into something your business can actually use. Plenty of firms are great at the strategy side and producing polished diagrams, but the build gets passed off to a separate vendor. Others are offshore dev shops that write code without much context for the business behind it. We sit somewhere in the middle, with the same US-based team, in the same timezone, from the first conversation through to launch.
How We Run AI Consulting
-
Discovery and Scoping
We start with a 2-week engagement alongside your team. We map the workflow you want to improve, take an honest look at your data and the systems already in play, and figure out whether an AI-powered solution actually fits. If it doesn’t, we’ll say so. What you walk away with is a scoped roadmap, a clearly defined first build, and timelines we believe in. No 60-slide deck. No vague next steps.
-
Build, Iterate, Ship
From there, we move into 2-week sprints with working software at every review. Integrations with your existing systems start on day one, because AI that can’t reach your data can’t do the job you built it for. We evaluate continuously against the success metrics we agreed on in discovery, so progress is measurable. There are no surprise rebuilds at the end and no handoff to a different team.
-
Production and Ongoing Partnership
When the system is ready, we deploy it with observability, guardrails, cost controls on LLM usage, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints in the places they matter. Then we stick around. We refine the models, watch for drift, and expand the system’s capabilities as your team gets a feel for what it can really do. The partnership doesn’t end at go-live.
-
13+
Years building software
-
730+
Projects delivered
-
50+
Engineers, designers, and strategists
Featured Consulting Projects
-
Sales Discovery Portal
CDK's sales team had spent 25 years running discovery with pen and paper, then typing everything into Salesforce from a hotel room. We ran a Blueprint Workshop to align on goals, chose a Progressive Web App for the format, and built a guided discovery portal that syncs back to Salesforce in real time. Adoption hit 80% of the sales team on first release, and training time dropped by more than 90%.
-
AI-Powered Knowledge Assistant for Prosci
Prosci needed a better way for users to access and use its large library of research, training content, and tools. Information was spread across systems and was difficult to search. We built an AI-powered assistant using OpenAI that pulls from Prosci’s content and delivers clear, relevant answers. This improved how users find information and learn from it. The platform now supports over 10,000 users across 50+ countries, with faster access to the content they need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a custom AI development company?
A custom AI development company is an independent firm that designs and builds AI software tailored to one client’s workflows, data, and systems. It’s not a pre-built product. It’s not a generic AI tool with the client’s logo on it. The work usually covers strategy, engineering, integration, and production deployment. The output is software built around how a business actually runs.
How do I choose the right custom AI development company?
A few things are worth checking before you sign anything. Is the team US-based? That usually makes communication and accountability easier. Have they shipped AI into production, or are their case studies mostly pilots and demos? Do they validate the use case before any building starts? And will the same people you meet in the sales process be the ones doing the work? Those four questions filter most of the field.
What's the difference between custom AI development and using off-the-shelf AI tools?
Off-the-shelf tools work well when your needs match what the product was built to do. They’re fast to deploy. They’re predictable to budget for. Custom AI development is the right call when your data, workflows, or users are specific enough that a generic tool can’t really do the job. Most companies end up using both. Off-the-shelf for the standard stuff. Custom for the parts that actually set the business apart.
What AI technologies does LaunchPad Lab work with?
On the engineering side, we work in Python and TypeScript. For LLMs, we use OpenAI, Claude, Llama, and Mistral. We pick the model that fits the job, not the one we used last time. Our agent stack includes LangChain, LlamaIndex, and LangGraph. For vector search, we use Pinecone and Weaviate. Infrastructure usually runs on AWS or Azure OpenAI. We integrate with whatever platforms our clients already use, Salesforce being a common one.
Do you only build AI, or do you also help with strategy and roadmapping?
Both. Every engagement starts with a 2-week discovery sprint where we map your workflows, look at your data, and decide whether AI is even the right answer. If a custom build doesn’t make sense, we’ll say so. You can take the roadmap and walk away. If it does, the same team that ran discovery moves into the build. There’s no handoff to a separate strategy or engineering group along the way.
How long does a custom AI development project take?
It depends on scope. Discovery and scoping usually run 2 weeks. A proof of concept takes 2 to 4 weeks. A production MVP typically takes 8 to 16 weeks, depending on integrations and complexity. Larger platform-level builds run 6+ months. We try to give realistic timelines in the discovery roadmap rather than optimistic ones, so you have something dependable to plan against from day one.
What industries does LaunchPad Lab serve as a custom AI development partner?
Our 730+ projects span financial services, healthcare, insurance, legal, education, and professional services. We’ve built AI process automation for consumer lenders, web and mobile platforms for global enterprise clients, and digital tools for organizations like Prosci, serving 10,000+ users in 50+ countries. The depth across sectors helps us bring useful pattern recognition into a new engagement, even when the specific use case is unfamiliar.
Start with a Real Conversation
Tell us what you're trying to build with AI. Or what you're still trying to figure out. A 30-minute call with one of our senior engineers will give you a straight answer on whether a custom AI build makes sense, what it would actually involve, and whether we're the right team to do it. No deck. No pipeline pressure.