# Switchboard > Switchboard is a multi-disciplinary product studio that maps how a business actually runs, then rebuilds it with AI agents, automated workflows, and custom software built around the team — not the other way around. Founded by Justin Watt and Joanna Li, Switchboard works with growing companies and PE-backed operators who need real operational systems, not slide decks or off-the-shelf SaaS. Most engagements start with an **AI Jumpstart** — a few focused weeks inside the business to map how work moves, audit the tech stack, model where AI saves time and grows margin, and prove it with an interactive prototype on the team's real workflows. From there most clients continue into the **AI Deployment Studio**, where the prototype becomes a production system the team actually runs on. What Switchboard builds, in three categories: - **AI Agents** — one task, done faster by AI. A precision tool for a specific repetitive workflow. - **Automated Workflows** — AI and people working together along a defined process. The team's day, automated where it makes sense and kept human where it matters. - **Custom Software** — one source of truth, built around the team. The internal system that nobody sells off the shelf because nobody else operates exactly like this business does. ## Services - [AI Jumpstart](https://www.withswitchboard.com/jumpstart): A 2–8 week engagement that maps operations, audits the tech stack, models where AI saves time and grows margin, and delivers an interactive prototype on the team's real workflows. Three scope options — one workflow, one team, or org-wide. Where every Switchboard engagement begins. - [AI Deployment Studio](https://www.withswitchboard.com/studio): The follow-on engagement where Switchboard's team designs, engineers, and rolls out the production system, then stays close as the system evolves. Combines operations strategy, design, engineering, and change management under one team. - [Diligence Jumpstart](https://www.withswitchboard.com/diligence): AI-era operational diligence for PE, M&A, and portfolio operators. Pressure-tests the value-creation thesis with software running on the target's real operations, built in weeks not quarters. Same team can carry the prototype into the portco post-close. - [Our Process](https://www.withswitchboard.com/process): How a Switchboard engagement unfolds end-to-end, from intake through Jumpstart to ongoing Deployment Studio work. ## Case Studies - [MARiTECH](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/maritech): Modernized a 40-year-old cargo surveying firm. Quoting, tracking, collaboration, and scale, rebuilt around how the team actually works, not how an off-the-shelf system thinks they should. - [Lending operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/lending-operations): One ledger of record for a specialty lender. Loans, brokers, compliance, commissions, and bonuses on one operating layer, with a full audit trail of every loan-life event. - [Commercial real estate](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/commercial-real-estate): A commercial real estate firm's deal pipeline, asset performance, capital tracking, and investor reporting on one operating layer. Quarterly rollup collapsed from two weeks to two days, with $380K in avoided hiring as the book grew. - [Claims operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/claims-operations): A specialty insurance carrier replaced paper claim files and three field apps with one intake, dispatch, and settlement platform. $420K in avoided hiring as claim volume scaled, with adjusters freed up for the harder cases. - [Medical transport operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/medical-transport): A medical transport company coordinating patient logistics across borders unified intake, live quoting, mission coordination, and billing on one operating layer. 45% less admin effort and $240K in avoided hiring as case volume grew. - [Customer success operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/customer-success-ops): A SaaS team's customer success operating layer. Health scoring, lifecycle plays, and renewal touches on one connected workspace, replacing eight sources of truth. - [Agency operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/agency-operations): An agency's project lifecycle, staffing, time, and billing on one operating layer. From pitch to invoice with real-time utilization and margin visibility. - [HR operations](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/hr-operations): A growing company's HR operating layer. One employee record syncing across ATS, payroll, benefits, equity, and access systems with a full audit trail. - [All case studies](https://www.withswitchboard.com/work/): Browse the full Switchboard portfolio. ## Company - [About Switchboard](https://www.withswitchboard.com/about): Founders Justin Watt and Joanna Li, the team, and how Switchboard approaches operations and AI. A small multi-disciplinary group that's built product across the Fortune 100 and early-stage startups — now applied to the AI era. - [Careers](https://www.withswitchboard.com/careers): Open roles for strategists, designers, engineers, and operators who want to own outcomes end-to-end. Switchboard is an AI-native product studio. - [Resources](https://www.withswitchboard.com/resources): Templates, walkthroughs, and writing on AI, operations, and the systems that make a business actually work. ## Writing & Resources - [The AI-First Operator (Blog)](https://www.withswitchboard.com/blog): The Switchboard exec team sharing learnings from our AI transformation and deployment work — agents, workflow automation, and build-vs-buy decisions for mid-market and PE-backed operators. - [AI Playbooks](https://www.withswitchboard.com/resources#ai-playbooks): Step-by-step playbooks plus the templates, toolkits, and reading we hand clients. Recent posts: - [Every Business Is Playing Age of Empires](https://www.withswitchboard.com/blog/two-ages-behind): Age of Empires explains business technology better than any consulting framework. Here's how to figure out which age your company is living in, and how to advance. - [God Mode is Breaking Work](https://www.withswitchboard.com/blog/god-mode-is-breaking-work): AI is the cheat code that isn't eliminating jobs. It's eliminating the point of them. - [Killing The Cockroach of Enterprise Software](https://www.withswitchboard.com/blog/killing-the-cockroach-of-enterprise-software): Excel is the cockroach of enterprise software — it fills every gap no platform can reach. Here's why AI is finally the thing that can replace it. ## Get in touch - [Scope your project](https://www.withswitchboard.com/scope-your-project): Tell us about a workflow, a department, or a company-wide problem that's slowing you down. We'll come back with how we'd scope a Switchboard engagement against it. - [Book a call](https://www.withswitchboard.com/book-a-call): A 30-minute introduction with Justin Watt, co-founder. ## Optional - [Sitemap](https://www.withswitchboard.com/sitemap.xml): Full XML sitemap of all indexable pages. - [Blog RSS feed](https://www.withswitchboard.com/blog/rss.xml): The AI-First Operator, newest posts first. - [robots.txt](https://www.withswitchboard.com/robots.txt): Crawler policy. Switchboard welcomes search engines and AI crawlers; only the internal partner program and 404 helper are excluded.