Custom AI without the $500mm price tag - Capto Weekly #22

Whether it is law firm Kirkland & Ellis spending $500mm to build its own custom AI platform, or another unnamed company spending $500mm in one month(!!) - there’s some big $$ hitting AI headlines this past week.

To each his own, but you don’t need HALF A BILLION DOLLARS to deploy custom owned AI solutions in order to give your company a unique competitive edge like Kirkland & Ellis.

The principle of such investment is something we do support - built to match your unique processes, owned to enhance your technology IP, and in avoidance of feeding your private data to LLMs.

The stigma that you need millions of dollars to be successful in doing such - is what we raise our hand to question. Not to mention that more money, doesn’t guarantee more ROI.

Custom AI & Automation without million $$ price tag.
Not to mention it actually works, w/guaranteed ROI.

Let’s talk about it!

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[SPECIAL FEATURE] -- AI Motorbike Tour!

We’re hitting the road across Europe the last 2 weeks of June. Access related updates in this section.

We’ve set a proposed venue in each city for coffee meetings with individuals or small groups throughout the day.

There will also be options to attend larger events in the evening for many destinations.

Register as an attendee and/or reach out directly for more details.

• 🇧🇬 June 22: Sofia ← First stop. Our biggest networking event yet! With special featured guests TBA!

• 🇷🇸 June 23: Belgrade

• 🇭🇺 June 24: Budapest

• 🇦🇹 June 25: Vienna

• 🇩🇪 June 29: Munich

• 🇱🇺 July 1st: Luxembourg

Capto

Company updates worth highlighting.

• There are a few honest reasons NOT to automate. It took us a bit ourselves before it made sense to run a mile (or at least a few) in our clients shoes.

• Suddenly even the loudest voices in the room are talking about cracks in the foundation of AI hype. A review of news from OpenAI, Anthropic, jobs and SaaS apocalypses, and token spending.

• “We know ball”... and we also know Tax. A summary of our relevant work and recent awards was released to our network.

• Not your typical fast food burger. We celebrate National Burger Day with a look at how generic burgers (AI vendors) and artisanal ones (custom-built AI) differs.

• “I built 7 AI agents in one week... then I tried implementing them.” Another story of weekend building gone wrong from a CFO in the field.

• Another day of meetings in Sofia! We still have some people to catch up with, if you’re one - we’ll be back in town on June 9th.

Spokes

A section dedicated to highlighting the work of our official allies.

• Have we collaborated before? Would you like to? Looking for a boost in visibility? We are continuing to build out this program and open to discuss adding members to our directory.

You

Doing our part in a community-based approach where our feeds, inboxes, and meetings are the source for learning and happiness.

• The build vs. buy debate and equation has changed radically in recent history. We are enthusiastic builders but would be remiss not to mention that the maintenance part isn’t fun. h/t to Jordan Rogers for outlining why.

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Capto helps Finance teams (and adjacent functions) adopt intelligent automation in environments where accuracy, risk management, and accountability are critical. We design and deploy bespoke AI Agents, true “AI employees”, fully owned by our clients. No black boxes. No dependency. Just stronger internal IP and a sustainable competitive edge.

Our approach allows us to tailor each project to our clients’ unique processes, handle end-to-end across multiple systems, and once delivered are paired with dedicated developer resources to ensure stability.

Structured with commercial guarantees, technical transparency, and enterprise-grade compliance. Capto offers clients flexible relationship options for all stages of their AI journey; process discovery & analysis, documentation, development, maintenance, and evolution.

Capto prioritizes sustainable, high-quality, and direct decision making that leads to long-term relationships and to support our network-driven approach.