An AI automation developer for the Midlands.
Birmingham sits at the intersection of manufacturing, finance and logistics, and the AI conversations happening across those sectors are usually about removing genuine cost, not about the model of the week. I ship AI automation systems that live inside those constraints.
Bishal Paul
AI automation developer · Birmingham and Midlands
Hi, my name is Bishal Paul. I run Erudience, the AI automation agency behind this work (see erudience.com), and sit as Head of AI at Absolute Intelligence UK. Live products under my own name include push8 (operations for n8n) and ExcelErrorFinder.
Every recommendation to a Midlands client comes out of something I have operated on my own bill first. That is why manufacturing and finance procurement teams tend to have a shorter list of concerns by the second call.
annual R&D spend across West Midlands manufacturing, one of the highest concentrations of engineering firms in Europe.
people employed across the Greater Birmingham LEP economy, third largest metropolitan workforce in the UK.
Birmingham New Street to London Euston by direct train. Day trips for scoping are trivial.
Sector strengths in the Midlands
Four sectors where a Midlands build tends to pay for itself fastest.
Manufacturing
Quote and RFQ intake automation, PDF and email extraction, supplier onboarding, delivery note reconciliation.
Financial services and insurance
Applied LLM features inside broker portals, structured document extraction, KYC and onboarding workflows with human approval gates.
Logistics and distribution
Dispatch automation, exception routing, driver comms, structured post trip records into your TMS or ERP.
Higher education and research
Student support triage, retrieval on institutional data, staff facing agents inside existing helpdesk platforms.
Common builds for Birmingham teams
Six workflows Midlands operators ask for first.
Every one of these has shipped for at least one UK client. Prices depend on integration surface, not on how the workflow reads on a slide.
RFQ and quote intake automation
B01PDF and email RFQs parsed into structured line items, matched against your product catalogue and pricing rules, drafted back as a quote in your ERP or Excel template. Human approval before it goes out. Common at Midlands manufacturers.
Supplier onboarding and compliance
B02New supplier packs read end to end, key fields extracted into your vendor master, missing documents chased over email until the record is complete. Full audit log per supplier.
Broker portal AI features
B03Applied LLM features inside existing broker and insurance portals. Structured extraction on submissions, first pass triage, human underwriter review. Runs inside your Azure or AWS tenancy.
Voice AI for after hours cover
B04ElevenLabs and Twilio voice agent for after hours calls into a Birmingham office. Books call backs into the calendar, escalates urgent calls to a live rota, transcribes and files everything into your CRM.
Logistics exception routing
B05Dispatch and delivery exceptions triaged by an n8n workflow, resolved automatically where policy allows, escalated to a named human where not. Structured post trip records into your TMS.
Internal knowledge retrieval
B06Retrieval augmented generation on your SharePoint, Confluence or Google Drive. Answers cite source documents. Access controls respect your existing groups so staff only see what they should.
How a Birmingham engagement runs
Five stages, priced and timelined upfront.
Discovery
30 minute video call on the actual process, not a features tour. Free.
Scoping
One to two weeks, paid. Produces a fixed architecture, a fixed price and a timeline you can commit to.
Build
Weekly demos into a shared staging URL. You see the workflow taking shape, not a reveal at the end.
Launch
Handover into your infrastructure with runbook, monitoring and an operator session.
Retainer
Optional block of hours per month for evolution and incidents. Cancellable monthly.
Area coverage
Where Midlands clients tend to sit.
Engagement models
Four ways a Midlands engagement runs.
Pick one, or move between them across the life of the system. Every model comes with a written scope and a defined outcome before any invoice.
Recently shipped
Three Midlands systems live in production.
Client names held back per NDA. Sector, shape and outcome are the actual build.
RFQ intake automation for a Midlands manufacturer
Recently shipped for a West Midlands manufacturer: PDF and email RFQs parsed into structured line items, matched against the product catalogue and drafted back as a quote in the ERP with a human approval gate before it leaves.
Read case studyAI powered client support system
Recently shipped for a Birmingham financial services firm: LLM triage on inbound tickets with drafts pulled from an approved knowledge base, citations back to the source, and a human on the record for anything material.
Read case studyInbound call routing agent
Recently shipped for a Midlands retail operator: a first line voice agent that classifies intent, answers FAQs, and routes only the calls that need a human. Cut average handling time and gave the support team their evenings back.
Read case studyAnswered before the call
Eight questions from Midlands teams.
Are you based in Birmingham?+
UK based, working with Birmingham and Midlands teams regularly. Remote by default because that suits both sides. When a build genuinely benefits from on site time, day trips to Birmingham are straightforward and planned in at scoping.
What kinds of Birmingham businesses do you work with?+
Manufacturers automating quote intake and supplier onboarding, financial services and insurance firms adding AI features inside their existing systems, logistics operators automating dispatch and exception handling, and Midlands SaaS teams shipping their first serious AI capability.
Can you handle procurement and vendor onboarding?+
Yes. Erudience is a UK entity with standard contracts, DPAs, insurance and a small vendor questionnaire done on request. Enterprise procurement in Birmingham financial services and manufacturing has not been an issue.
What is the typical engagement shape?+
Fixed scope discovery, a defined build measured in weeks not months, then an optional retained operator role. No open ended time and materials, no hidden ramp.
Do you have Midlands references we can talk to?+
References are shared privately after the first call, with the client's consent. Public case studies live under Solutions. NDAs are respected on both sides.
Can you invoice in GBP with UK VAT?+
Yes. Erudience is a UK entity, GST registered, invoices in GBP with UK VAT applied per the standard rules. Purchase order flows, vendor onboarding forms and supplier questionnaires are routine for Midlands procurement teams.
How fast can a Midlands engagement start?+
Paid scoping usually starts within two weeks of the first call, with the build kicking off one to three weeks after that. Genuinely urgent work has begun inside a week when the scope was already clear on day one.
Will the system stay maintainable after you hand it over?+
Yes. Every build ships with a written runbook, monitoring dashboards, versioned prompts in git, and an operator session with your team. The retainer is optional, not a lock in. Teams who prefer to run it themselves have done exactly that.
Available for new work
Birmingham and Midlands focus
Reply within 24 hours
Start a conversation
Let's talk about your Midlands build.
A free 30 minute discovery call. You leave with a concrete direction on scope, sequencing and cost, even if we do not end up working together.
- Direct line to me, not an account manager or a sales team.
- No slide deck. We look at your current workflow and where it hurts.
- Written summary in your inbox within 24 hours of the call.