AI consulting & automation · Medford, serving the Northwoods
Your systems already hold the answers. They just don't talk to each other.
I help small and mid-size Midwest businesses see how work and information actually move through the company, find where time and accuracy are lost, and decide what to fix first — before anyone buys new software.
No software to sell. No vendor commissions. On-site, not a Zoom-only firm.
Sound familiar?
You run good software. The gaps are between the programs.
Most established companies didn't plan their systems. They added them one at a time, as the business grew. Each tool works. The trouble is moving information from one to the next.
10% → 35%Share of Wisconsin manufacturers using AI, 2023 to 2025. The obstacles they named: no internal expertise, trouble connecting existing data, upfront cost, and unclear return.
Source: 2025 Wisconsin Manufacturing Report, WCMP (405 executives surveyed)
- The same numbers get typed in twice.An estimate becomes a budget, a timecard becomes a cost, a quote becomes an order — by hand.
- Simple questions take days."Are we making money on this job?" means pulling three reports and a spreadsheet.
- One person knows how it works.A critical workbook or process lives in someone's head. When they're out, it stops.
- Everyone's pitching AI.And every pitch comes from someone selling the tool. You want an honest read first.
The approach
Start with the work, not the software.
A fixed-fee discovery engagement, usually about five weeks, mostly on-site. I follow real jobs or orders from start to finish and talk with the people who do the work.
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01
Learn the work
Interviews with leadership, office and field staff. Walk one or two recent jobs from first contact through closeout.
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02
Inventory systems & data
Every system the work touches: what it stores, who owns it, and how data gets out — reports, exports, database views, APIs.
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03
Map & find the gaps
Current-state process maps. Where data is re-keyed, disconnected, or hard to reach. Your staff review and correct them.
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04
Roadmap & one pilot
Opportunities ranked by benefit, cost and effort, a phased plan with rough costs, and one small pilot to prove it.
Where it goes wrong
Most companies start with the tool — an AI assistant, a new platform, a dashboard. If the data underneath is scattered across systems no one has mapped, the tool gives unreliable answers. Map and connect first. Then automate.
Every opportunity is sorted into one of five types
Often the highest-value fix is the cheapest one: a change in process or a feature you already pay for.
What you get
A plan you own and can hand to anyone.
All deliverables are yours, in editable formats. Use them with me, with your own staff, or with another provider. Every finding is marked confirmed (verified in the system or by its owner) or assumed.
- 1Current-state process maps — how work moves, start to finish.
- 2Software & data inventory — each system's purpose, owner, data, and how to get data out.
- 3Data access & integration findings — what can connect, and what's in the way.
- 4Prioritized opportunity list — ranked by benefit, cost, effort and risk.
- 5Phased roadmap with rough-order costs, staff time and training needs.
- 6One recommended pilot — scope, owner, baseline, and how you'll know it worked.
- 7Leadership readout — plain language, no jargon.
What the engagement becomes
Not a 90-page report. A working model of how your business actually runs.
Systems, handoffs, owners, evidence and recommended fixes in one place. Click any system in the example below. It's the difference between being told "you need AI" and seeing exactly where it belongs.
Confirmed means verified in the system or by its owner. Assumed means observed, not yet verified.
ERP
- Owner
- Operations
- Source of truth for
- Jobs, customers, costs
- Main handoff
- Estimating → ERP → Accounting
- Evidence
- Confirmedwith system owner
Estimate data is re-keyed into the ERP. Connect approved estimates directly to job creation and remove duplicate entry.
Standardize job naming
One naming convention across estimating, ERP and file storage.
Use the field already in the ERP
Replace a shadow spreadsheet with a feature the company already pays for.
Estimate → ERP job creation
Remove duplicate entry after an estimate is approved.
Validate timecards before payroll
Flag missing job codes and impossible hours before they reach accounting.
Ask margin questions in plain English
Only after job, cost and labor data are connected and trustworthy.
After the roadmap
An ongoing AI & operations lead to own the plan.
Most owner-led companies don't need a full-time technology executive. They need one person accountable for getting the roadmap done. After discovery, I can stay on part-time, with scope and hours agreed in writing.
- Own the roadmap — keep priorities current as the business changes.
- Run the pilot — and measure it against the baseline we set.
- Vet vendors and quotes — still no commissions, ever.
- Train your people — and write down how the new process works.
- Report to leadership — a plain-language readout every month.
How I work
Independent advice, and your data stays yours.
No software sales
No reseller deals, referral fees or commissions on anything I recommend. Every roadmap includes the option to keep and improve what you already have.
Read-only discovery
No changes to your systems. Access goes through your staff or accounts your IT approves, and ends when the engagement ends.
Nothing into AI without approval
Your data doesn't leave your systems or go into any AI tool unless you approve it — and then only tools that don't train on it. I'll sign your NDA.
About
I build these systems for my own businesses first.
I'm James Stokes, founder of Stokhaus Media in Medford. I've run my own businesses since 2010, and I was raised on a fifth-generation family dairy farm in central Wisconsin. I know what it means to run a family business where the owner is also the bottleneck.
I do the interviews, mapping and analysis myself. You won't be handed off to a junior team.
- ERP reporting on live dataAt Kelley Supply, built Power BI dashboards for sales and marketing on direct SQL access to the company's Epicor Prophet 21 ERP — working from the system's own tables, not exported reports.
- Role-based business systemsLed the build of a multi-tenant client application with role-based access and a data explorer for my own breeding program, replacing people-dependent workflows.
- AI-assisted operationsBuilt an AI-assisted content workflow — research, drafting, design, voice and publishing — that runs my own marketing.
- Operations leadershipFormer Executive Director of Huey's Hideaway Children's Museum: staff, operations, and $200K+ in grants and sponsorships.
- EducationB.A., Organizational Management & Leadership, Concordia University St. Paul. MBA in Marketing & Entrepreneurship in progress, Concordia University Wisconsin ('27).
Who it's for
Northwoods companies that have outgrown their spreadsheets.
Owner-led and family businesses across north-central and northern Wisconsin with several core systems, real operations, and no in-house data team.
Construction & heavy civil
Takeoffs, estimates, field time and job cost living in separate systems.
Manufacturing & fabrication
ERP data that never reaches the shop floor or the owner's desk in time to act on.
Wood products & logging
Tight margins after mill closures. Tickets, scale data and payroll handled by hand.
Trucking & logistics
Dispatch, hours and billing re-entered from one tool to the next.
Distribution & supply
Sales, margin and inventory answers locked inside the ERP.
Agriculture & co-ops
Member, production and billing records spread across spreadsheets.
Resorts & tourism
Seasonal staff, bookings and marketing run from disconnected tools.
Insurance & local finance
Paperwork-heavy processes with strict rules on where data can go.
Let's talk
Tell me what's slowing the business down.
- — A personal reply from James, usually within one business day
- — Free 30-minute scoping call
- — No pitch deck, no sales funnel, nothing to buy
Prefer email or phone? james@stokhausmedia.com · (715) 570-5718