Can you build an app with AI? What the tool does on its own, and when to bring in a professional
Yes, AI can build an app that works. What the tool does well on its own, where it stops, and when to bring in a professional.
Bespoke AI automation for small businesses
We automate the repetitive tasks in your business processes, and we integrate AI at the steps where a rule is not enough. We develop your bespoke software, usable within a month, on a fixed monthly budget, and keep adjusting it as your business evolves.
What AI does in a business process, and when an off-the-shelf tool is enough
In some processes, a person reads a document, then copies its content into a piece of software. A CV, an invoice, a purchase order.
As long as the information arrives in the same form, a rule written into the software is enough to handle it. AI becomes useful when that form changes from one document to the next: an image, free text, a layout nobody planned for.
The software then passes the document to an AI model, with instructions. The model extracts the information in a format you have approved. The software checks that the information matches that format before saving it. Where a mistake is costly, a person checks it before it is saved.
Tools such as n8n, Make or Zapier connect existing software, step by step, without writing code. For a simple sequence between systems that already offer these connections, they are enough. In that case, we tell you so.
Bespoke software becomes necessary when the process applies your business rules, when several people take part in it with different rights, or when the information must be checked before it enters your systems.
It then takes the form of a business application. To connect your systems to one another, see our page on software integration.
For example, we automate:
- Reading a document, image or PDF, and extracting the information to be entered.
- Answering a question, based on your documents.
- Passing information entered once to every system where it is used.
- Sending alerts and reminders on the right date.
Ready for changes by the AI provider
The AI model does not belong to you: its vendor decides its price, its terms and how long it stays available. Depending on a supplier is nothing unusual. The risk is ignoring it.
At DEVEDANOS, we therefore prepare each AI integration from the first month, before the provider changes its model, its price or its terms:
- The model used is named in writing: the vendor, the name, the version, where it is hosted.
- The instructions, your documents, their index and the code are kept on your side, not with the model’s vendor.
- A set of test questions, whose correct answers are known, comes with the software. It is run again at every change of model, and you then know, with figures to back it up, whether the new model does as well.
- A second model, from another vendor, takes the same set of questions. The day the first one disappears, the fallback has already been tested.
- Spending is tracked every month.
Usable within a month, adjusted continuously
The users of your application work with it from the first month of development, and how they use it determines the next feature or features.
What has been tested and signed off goes live. Every day, you see the application move forward on your acceptance environment.
We measure the gain with you: the time spent on a task before, then after. That record is used to choose the next step to tackle.
Our approach explains how each feature is checked before it goes into production.
What we have built
A job board for apprenticeship students that reads CVs using AI
For OMNES Education, a higher-education group, we worked on integrating AI into its apprenticeship job platform, reserved for its students: reading the image of the CV and extracting the student’s profile, in a format approved with the group’s teams.
Automatic CV analysis cut the time spent on manual data entry by 80%, above all for the group’s staff.
A fixed monthly budget, and what belongs to you
The budget is built with you, from your numbers and your objectives: together we set the amount and the problem your application has to solve. Your application is usable within a month of development. From then on, the budget covers its maintenance and evolution for as long as you want, so that it keeps adapting to your business. Invoicing is monthly and fixed, with no surcharge for licences or number of users. You know your exact spend before you start.
This budget covers development. Using the AI model is a separate expense, which depends on the volume processed. We track it every month.
The source code, infrastructure, deployment pipeline and documentation are your intellectual property once the first monthly invoice is paid.
The zero-regression guarantee applies from day one. If an accepted and approved feature starts behaving differently after a change, we fix it at no extra cost and we lock the behaviour with an automated test so it cannot come back.
You can terminate the contract in writing at any time, without justification. During the reversibility month, we support your team until they can build, test and deploy without us.
How much does it cost to automate a process with AI?
The budget is built with you, from your numbers and your objectives: together we set the amount and the problem your application has to solve. Your application is usable within a month of development. From then on, the budget covers its maintenance and evolution for as long as you want, so that it keeps adapting to your business. Invoicing is monthly and fixed, with no surcharge for licences or number of users. You know your exact spend before you start. This budget covers development. Using the AI model is a separate expense, which depends on the volume processed. We track it every month.
How long does it take to automate a process?
You choose the steps to automate first, then decide on the next ones as you use them. The first ones are usable within a month, with a few essential features.
Is my data sent to the model provider?
Yes, when the model is hosted by its vendor: the software sends the documents to be processed to that vendor. If those documents contain personal data, the GDPR (Article 28) forbids the processor from engaging the model provider without your prior written authorisation. So you know in writing who the software entrusts your data to. You can also choose an open model, whose vendor publishes the file, installed on a server rented in France. We then run the set of test questions on your cases, to find out whether it does as well as a large commercial model.
What happens if the provider withdraws the model or changes its price?
We run the set of test questions on the replacement model and show you, with figures to back it up, whether it does as well. The second model, from another vendor, has already taken the same set: the fallback is tested before the day you need it. A price rise shows up in the monthly tracking of spending, and the second model lets you switch.
Can you have your own AI?
As of today, in 2026, training a model from scratch is out of reach for a small business. Fine-tuning an open model, whose file is handed over to you, is possible. Most often, though, what is delivered to you under the name “your own AI” is software built around another company’s AI model. Our article on the subject explains what your company really owns, and how to check.
Who owns the code you develop to integrate AI?
The source code, infrastructure, deployment pipeline and documentation are your intellectual property once the first monthly invoice is paid.
Will the AI be able to connect to my other software?
Yes, as long as that software offers a way to exchange its data, most often a data exchange interface (API). That way, each piece of information is entered only once and stays consistent from one system to the next.
What happens during the trial period?
In the first month, the first 15 working days are a trial period. Delivered features are accepted as they come in, by you or by us if you delegate acceptance to us. If you do not want the deliverables and do not wish to continue, no invoice is issued and you owe nothing. If you want your application in production before the trial period ends, you can ask us in writing: we issue the invoice for the days worked, and we release to production once it is paid.
Can I stop the development of my application whenever I want?
No minimum commitment duration. You can terminate the contract in writing at any time, without justification.
Which process do you want to automate first?
Tell us about the task you still do by hand today. We will tell you what software can take over, and whether AI has a place in that work.