AI & Automation Practice

Agentic AI for the plant floor, the supply chain, and the front office

We design and operate AI agents that run inside real constraints — machine limits on the line, live disruptions in the supply chain, and licensure in financial services. A governed reference architecture underneath every engagement, not a demo bolted onto a slide.

RBAC & SSO on every interface PII redaction by default Full audit trail on every action
20+
Years of Enterprise Expertise
$400M+
Service Portfolio Managed
6
Global Delivery Centers
200+
Documented Success Stories
How It's Built

A reference architecture for governed, agentic AI

Every engagement runs on the same five-layer stack: agents that plan and act, grounded in your own systems of record, wrapped in the observability and governance a regulated or safety-critical environment requires.

Interfaces & access
💻 Web app
💬 Chat
🎙️ Voice
✉️ Email / EDI
🔐 Auth & API gateway — SSO, RBAC
Agentic orchestration
Agent orchestrator
Intent router
Planner
Tool executor
Runtime controls
Memory manager
Policy & guardrails
Verifier / critic
Retrieval & knowledge
Enterprise data
ERP · CRM · WMS · docs · market data
Ingestion & embeddings
Hybrid retriever
Vector database
Re-ranker / context builder
Models & actions
Model layer
LLM reasoning & synthesis
Self-check / verifier
Tools / action layer
SAP / ERP · MES
CRM · OMS · portfolio systems
Observability & governance
Logging & tracing
Evaluation & metrics
Audit & compliance
PII protection
↻ continuous_feedback() — evaluation results tune guardrails and retrieval quality over time

Cloud-hosted

Fastest to stand up — runs on your existing cloud AI platform (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex).

Hybrid

Sensitive data and retrieval stay inside your environment; orchestration and models run in the cloud.

On-premise

Full data control for the most regulated environments — banking, wealth management, and defense-adjacent manufacturing.

Governance & risk controls

The risks any agentic system introduces, and what's built into the stack to manage each one.

RiskLikelihoodMitigation built into the stack
Hallucinated or ungrounded outputHighRetrieval-grounded generation, confidence scoring, and a verifier/critic step before anything reaches a system of record
Data privacy exposureMediumEncryption in transit and at rest, automatic PII redaction, role-based access on every connected data source
Biased or unfair outputsMediumBalanced training and evaluation sets, periodic fairness audits, human review on sensitive decisions
Regulatory violationLow–MediumPolicy-enforcement layer, full audit trail on every agent action, compliance review before go-live
Loss of user trustMediumTransparent rationale on every recommendation, a human fallback path, explainable outputs
🏭 Smart Manufacturing

AI that watches, predicts, and adjusts on the line

Plants run on physical constraints an agent has to respect — machine limits, shift patterns, and safety rules. We build systems that operate inside those limits, not around them.

Predictive Maintenance & Vision-Based Quality Control

The problem

Unplanned downtime and defect leakage quietly erode OEE and gross margin.

How the agent works

Computer-vision models inspect the line in real time while sensor-based predictive models flag equipment likely to fail — before it does — and route work orders automatically.

Built with
computer_vision iiot_telemetry predictive_model vector_db human_signoff
30% gross margin improvement on a prior Touchstone manufacturing engagement

Agentic Production Scheduling

The problem

Static schedules can't react to machine variability, staffing gaps, or last-minute order changes.

How the agent works

A plant-floor digital twin simulates line conditions; an agentic scheduler recommends — and, within set guardrails, executes — line rebalancing and changeover sequencing in near real time.

Built with
digital_twin constraint_solver agent_planner mes_erp_api
Builds on Touchstone's manufacturing execution system integration work that improved production scheduling and throughput.
🚚 Supply Chain Management

The sensing and planning layer that keeps commitments in sync

Supply chains carry the cost of every wrong guess about demand. We build the layer that keeps inventory, capacity, and delivery promises aligned — continuously, not once a month.

Demand Sensing & Forecasting

The problem

Traditional monthly forecasts lag real demand signals, driving stockouts on some SKUs and excess inventory on others.

How the agent works

ML models fuse POS data, market signals, and promotional calendars into a short-horizon demand signal that recalibrates continuously instead of on a fixed cycle.

Built with
time_series_ml feature_store continuous_recalibration anomaly_detection
32% inventory cost reduction on Touchstone's consumption-based demand planning engagement

Automated Supply Planning with Scheduling Adjustments

The problem

Manual re-planning can't keep pace with supplier delays, capacity shifts, or transportation disruptions.

How the agent works

An agentic planning layer continuously re-optimizes supply plans and delivery schedules against live constraints, executing routine adjustments and escalating exceptions for sign-off.

Built with
optimization_solver agent_orchestrator sap_mrp_api exception_escalation
58% reduction in demurrage on the same engagement, alongside fewer emergency shipments
🏦 Financial Services

AI that produces an audit trail, not just an answer

Financial services runs on documentation, deadlines, and licensure. We build agentic workflows for RIA & wealth management, investment banking, and private equity firms — plus the AI-driven financial operations work behind Touchstone's own Corporate Finance practice — each one scoped to the compliance requirements of that seat.

Advisor Onboarding & Regulatory Reporting

The problem

Advisor onboarding (U4/U5, ADV filings) and recurring reports — FOCUS, N-PORT/N-CEN, UBPR — consume compliance hours and carry real error cost.

How the agent works

Agentic workflows extract, validate, and file recurring regulatory reports and onboarding paperwork, routing anything ambiguous to a compliance officer for sign-off.

Built with
llm_extraction rag_compliance_corpus workflow_automation audit_log
70% reduction in manual effort on Touchstone's compliance reporting automation engagement for two major banks

IRA & Retirement Account Guidance Support

The problem

RMD calculations, rollover analysis, and fiduciary suitability documentation across a large book of IRA and retirement accounts are slow to do consistently by hand.

How the agent works

An assistant drafts RMD and rollover analysis and flags accounts drifting from stated suitability under ERISA 3(21)/3(38) frameworks, with a documented rationale trail for every recommendation an advisor acts on.

Built with
rag_plan_docs suitability_model human_in_the_loop pii_redaction
Every output is advisor-reviewed before it reaches a client — the agent drafts, it doesn't decide.

AI-Accelerated Deal Screening & CIM Drafting

The problem

Sourcing teams manually screen hundreds of targets and spend days drafting teasers and CIMs.

How the agent works

An agent screens targets against thesis criteria, extracts financials from data rooms and filings, and produces a first-draft CIM or teaser for a banker to edit — not approve blind.

Built with
llm_drafting financial_extraction thesis_retrieval human_edit_checkpoint
Frees senior bankers from first-draft work so more analyst hours go to relationship and negotiation.

Automated Diligence & Data-Room Intelligence

The problem

Buy-side and sell-side diligence means reviewing thousands of data-room documents against tight deadlines.

How the agent works

Document-intelligence agents extract key contract terms, flag red-flag clauses, and surface financial anomalies across the data room into a structured diligence memo for the deal team.

Built with
document_intelligence contract_extraction anomaly_detection structured_memo_gen
Consistent issue-spotting across deal teams, not dependent on which analyst pulled the late shift.

Portfolio Company KPI Monitoring

The problem

Firms struggle to get consistent, timely KPI visibility across a portfolio where every company reports differently.

How the agent works

Automated ingestion normalizes portfolio-company financials into a live KPI view, using Touchstone's xCIPM performance-management approach, with variance and anomaly alerts for the deal partner.

Built with
data_normalization variance_alerts xcipm_kpi_framework dashboard_observability
Built on the same xCIPM methodology already delivered on a regional capital management engagement.

AI-Driven Deal Sourcing & Thesis Screening

The problem

Sourcing teams must continuously sift thousands of private companies against an evolving investment thesis.

How the agent works

Continuous market scanning scores private companies against thesis criteria and surfaces a ranked, evidence-backed target list for the sourcing team to run down.

Built with
market_scanning thesis_scoring_model ranked_retrieval evidence_citations
More proprietary flow, less analyst time spent on manual screening passes.

Predictive Cash-Flow Forecasting & Anomaly Detection

The problem

Spreadsheet-based forecasting rarely gives more than a few days' warning before a shortfall hits, and unusual transactions surface at month-end instead of when they happen.

How the agent works

Models trained on the company's own ERP and banking history continuously project cash position and score incoming transactions against expected patterns, escalating anomalies before they compound.

Built with
time_series_ml erp_banking_integration anomaly_detection realtime_dashboard
45 days of early warning before a cash shortfall would have hit, on a Touchstone Corporate Finance engagement for a $60M manufacturer

Automated Month-End Close & Reconciliation

The problem

A close that runs late almost every month leaves the controller no time for forecasting, and reconciliation errors surface too late to matter.

How the agent works

Machine-matched reconciliation automates the repetitive share of the close across bank, ledger, and subledger data, flagging exceptions for the controller instead of requiring a manual line-by-line match.

Built with
automated_reconciliation ledger_matching_model exception_flagging audit_log
15→4 days month-end close time on a Touchstone Corporate Finance engagement for a tech-enabled services company

These are technology and automation engagements delivered by Touchstone's Consulting & Technology practice. They are not investment, tax, or legal advice, and are offered independently of any broker-dealer, RIA, or investment-adviser affiliation.

Financial Operations use cases above reflect the AI-driven analytics practice at Touchstone Corporate Finance, a sister practice offering On-Demand, Fractional, Interim, Project-Based, and Virtual CFO engagement models — see cf.touchstonenext.com for scope and team.

How We Work

How Touchstone deploys agentic AI

The same discipline behind every Touchstone engagement, applied to AI: pick the workflow with the clearest payoff, build it with guardrails, then keep tuning it in production.

1

Assess

We map the workflow, the data it depends on, and where a mistake would actually cost you something — then pick the use case with the clearest payoff and the safest blast radius.

2

Build

We wire the system into your existing data and applications, with guardrails and a human checkpoint wherever judgment or licensure is required.

3

Operate

We monitor accuracy, cost, and exceptions after go-live, and keep tuning the system as your data and constraints change.

Ready to put agentic AI to work?

Tell us which workflow is worth automating first. We'll tell you whether it's an AI problem, a process problem, or both.

Book a Strategy Session → Call (310) 800-1410