Launch Labs marks more than a decade in business with the launch of its AI Enablement practice, expanding its focus on helping businesses put artificial intelligence to work across their products, workflows, and daily operations. The practice combines AI with a decade of experience designing and shipping software, with an emphasis on building rather than advising. The result is custom software, automated workflows, and systems designed to remain secure and scale as businesses grow.
The company traces its start to 2014, when its founders began building and shipping software for other companies. That small team has since grown into a full product organization of engineers, designers, and product managers working across the globe.
As AI adoption continues to expand across industries, organizations are exploring how to apply the technology in ways that support productivity, product innovation, and operational improvements. Launch Labs’ AI Enablement practice focuses on identifying where AI can create practical value across products, internal systems, and workflows, while keeping scalability, security, and long-term usability in focus.
As part of this initiative, Launch Labs has introduced a free AI audit to help organizations identify opportunities for AI adoption, workflow improvements, and software modernization. The assessment maps where a business may be overpaying for software, where manual work is taking up its team’s time, and which improvements are likely to pay off first. It draws on years of experience building and maintaining software at every stage, from first prototype through the systems companies rely on to run their operations.
One area receiving increased attention is the relationship between enterprise software costs and custom-built solutions. Many organizations rely on costly software platforms with broad capabilities, while their specific operational needs may call for more tailored approaches. Platforms built for thousands of businesses rarely fit any one of them perfectly, and AI-assisted development has made custom systems affordable enough that companies no longer have to accept that compromise.
Launch Labs Founder Brent Weidenbach shares, “In June, a mid-size sports equipment manufacturer was considering a CRM, an email platform, and a lead generation tool that added up to a six-figure subscription. We built them a custom system in weeks instead, one they own outright, so those bills never started. And because their team was part of the build, they understand the system and can update, fix, and improve it on their own going forward.”
Founders of Launch Labs: Nick Busto, Ben Swinford, Natalie Oleksyn and Brent Weidenbach.
The client did not hire anyone new to make that happen. Their existing team built more than it could have before, which is a pattern Launch Labs sees often. The value of AI is not in replacing the people who understand a business best. It is in expanding what those people can build.
Launch Labs has grown from a company focused on software development into both a development and AI enablement company. Its services now span software development, AI enablement, product strategy, design, engineering, and team augmentation, supporting organizations through development and operational improvement.
For Weidenbach, AI represents an important evolution in software development, while effective product building still depends on understanding the underlying business challenge. “AI is changing the pace at which teams can build, but building effective software still starts with understanding the problem, the users, and the business context behind the product,” he says. “The technology can accelerate parts of the process, but experienced teams are still needed to make the decisions that determine how a product functions, scales, and creates value over time.”
Weidenbach believes AI delivers the greatest value when paired with human expertise. He says, “AI is highly capable when it comes to gathering information, organizing inputs, and supporting repetitive tasks. The opportunity comes from allowing people to spend more time on strategy, creativity, and understanding the decisions that require context and judgment.”
The same long-term perspective extends to software ownership. Launch Labs focuses on creating systems that organizations can maintain, adapt, and continue developing as their needs change. Its multidisciplinary team of engineers, designers, operators, and AI practitioners approaches projects with a focus on building technology that supports lasting business objectives.
That commitment has also shaped Launch Labs’ global engineering team. The company built a significant engineering presence in Ukraine after recognizing the expertise of software professionals in the region. When conflict disrupted the lives of many team members, leadership supported employees through transportation coordination, temporary housing, emergency assistance, and additional relief efforts.
In 2022, Launch Labs donated all company profits to Ukrainian relief efforts. Support later expanded through medical supplies, food, equipment, relocation assistance, and Project UA. The effort was profiled in Cornell University’s alumni magazine.
As Launch Labs enters its next stage of growth, it brings a decade of engineering experience to a market still working out where AI belongs. For Weidenbach, the answer is ownership: the next decade of software will favor companies that build what they need instead of renting it. For Launch Labs, the AI audit is where that conversation starts.
