What AI do you actually use, and is my data safe?

We build on established providers like Google's Gemini models rather than untested tools. What gets sent to an AI provider and why is always explained plainly, and we design so only what's needed to do the job leaves your system.

How much does a custom app or AI tool cost?

It depends entirely on scope, a simple booking form is very different from a full multi-user app. We start with a conversation about the problem you're trying to solve, then give you a clear estimate before any work begins.

How long does it take to build a custom app?

A focused tool with a handful of features can take a few weeks. Something closer to a full product, like a multi-user app with an AI assistant, takes longer. We'll give you a realistic timeline once we understand what you need.

AI & App Development

Custom apps and AI-powered tools that help you run your business, not just show it off.

Most small businesses have a handful of jobs that eat up time for no good reason: re-entering the same details somewhere else, chasing information that's already written down somewhere, doing by hand what a well-built tool could do in seconds. That's the gap this service fills. Not another website, a piece of software built around the way you actually work.

Custom business apps

A booking system, a job tracker, an internal dashboard, whatever fits how your business actually runs, not a generic template stretched to cover it. Built as a real web app your team logs into from a phone, tablet, or desktop.

AI-powered automation

The admin work that eats an hour a day, entering the same information twice, chasing paperwork, turning a supplier invoice into a spreadsheet row, can usually be automated. We build tools that take a photo, a form, or a message and turn it into structured, usable data automatically.

AI assistants built into your tools

An assistant that actually knows your business: your services, your hours, your process, answering questions or helping staff instead of a generic chatbot bolted onto a website. We build these on established providers like Google's Gemini models.

AI content and image pipelines

Need on-brand visuals, product shots, or written content produced at volume rather than one at a time? We build pipelines that generate publish-ready output in seconds, the same approach behind tools we've built and run ourselves.

Real-time, multi-user systems

Staff logged in from different devices seeing the same live information, no refreshing, no waiting for someone else to finish. Useful the moment more than one person needs to see the same job, booking, or list at once.

Installable, app-like tools

A tool that installs like an app on a phone or sits in kiosk mode on a tablet at the counter, without the cost or delay of building and submitting a separate native app to the app stores.

We build these ourselves, not just for clients

We don't just talk about AI and custom apps, we run our own. One of them is Oona, a subscription family app with a real-time shared calendar and a built-in AI assistant: take a photo of a handwritten list and it turns the items into calendar entries and a shopping list automatically, no manual typing. It's live today, not a demo, with real subscribers using it daily.

That's the standard we hold custom work to: built properly, actually used, and maintained, the same as every website we ship.

Real-time multi-user data, not a spreadsheet everyone edits separately

Natural-language input: a photo or a sentence becomes structured data

Role-based access, so staff, admins, and customers each see what they should

Subscription billing built in, if the tool itself is something you sell on

Screenshot of Oona, a family hub app built by Paragon Design

Oona, live at oona.co.nz

How it works

Understand the workflow

We start with what actually happens day to day, not a feature wishlist. Usually the biggest win is a task nobody thought to mention because they've just always done it that way.

Scope and prototype

A clear plan for what's being built, what it costs, and roughly how long it takes, plus an early working version so you're reacting to something real, not a document.

Build and integrate

Built to connect with what you already use where it makes sense, rather than asking you to abandon tools that work fine.

Support and iterate

Software is never really finished. We stay on to fix, adjust, and extend it as your business changes, the same ongoing relationship we offer on websites.

Common questions

Yes. Alongside websites, we build custom web apps and AI-powered tools: booking systems, internal dashboards, and assistants that automate the admin work specific to how your business runs. We build these ourselves for our own tools, so it's tested capability, not a new offering we're guessing at.