ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

SmartSuite

Building an AI-Powered Work Management Platform to Rival Monday.com and Airtable

AE Studio has been a core part of the SmartSuite product and engineering team since inception, leading the platform's architecture, development, and AI innovation. SmartSuite is a collaborative work management platform that unifies project tracking, workflow automation, and team collaboration in a single, customizable system.

THE CHALLENGE

The problem.

The work management software market is one of the most competitive in SaaS. Airtable, Monday.com, Notion, Asana, and ClickUp have each captured large user bases and raised hundreds of millions of dollars. Competing in this space requires not just functional parity but a compelling reason for teams to switch.

SmartSuite's founders wanted to build a platform that took the best of what existed and unified it under one roof: database flexibility, project management structure, document collaboration, automation, and reporting, all in a single coherent system. The goal was a platform where teams could manage projects, ongoing processes, and routine daily work without bouncing between tools.

Building this from scratch required more than an engineering team. It required a partner who could make architectural decisions that would hold up at scale, build quickly enough to keep pace with a competitive market, and layer in AI capabilities as the technology matured. SmartSuite needed a team who could own the technical product end-to-end, from infrastructure to AI features, without the overhead of a large internal engineering organization.

THE SOLUTION

What we built.

Architecture and Platform Development from Inception

AE Studio joined SmartSuite at the beginning and has been a continuous part of the product and engineering team since. AE has led architectural decisions, built and scaled the core platform, and iterated on features alongside the SmartSuite founding team over time.

The platform was built to support fully customizable workflows across industries. Teams can create dashboards, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendars, grid views, and more, adapting the same underlying data to the visual format that fits their work.

Comprehensive Work Management: Projects, Processes, and Daily Tasks

SmartSuite's core product combines project tracking, milestone planning, resource management, and workflow automation in a single system. Teams can plan work with Gantt charts and timelines, track progress in real time, assign owners, set due dates, and automate recurring tasks.

The platform functions as both a database and a project management tool. Structured data lives in records that connect to tasks, milestones, documents, and automations. This unified architecture allows teams to build workflows that span sales pipelines, client onboarding, event management, and operations, all without needing separate tools for each function.

AI Writing Assistant

AE Studio built SmartSuite's AI writing assistant, powered by OpenAI, integrated directly into the platform's document field. The assistant gives users the ability to generate and edit content without leaving the platform.

Users can generate blog posts, press releases, outlines, email sequences, and social content, or use the assistant to improve existing text by summarizing, extracting action items, improving clarity, and fixing grammar. The goal was to surface AI assistance exactly where content creation was already happening rather than requiring users to switch contexts.

Automated Schema Generation: From Description to Application

AE Studio built automated schema generation into SmartSuite, powered by OpenAI. A user describes what kind of application they need in plain language and the system generates a fully structured application with the appropriate fields, data types, and example data.

This collapses the setup time for new workflows significantly. A team that wants to build a CRM, an event tracker, or a project management system no longer needs to manually design the data structure. They describe what they want and the platform builds the schema automatically. This directly addresses one of the core friction points in work management tool adoption: getting a new workflow configured correctly requires expertise most users do not have.

AI Copilot: Natural Language Queries and Data Visualization

AE Studio built SmartSuite's AI Copilot, which lets users query and visualize their data using natural language. A user can describe what they want to see, for example 'create a chart of total sales by salesperson,' and the system interprets the request, queries the underlying data, and generates the visualization.

This brings analytical capability to users who do not know how to configure charts or write formulas. It allows teams to ask questions of their data the same way they would ask a colleague, and get a structured, visual answer back.

Platform Positioning: Taking On the Work Management Incumbents

SmartSuite competes directly with Airtable, Monday.com, Notion, Asana, and ClickUp. Its positioning is as an all-in-one system that combines database flexibility, project management structure, and document collaboration in a single platform at accessible pricing.

User reviews consistently highlight the platform's flexibility, the breadth of its feature set, and the quality of its customer support. The ability to manage projects, processes, and data in one place without switching tools is the core value proposition, and it reflects the architectural decisions AE Studio has made from the beginning.

HOW IT WORKS

The details.

Building the Platform From Day One

AE Studio joined SmartSuite at the start and has been a continuous part of the team since. AE led the architectural decisions that shaped the platform and has built and scaled it alongside the founding team over time. The platform was designed to support fully customisable workflows across any industry, with teams able to switch between dashboards, boards, timelines, calendars, and grid views of the same underlying data.

Projects, Processes, and Daily Tasks in One Place

SmartSuite combines project tracking, milestone planning, resource management, and workflow automation in a single system. Teams plan work with timelines, track progress in real time, assign owners, and set due dates. The same platform acts as both a database and a project management tool, so sales pipelines, client onboarding, event management, and operations can all live together without switching between tools.

An AI Writing Assistant Built Into the Platform

AE Studio built SmartSuite's AI writing assistant, powered by OpenAI, directly into the document field. Users can generate blog posts, press releases, email sequences, and social content without leaving the platform. They can also improve existing text by asking the assistant to summarise it, extract action items, improve clarity, or fix grammar. The goal was to surface AI help exactly where content creation already happens.

Describe What You Need, Get a Ready-to-Use Application

AE Studio built a feature where users describe in plain language what kind of application they want, and the platform generates a fully structured application with the right fields, data types, and example data. A team that wants a CRM, an event tracker, or a project system no longer needs to design the data structure manually. This directly removes one of the main reasons people struggle to get started with new workflow tools.

Ask Questions About Your Data in Plain Language

AE Studio built SmartSuite's AI Copilot, which lets users query and visualise their data using natural language. A user can describe a chart they want, such as total sales by salesperson, and the system queries the underlying data and builds it. This brings analytical capability to users who do not know how to configure charts or write formulas, letting teams ask questions of their data the way they would ask a colleague.

Competing With the Market Leaders

SmartSuite competes directly with Airtable, Monday.com, Notion, Asana, and ClickUp. Its core value proposition is combining database flexibility, project management, and document collaboration in one platform at accessible pricing. User reviews consistently highlight the breadth of the feature set and the quality of support. The architectural decisions AE Studio made from the beginning are what make that combination possible.

OUTCOMES

What shipped.

Live, commercially available platform competing with Airtable, Monday.com, and Notion

AE Studio has served as core product and engineering team from inception

Three AI features shipped: AI Writing Assistant, Automated Schema Generation, and AI Copilot

All AI features powered by OpenAI

Multiple data views including Kanban, Gantt, calendar, grid, and pivot tables

KEY TAKEAWAYS

What we learned.

Competing in saturated SaaS markets requires a clear architectural thesis. SmartSuite's decision to unify database flexibility, project management structure, and document collaboration in a single system gave it a distinct position against tools that excel in only one of these areas.
AI features that remove friction outperform AI features that add novelty. Schema generation solves the blank canvas problem. The AI Copilot makes analytics accessible to non-technical users. The writing assistant surfaces where content creation is already happening. Each feature was built to remove a real workflow obstacle.
Long-term engineering partnerships produce better products than project-by-project engagements. AE Studio's continuous involvement from inception means architectural decisions compound over time rather than accumulating technical debt from disconnected teams.
Platform positioning in a competitive market depends on breadth and pricing, not just feature depth. SmartSuite's ability to cover project management, database management, document collaboration, and automation in a single product at accessible pricing is what drives users to choose it over more established incumbents.

IN SUMMARY

Bottom line.

In summary, SmartSuite represents a different kind of engagement for AE Studio: not a discrete project with a defined end state, but a long-term product partnership where AE has served as the core engineering team from the beginning. As a result, the platform is a live, growing SaaS product competing in one of the most contested categories in enterprise software.

The AI features AE Studio built, from the OpenAI-powered writing assistant to the natural language schema generator to the AI Copilot, reflect a deliberate philosophy: AI that removes real friction from real workflows. Furthermore, that approach, combined with a platform architecture built for flexibility and scale, is what positions SmartSuite as a credible alternative to tools with far more time in market.

FAQ

Frequently asked.

How does SmartSuite compare to Airtable and Monday.com?

SmartSuite is designed to compete directly with both. Where Airtable excels at database-style data management and Monday.com excels at visual project tracking, SmartSuite combines both in a single platform alongside document collaboration and workflow automation. User reviews frequently highlight that SmartSuite combines the strongest features of multiple competing tools at more accessible pricing. The platform supports multiple data views including Kanban boards, Gantt charts, grids, calendars, and pivot tables, giving teams the flexibility to interact with their data in the format that suits their workflow.

What AI features did AE Studio build for SmartSuite?

AE Studio built three distinct AI features for SmartSuite, all powered by OpenAI. The first is an AI writing assistant integrated into the platform's document field, which allows users to generate and edit content including summaries, action items, blog posts, press releases, and email sequences. The second is automated schema generation, where a user describes a workflow or application in natural language and the system generates a fully structured application with appropriate fields, data types, and example data. The third is an AI Copilot that interprets natural language queries to generate data visualizations, allowing non-technical users to ask questions of their data and receive structured, visual answers.

How long has AE Studio been involved with SmartSuite?

AE Studio has been part of the SmartSuite product and engineering team since inception. This is an ongoing partnership rather than a time-limited project. AE has led platform architecture, core product development, and AI feature innovation throughout the company's growth, functioning as SmartSuite's core technical team.

What does the automated schema generation feature actually do?

Schema generation addresses one of the most common friction points in work management tools: setting up a new workflow from scratch requires understanding data structures, field types, and application design, which most users do not have deep expertise in. With SmartSuite's schema generation, a user describes what they need in plain language and the system generates a fully configured application with the appropriate fields, data types, and example data populated. What previously required significant manual configuration happens automatically.

Who uses SmartSuite and what kinds of workflows does it support?

SmartSuite is used across industries including marketing agencies, event management companies, software teams, sales organizations, and operations teams. The platform supports project management, CRM, client onboarding, event tracking, HR processes, and virtually any workflow that involves structured data, tasks, and collaboration. The underlying flexibility of the data architecture means teams can adapt the platform to their specific processes without requiring custom development.

LET'S TALK

Bring us the hard problem.

We'll bring the team that ships.

Book a call Back to home

Get in touch [email protected]