Botics OS, redesigned: one RFQ from email to running machine
In the prototype, an RFQ arrives from Lakeshore Molding for a bushing press-fit cell, due October 2. Somewhere in its drawings is a question nobody has asked: which way the housing faces, which decides the pallet. On Botics today, an engineer has to notice it. In the redesign, Botics has already drafted the question to the customer, and says why it matters.
Botics designs and builds custom automation machines. I was its product designer from 2023 to 2024, on the MVP of its AI-assisted quoting platform. Two years on, I redesigned the platform as a working concept that follows one RFQ through each of Botics’ seven stages.
The problem
The quoting platform had AI built in, but engineers had to ask it what to do next.
What I designed
A working prototype where Botics reads the RFQ and drafts what the engineer does next.
What I’d test
Whether engineers send the drafted question or rewrite it every time.
The quote desk
01 The AI’s surfaceThe engineer starts from an empty prompt, and the review reports what it could read.Botics drafts the question the RFQ leaves open and says why it matters.
02 The bill of materialsParts group by category, and six of the nine categories read $0 at this stage.Lines group by station, and the robot’s 8 week lead is marked as the one that sets the date.
03 The quote deskThe parts, the AI review, and the model sit side by side, and the AI waits for a prompt.The drawing, the bill of materials, and Botics’ next step read as one quote.
The parts, the AI review, and the model sit side by side, and the AI waits for a prompt.
The drawing, the bill of materials, and Botics’ next step read as one quote.
My work
Product designer at Botics, and its only designer, working with the founder and a small engineering team. I helped define the MVP, wrote the user story map for engineering, and designed the core quoting product. The redesign is my own concept, built in 2026 as a working prototype. The before screens are Botics’ current platform as published on botics.ai, made after I left.
Where Botics started
I joined Botics in September 2023 as its only designer, working with the founder and a small engineering team on an AI-assisted quoting platform. I helped decide what the first version would include, wrote the user story map engineering built from, and designed the platform’s information architecture and core workflows. We reworked the design whenever engineering hit a constraint. I also ran workshops to bring design and engineering back together.
I left in June 2024. The before screens on this page are the platform as it is published today, built after I left. The concept is what I would build now: a quoting tool that prepares the engineer’s next step before anyone asks.
Botics reads the RFQ and drafts the next step
The live platform asks the engineer to lead: an Ask AI bar under the model, and an AI review card that reports a scan confidence. The tool helps once the engineer knows what to ask.
In the redesign Botics has already read the RFQ and prepared the next step. The bar says what it did, why in one clause, and offers the action that finishes it. Here it drafted the one question the RFQ leaves open, because the pallet design depends on the answer. Review opens the draft in place, and nothing reaches the customer until a person sends it.
Drafting the question unasked is a bet: if engineers rewrite it every time, the tool added a step they didn’t need.
The AI’s surface
Botics drafts the question the RFQ leaves open and says why it matters.
A bill of materials that answers price and date
A buyer weighs two numbers: what the machine costs and when it runs. The live bill of materials groups parts by category, so a station’s parts are spread across the list, and a category reads $0 until each of its parts is priced.
The redesign groups lines by station, the way the machine is built, and each station sits beside its drawing. Every station carries its price and its longest lead time, and the part that sets the date says so. Hardware and services total at the foot of the list, so the price stays in view while the list scrolls.
Grouping by category matches how parts are bought. Grouping by station matches how an engineer reasons about a cell, so the line that sets the date sits where the engineer is already looking.
The bill of materials
Lines group by station, and the robot’s 8 week lead is marked as the one that sets the date.
Seven stages, one RFQ
Botics describes its own process as seven steps from requirement to running machine. The prototype follows one RFQ through them: the customer’s email becomes requirements, a layout with two robot concepts, a quote, and a build plan with its payment milestones.
One story state feeds every view. When the customer replies that $205k is approved and asks about Concept B, the quote, the pipeline, the supplier dates, and Home all change with it, and Botics works out its next step again. The customer never sees the admin: the quote reaches them as a page with the open question as a control they can answer, so the answer comes back as data.
Quick one on the housings: do operators load them in a fixed orientation, or should the cell find the keyway itself? That decides the pallet design.
Waiting on Dana’s reply
Dana WhitfieldLakeshore Molding
Always the same way, keyway toward the operator
Thanks, this is clear and the drawing helps. We have $205k approved for line 3, so this is over. Would Concept B get us there, and what do we give up on cycle time?
Dana WhitfieldLakeshore Molding
Thanks, Concept B works for us. I will send the PO this week.
Week 0Sep 25 · Concept and design
Engineering the cell. The ABB IRB 2600 is ordered in week 1. The purchase order releases 40%, $81,676.
Next step, on Home and in the bar
Drafted a question to Dana Housing orientation decides the pallet design.Put together the Concept A quote $210,690, 14 weeks to running, pallet pending Dana.The Concept A quote is with Dana Dana still owes the housing answer, which sets the pallet.Dana has $205k and asked about Concept B B fits at $204,190 but makes 285 parts an hour against the 300 target.The Concept B quote is with Dana It fits the budget: $204,190 against $205k approved.The Concept B quote is with Dana Dana has answered on this version. Next from Dana is a purchase order.
The pipeline
RFQ-2417 1 open questionRFQ-2417 Waiting on DanaRFQ-2417 Dana replied
The quote
Housing orientation is still open. The pallet is priced for a fixed orientation.Asked Dana about housing orientation. The pallet is priced for a fixed orientation.Dana answered. Housings load keyway toward the operator. The pallet stays as quoted.
Quotes
DraftSent Sep 25Sent, Dana replied
In Machines
Quote in progress 14 weeks · Running by Jan 1Quoted 14 weeks · Running by Jan 1Quoted 12 weeks · Running by Dec 18PO expected this week 12 weeks · Running by Dec 18
Dana’s quote page
Answer the housing question to send.Botics has your replyTo accept, reply with your purchase order.
Review and send the question, then send the quote.
On the phone, Botics shows what needs you
A quote gets built at a desk, and the decision on it often happens between meetings. The phone edition keeps only what waits on a person: today’s steps, the open RFQs, and the machines being built.
It installs to the home screen as a web app. The customer’s reply arrives as a notification, and tapping it opens the decision it needs: Concept A against Concept B on price, date, and parts an hour, with the revision ready to send.
Nothing gets built on the phone; an engineer who needs to change a station has to get back to a desk.
Botics drafts the next step and says why. The design work is deciding what it does alone and what waits for a person. Here the line is the building’s door: Botics reads, matches, and updates on its own, and anything a customer or supplier would receive waits for someone to send it.
What I’d test first
Whether engineers send the question Botics drafts to their customer, or rewrite it every time. The concept assumes they send it. The first test would count how often they edit it before sending.
