Longleaf. AI Applied AI · the South
01 — Statement

The South doesn't need to wait on AI. We build it where you are.

Longleaf AI is an applied-AI firm for the organizations that run Mississippi and the South — state agencies, universities, and the businesses around them. We connect modern AI to the work you already do, ship in two-week cycles, and tie our fee to whether it earns its keep.

Let's talk outcome-tied engagements principal-led, week to week two-week build cycles rooted in Mississippi
Questions we hear across the South.
02 — What's possible

What if your organization ran like the best one you've seen?

These are the kinds of operating moves that look like science fiction until somebody ships them. Most of them aren't science fiction anymore. Some of these we've built. Some we're building now. Some we'd build for you.

Public service
Everyone who reaches you gets a timely, accurate answer.
Constituents, students, customers — the people you serve get a clear response the first time, in plain language, without waiting in a queue. The treatment your best-served case gets, for every case on your desk.
24/7
first response · target coverage
Intake
The application that fills itself in.
The packet, the supporting documents, the eligibility check your staff do by hand — captured, organized, and pre-checked, with your people approving the result instead of re-keying it. Hours back, every week.
90%
less manual re-entry · target
Operations
The backlog that clears itself.
The routine casework, status updates, and form-shuffling that pile up while the important work waits. An always-on layer that handles the routine and escalates the things that genuinely need a person.
20 hrs/wk
reclaimed · typical team
Knowledge
Institutional memory that doesn't retire.
Your most experienced people leave, and decades of judgment walk out with them. Capture the workflow, the why, and the edge cases — make it answerable for the next hire on day one.
0 days lost
to turnover · knowledge as a system
Reporting
The compliance report that writes its own first draft.
Grant reports. Audit packages. Board and legislative summaries. The quarter-eating documents pulled together from the systems of record — drafted, reconciled, and ready for your sign-off instead of your weekend.
1 day
not one week · per reporting cycle
Oversight
The whole program, on one screen, current.
Where every case stands, what's at risk, what's due, what's slipping — pulled from the systems you already run, so leadership sees the truth without a fire drill and an audit never catches you flat.
100%
audit-ready · by design

If you can picture a version of your organization where one of these is true, that's the conversation we'd like to have.

03 — A good fit

A good fit when…

↳ 01
…you have unstructured stuff — applications, files, records, transcripts — that has to become a clear, defensible answer.
↳ 02
…you have a process your people know cold, and the tool has to fit how they actually work — not the other way around.
↳ 03
…too much lives in one person's head, a spreadsheet, or a backlog you'll never get to.
↳ 04
…you need AI that holds up under an audit, keeps your data where it belongs, and keeps a person in the loop.
↳ 05
…you're not chasing AI for the press release. You want it to do the work.

If your problem doesn't look like one of these, we'll tell you honestly — and point you to someone who can help.

04 — How we work

We get paid when it earns its keep.

No open-ended statements of work that pay us to deliver slides. We do a short, fixed-price discovery to find what's worth building, then price by what gets shipped and what it's worth — to you. If the lift isn't there, we don't keep billing.

Pricing
Fixed-price discovery up front, then outcome-tied engagement fees for the build. Skin in the game by design.
↳ 01
Discover.
2 weeks · fixed price
We sit with your team. Map the workflow, the data, the decision the tool has to support, and the rules it has to satisfy. You walk away with a plan and a price — even if you don't hire us.
↳ 02
Cycle one.
2 weeks · the thinnest slice that ships
We commit to the smallest thing we can put in your team's hands that's actually useful. End of cycle: a working tool, not a slide deck. Production-grade, secure, and compliant from day one.
↳ 03
Cycle on.
every 2 weeks · iterate against the metric
The product gets better every cycle. You see the lift in your numbers — or you stop, no penalty. The backlog evolves with what you learn.
↳ 04
Outcome pricing.
paid by what shipped & what it earned
Once the metric is live, our fee tracks it. The better it works, the more we make. The less it works, the faster you find out.
Our platform
Workflow Optimizer

For government and education, we package this work as a platform. Agencies and institutions run their programs on Workflow Optimizer — AI built into every application, on a security-hardened, U.S.-hosted cloud, with State and federal compliance from day one.

workflowoptimizer.ai
U.S.-hosted, encrypted, audit-logged
Aligned to ITS PSG-100-03 & NIST AI RMF
AI under human oversight — never the final word
05 — Why this works

A track record you can actually check.

Three principals run every engagement, week to week, leading a small team of AI product architects, designers, and engineers. Between them: fifteen years building production AI for customers who couldn't afford it to fail — weather models the country relies on, decision-support systems, secure data pipelines — a history of founding and exiting technology companies, and decades inside Mississippi government, economic development, and public policy.

We keep the team small on purpose. No account managers between you and the people doing the work. The principals stay in the engagement from the first conversation through delivery — not just the kickoff.

15y
production AI for demanding customers
3
principals on every engagement
0
account managers between you and the work
06 — Principals

Three principals. Small team. Direct accountability.

HJ
Henry Jones, PhD
Chief Executive
Serial technology founder with multiple exits. Owns commercial strategy and the shape of every engagement. Your first conversation is with Henry — and he stays in the work through delivery, not just the kickoff.
JH
Josh Hill, PhD
Chief Technology Officer
Fifteen years designing production AI and data systems for customers who couldn't afford them to fail — weather models the country relies on, decision-support tools, secure pipelines. Holds an active university research affiliation in operational AI. Architects every engagement and is accountable for delivery, week to week.
JD
Jason Dean
Chief Relationship Officer
A Mississippi policy entrepreneur and former White House Fellow. Founder of the Mississippi Energy Institute, a former advisor in the governor's office, and a leader at the Mississippi Economic Council. Brings deep relationships across the state's public and education sectors — and the contracting know-how to move good work through them.
07 — Contact
You know the work. We'll build the AI for it.
hello@longleafai.com
All three principals read every inquiry · Typical response within one business day · Mississippi & the Gulf South