AI-native studio · software · systems · experiments

We turn fuzzy ideas into working things.

Datum Foundry Nine is a small AI-first studio building practical tools, unusual products and better ways for people and software to work together.

See what we’re building ↓About the studio
New site in progress. The products are very much alive.
Selected work

Four doors into Datum.

Some are studio tools, some are standalone products, and one is a suspiciously well-informed butler. All of them start with the same question: can this be clearer, easier or more interesting?

Discovery · AI-guided

Start Now with Oliver

Oliver turns early-stage ideas, half-formed requirements and “I know what I want, I just can’t explain it” into structured direction a real project can move on.

Guided discovery without the corporate questionnaire→ Datum Studio
Quality · Release confidence

Release Gate

A practical QA and release layer for finding bugs, understanding severity and turning messy feedback into a clear route to ship.

Triage · evidence · repair flow→ In development
Coming soon · Cecil

A murder mystery that knows your secrets.

Cecil is an AI-hosted murder mystery for friends around one table. The shared screen tells the story. Your phone tells yours. Cecil knows rather more than is polite.

Hosted game · private phones · no human GMComing soon
Studio systems

AI that does the work around the work.

We prototype assistants, internal systems and lightweight software for small teams who need useful automation without turning their business into a science project.

Discovery → prototype → test → shipDatum Foundry Nine
Inside Cecil · real interface work

Your phone knows something the room doesn’t.

Cecil doesn’t just narrate from the shared screen. During play he can quietly send different people different instructions, private nudges and information meant for their eyes only. Same host. Same table. Not quite the same game.

Three phones receiving different private messages from Cecil during The Last Toast
Private messages can turn one conversation into three completely different motives.
Close-up of a private Cecil message on a player's phone
Just between usCecil can give one player a secret and leave everybody else wondering what they were told.
How we work

Human judgement.
Machine speed.

We use AI aggressively where it helps, and keep people firmly in charge of the decisions that matter. The aim isn’t “more AI”. It’s less friction, better software and more room for good ideas.

Product designAI workflowsRapid prototypingQA systemsCreative technology