Why we built a shared mailbox instead of a chatbot

The default shape for an AI tool in professional services is a search bar over your documents, something you open when you remember you have a question and want an answer. Several companies do this well, and it's genuinely useful when you know what to ask.

It just isn't where the day actually goes. Most of it goes to an inbox filling faster than anyone can triage it: diligence questions, counsel threads, lender requests, client clarifications piling up whether or not anyone has time to search for them.

So Ontu is built around a shared project mailbox instead. Correspondence lands, and the system drafts a response before anyone asks, grounding it in the project's documents and prior answers, citing what it used and flagging anything it can't confirm. A person still reviews and sends every message.

Think of it less as a data room you query and more as an always-on analyst who reads every email and has an answer ready before you ask for one. That's closer to hiring someone than installing software, and it's the distinction the rest of the product follows from.