Wichita startup focuses on artificial intelligence and how business can benefit from it

As artificial intelligence tools surge in popularity, Jason Van Sickle sees the potential for Wichita to both benefit from — and spark — further AI-driven innovation.

Now, the Wichita entrepreneur is pushing forward a new company, Insource.ai, with the goal of making that a reality.

Alongside fellow co-founders Taylor Van Sickle and Alexandria Van Sickle-Baird — his son and daughter — Jason Van Sickle has a plan to provide tools and expertise to the Wichita business community and beyond that he says would allow organizations to use AI to save costs, improve efficiencies and help already-strong employees.

Jason Van Sickle, who made his mark locally in the 2000s and 2010s in real estate development, returned to Wichita after time in Denver and Silicon Valley to advance Insource.ai.

"That was really important to us, to launch an AI startup in Wichita, because it's always been our hometown," he said. "I think of it this way — 50-plus years ago, Wichita got ahead of the curve in the aircraft industry and became the aircraft capital of the world. There's no reason Wichita can't become one of the AI capitals of the world, and we want to help businesses in our community see how they can be a part of that."

Insource.ai recently launched Simplifying.ai, a consulting platform to help businesses understand and integrate AI.

"Over the next year, if we simply help Wichita businesses realize AI's potential that's going to be huge," said Jason Van Sickle, whose business offices out of Groover Labs downtown. "That's going to change the lives and business models in profound ways of everybody we work with."

What is Simplifying.ai and Insource.ai?

Insource.ai aims to help small business owners leverage AI and other technologies to complete back-office tasks.

Its products are set to focus on customer relationship management, marketing, sales, human resource management, payroll and accounting, with price points as low as $30 per month.

Van Sickle said the target is for the first back-office app to be ready by October.

"Then, our goal is within the first 12 months to be building out the whole platform and its initial beta test version," he said.

Van Sickle said that as he, Taylor and Alexandria worked on Insource.ai, they discovered a need to create Simplifying.ai, a consulting platform that guides businesses through effectively using AI.

The platform uses a three-phase approach, Van Sickle said.

"No. 1, is we will have services that help businesses understand artificial intelligence, what is it and how can it be used," he said. "The second service that we'll provide is AI integration. We have a database of AI applications that span all industries, and we can create a customized package of AI tools for each business."

Van Sickle said the third phase involves partnering with a business on building proprietary AI applications based on that company's "domain knowledge" in an effort to help the client diversify and create new revenue streams.

"So that business has some expertise in something, and — because we're so early in the AI revolution — regardless of what the business is, we can take their knowledge, pair it with our expertise and start creating new applications for their industry," he said.

Insource.ai is making its push as AI adoption increases worldwide.

According to Statista, an independent market research firm, 2023 saw 250 million global users of AI tools — more than double 2020's number, but still small when compared to the world's more than 8 billion total population.

Taylor Van Sickle, whose technology background includes hardware and technical support, said there is still much to learn about AI.

"AI is not perfect right now," he said. "For example, if you feed something into an AI, there's a possibility it can give you something back that's completely wrong. But that's kind of where we come in, because there are proper ways you can interact with it to make sure that it gives you the right answer and it does the right thing."

As part of its push to educate, the company released a series of LinkedIn articles on a range of topics, including new versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and the importance of AI to business.

"I think our biggest goal, at this point, is to gain as much knowledge personally, so we can pump out the best resources to Wichita to help us as a community work smarter, not harder," said Van Sickle-Baird, who most recently worked at Conco Construction as a project coordinator.

Family business

It's been a unique journey for the Van Sickles.

Jason, 51, is the son of Jeff Van Sickle, former CEO at GLMV Architecture (now Tessere), and became a well-known figure in Wichita real estate more than a decade ago.

He helped develop major multifamily projects — including Chisholm Lake Apartments at K-96 and Oliver and the Flats 324 apartments downtown — and served as president of the Old Town Association.

In 2019, he moved to Denver to work on new models and technologies specific to housing development.

Then, after the pandemic hit, he further ramped up his focus on technology and AI, journeying to Silicon Valley for a year and then heading back to Denver before returning to Wichita.

"From this point on in life, it's about legacy," said Jason Van Sickle, who lived in his Toyota Prius while on the West Coast. "It's about creating a legacy for my family. It's about creating a legacy for my community. And it's about creating a legacy, defined by our mission statement, of helping people make the world a better place. I genuinely don't care about anything other than that right now."

Alexandria, 28, and Taylor, 30, have both worked for their father before over the last decade-plus, with Alexandria having previously served as one of his property managers.

"I think the most important thing is this time we're business partners, they're not employees," Jason Van Sickle said.

Potential challenges for a young AI company

Starting a business in a field with many moving parts and big technology players could be a big mountain to climb.

But Jason Van Sickle — who is no stranger to entrepreneurship having founded multiple real estate-related businesses, most recently Amenity Suites — said Insource.ai has been doing well of late.

That includes its pre-seed funding round launched in April, where Van Sickle quickly landed an investment from Houston-based Park Ten Capital, headed by Van Sickle's uncle, Mike Gatewood.

Insource.ai received six months of funding at a $1 million pre-revenue valuation. Van Sickle and Park Ten declined to disclose further investment details.

"I didn't want more than that, because our valuation is going to change quickly," said Van Sickle, adding Park Ten has already connected him with several of the firm's U.S. and international businesses tied to AI consulting.

Gatewood said Van Sickle's AI consulting help for one of those Park Ten businesses — AtPoint Group, a business-process outsourcing company based in Jamaica — sparked the initial conversation that led to the investment.

He also said he's witnessed his nephew's work ethic and innovation over the years, and that it was the right time to be invested in a company like Insource.ai.

"It's really early, but I feel like — at least in the companies that I have — I think (AI) is going to have a profound impact on the business," said Gatewood, a Wichita State University graduate whose other investments include businesses in the payments and software industries. "And I just love the idea of having a company that I'm invested with that's going to be in there figuring out ways to make that work for small business."

Van Sickle-Baird said one of Insource.ai's biggest hurdles is knowing where to focus with so much activity in the AI world.

"I think our biggest challenge is staying on task with one thing at a time that develops our exact vision for where we're going with the company, instead of the excitement of spinning out every single day and learning everything," she said. "So we've gotten really good at being able to tunnel vision where we want to head when it comes to AI."

Gatewood echoed Van Sickle-Baird on that challenge.

"The biggest advice I would give him (Jason) is to be very careful about staying focused," Gatewood said. "Because in this industry, it's — at least from what I've seen and listen conversationally to — awfully easy to go off on tangents. It is so easy to go down the rabbit hole with AI just because it's fascinating, and it does have so many potential applications."

Artificial intelligence by the numbers: