Field Notes: How is BIBLIOgifting Using Data & AI to Create a Self-Built Ops Stack?

Most corporate gifts are forgettable and offer no real signal about the people receiving them. In this Field Note, BIBLIOgifting founder and CEO Alex Liot explains how his team turns book gifting into vital source of customer insight, and uses data and AI to create a larely self-built ops stack and adapt the company’s operations themselves.

Quick Summary

Alex Liot, founder and CEO of BIBLIOnomics, explains how BIBLIOgifting offers curated Canadian books in place of generic swag. Each recipient’s book choice becomes a piece of real customer insight, revealing interests and values.

Behind the scenes, BIBLIOgifting has created a self-built ops stack powered by Airtable and AI, enabling a small non-technical team to automate workflows, manage data, and operate at scale.

Corporate Gifting as Source of Customer Insight

BIBLIOgifting starts with a beautifully designed, branded booklet that features a curated set of twelve Canadian authored books.

Recipients scan a code, land on a custom page on localbooks.ca, and choose the book that resonates most with them. Independent bookstores across Canada fulfill the orders, wrapping each book and adding the client’s branding and materials.

For the client, the real value arrives later. They see which of the twelve books each person selected.

That choice becomes a subtle but meaningful signal about personal interests and priorities, giving companies a way to understand customers, partners, or employees beyond the formal work relationship.

Gifting becomes a unique source of customer inight rather than a one off gesture.

Self-Built Ops Stack With Data & AI

The second big idea showcased in this Field Note is how BIBLIOgifting self-builds most of its operations solutions. Alex previously led a sales team of more than fifty people. Now he works with a team of four, yet describes their output as equivalent to sixteen, thanks to how deeply AI is woven into their systems.

Their entire ERP and CRM live in Airtable, and non-technical staff are actively involved in building and refining them. When something in the workflow is clunky, the person responsible for that function works with AI to adjust tables, automations, and logic so the system matches how the work really happens.

“So I’m not necessarily taking technology experts and putting them in the business I’m taking offline experts and empowering them with technology.” - Alex Liot, CEO, BIBLIOgifting

This philosophy helps BIBLIOgifting avoid over-reliance on SaaS tools that they would only use partially while paying the full cost. Instead, AI fills the technical gaps, enabling the team to build only what they need and to keep improving it from within.

By keeping the tech stack lean and using AI to fill technical gaps, BIBLIOgifting builds exactly what they need, and nothing they don’t.

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