# The 1866 Studio: An AI Operating System for Small Business

By David Skelton - 2026-11-11 - https://skeltonmedia.com/blog/case-study-the-1866-studio.html

**Huntington announced The 1866 Studio in October 2026: an AI-powered operating system for
small business owners, built with Google Cloud's Gemini. I designed the experience: guided
agentic experiences that take an owner from idea to launch.**

![The 1866 Studio workspace on desktop, from Huntington's press release](assets/case-studies/the-1866-studio/workspace.webp "The workspace, from Huntington's press release. Screens are simulated; the digital experience may differ.")

## Why I was picked

I was picked because I had built end to end and gone to market at two startups, and I had
already implemented the same approach on my own, on top of my responsibilities as a marketing
manager: thinking in systems and engineering with GenAI tools.

## How it started

The workflows I brought to the project started in my knowledge base in VS Code, a compilation
of the brand's guidelines and colors, brought quickly into Figma Make to start a rapid live
prototype that married taste and look with the UX we were trying to achieve.

## The design problem

We didn't want to be just another chatbot. Our customers were just starting out with an idea
and needed step by step guidance from start to finish.

In Huntington's words, The 1866 Studio brings business guidance, financial intelligence,
digital tools and human expertise into one connected experience. It builds a customized
action plan from idea to launch, retains business context across tasks, and creates tailored
marketing collateral.

![The 1866 Studio on a phone, from Huntington's press release](assets/case-studies/the-1866-studio/mobile.webp "The same experience on a phone, from Huntington's press release.")

## How the team worked

A small, tight team outside of process and a much faster iteration process. Key stakeholders
drove the vision and approved progress rapidly. We refined requirements and the limits of what
we could build for MVP daily, passed designs to engineering, and kept the prototype as the
source of truth, with Figma Make and Figma files translated to code.

I lead 8+ creatives, the design squad for brand and identity at The 1866 Studio, and an
external agency: I set the direction and hold the quality bar.

## The constraint

It was challenging to work inside the constraints of risk and compliance, and we're proud of
what we built.

## Where it stands

The 1866 Studio was announced on October 19, 2026. Early access is open at
[Huntington.com/The1866Studio](https://www.huntington.com/The1866Studio). Product details and
images on this page come from [Huntington's press release](https://www.multivu.com/huntington/9347252-en-huntington-bank-announces-the-1866-studio).