Grounded in your operations
We interview the people doing the work and look at the real volumes, not the org chart. The opportunities that matter are usually invisible from the executive summary.
Strategy
A costed roadmap before a line of code
The costly mistake is not picking the wrong model. It is spending two quarters automating something that was never worth automating. We start with the operational reality - where time and money actually go - and produce a sequenced plan with the numbers attached.
From$2,500
The two-day diagnosis: readiness assessment, ranked opportunity map and a costed roadmap you keep.
Indicative starting price. The fixed fee for your scope is quoted after the two-day diagnosis, before any build begins.
What makes it work
Three things we insist on
Every option carries a number
Each candidate gets an estimated build cost, running cost, payback period and risk rating. Build, buy and do-nothing are all costed side by side, including the ones we would not profit from.
Sequenced for momentum
The plan front-loads work that is visibly valuable and low-risk, so the organisation builds confidence and internal capability before you attempt anything ambitious.
Diagnose Days 1-2. Real volumes, measured handling time, a baseline that can be computed for last month
Prove One week. The core workflow run offline against your historical data - accuracy, escalation rate, cost per task, and the failure cases
Integrate Systems of record, permissions, audit logging, PII handling, the escalation path
Operate Monitoring, scheduled evaluation, and a named person who reads the output
Capabilities
What is actually included
- 01
Readiness assessment
An honest read on data, systems, skills and governance, with the specific blockers named.
- 02
Opportunity mapping
Workflow-level inventory of what is automatable, ranked by value and effort.
- 03
Build-versus-buy analysis
Vendor evaluation against your requirements, including total cost and exit cost.
- 04
Governance and policy
Acceptable use, data handling, human oversight and review cadence, written to be usable rather than filed.
- 05
Enablement
Workshops that leave your team able to evaluate proposals and spot the ones that will not work.
In detail
What this covers, specifically
A category name is not a scope. These are the individual pieces of work inside this practice - take the two that apply to you and ignore the rest.
- 01
Readiness assessment
An honest read on data, systems, skills and governance, with the specific blockers named rather than scored on a maturity curve.
- 02
Opportunity mapping
A workflow-level inventory of what is automatable in your business, ranked by value against effort.
- 03
ROI and payback modelling
Build cost, running cost, expected benefit and payback period estimated per candidate, so options can be compared on the same basis.
- 04
Build-versus-buy analysis
Comparing a custom build against available products on total cost, fit, switching cost and time to value, including the do-nothing option.
- 05
Vendor evaluation
Requirements definition, shortlisting, reference calls and commercial review, including exit cost, which almost nobody checks before signing.
- 06
Data strategy review
What data you actually hold, what is usable today, and what genuinely needs fixing first rather than as a precondition for everything.
- 07
Governance and policy design
Acceptable use, data handling, human oversight and review cadence, written short enough that people follow it.
- 08
Sequenced roadmap
The plan itself: what to do in which order, front-loading visible low-risk value so the organisation builds confidence before attempting anything ambitious.
- 09
Executive briefing
A session that leaves your leadership able to evaluate an AI proposal and identify the ones that will not work.
What you receive
Concrete artefacts, not a slide deck
- Readiness assessment with named blockers
- Ranked opportunity map with value and effort
- Costed, sequenced roadmap
- Governance and data-handling policy
- Executive briefing and team workshop
01 Diagnose Days 1-2
02 Prove Week 1
03 Integrate Weeks 2-3
04 Operate Ongoing
Around three weeks end to end. That comes from scoping tightly to one workflow - not from skipping a phase. Each still ends in evidence you can check.
Further reading
Written up in more detail
- Pilot to production: what the second invoice covers Why the gap between a working AI pilot and a production system is usually two to four times the pilot cost, and what that money actually buys.
- Fixed price or time and materials for AI projects When a fixed price protects you on an AI build, when it quietly costs you more, and the phased structure that avoids the worst of both.
- How to evaluate an AI agency proposal Fourteen questions that separate an AI proposal that will ship from one that will produce a demo, plus the answers that should end the conversation.
- Scoping an AI project that actually ships Most stalled AI projects were scoped wrong on day one. The predictor is whether the scope was drawn around a workflow or a capability, and four questions settle it.
- Better decisions, not just faster ones: where AI actually helps Speed is the easy win. The harder question is which recurring decisions are worse than they need to be, and which of three failure modes you are facing.
Let's talk
Get the roadmap, keep it either way
The strategy engagement is a fixed fee and the roadmap is yours whether or not you build with us. If the honest answer is that AI is not your priority this year, that is what the document will say.
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