Sigma Logic AI Lead with AI. Thrive with Innovation.
Rescue

You inherited an AI system and nobody knows how it works

The person who built it has left. The agency relationship ended. It still runs, mostly, and nobody can tell you whether it still works - only that turning it off feels risky. This is the least glamorous work we do and the most common reason people call us.

From$6,000

Read-only assessment: what it does, how well, what it costs, what would break it - written up with a recommendation.

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

01

We read it before we judge it

The reflex on inheriting someone else’s system is to rebuild. It is usually wrong, and it is always the most expensive option. Most of what we take over has a sound core wrapped in undocumented decisions - the work is separating the two, not starting again.

02

You get a verdict, including "switch it off"

Some systems are worth fixing, some worth replacing, and some are quietly costing more than they return and should simply be retired. We will tell you which, in writing, before proposing any build - even when the honest answer earns us nothing.

03

The documentation that was never written

Architecture, data flows, prompts, permissions, dependencies, costs and failure modes, written down. Whatever you decide next, you stop being one departure away from not understanding your own system.

Inherit what exists Whatever is running, however it was built, with whatever documentation survived the handover
Establish where it actually is Build the evaluation set that was skipped, and measure. The number is frequently lower than everyone believed
Untangle the prompt A year of accumulated instructions, several contradictory. Remove a group, run the set, observe - only possible once the set exists
Make it changeable again Version control, a regression gate, monitoring. The point is that the next change is safe
The baseline from launch is gone and cannot be recovered. Today's measurement is the earliest one you will ever have, which is the argument for taking it now rather than after the next round of fixes.

Capabilities

What is actually included

  1. 01

    System archaeology

    Tracing what actually runs, what calls what, which credentials and data it touches, and which parts are dead code nobody dares delete.

  2. 02

    Measured quality baseline

    An evaluation set built from your real historical cases, so for the first time there is a number for how well it performs - not an impression.

  3. 03

    Cost and dependency audit

    What it spends and on what, which providers and models it depends on, and what breaks when one of them is deprecated.

  4. 04

    Risk and exposure review

    What the system is permitted to do, what data leaves your perimeter, what is logged, and what a bad input could cause.

  5. 05

    Stabilise, then improve

    Monitoring and a rollback path first so it stops being fragile, then remediation against the priorities you agree.

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

    System archaeology

    Tracing what actually runs, what calls what, which credentials and data it touches, and which parts are dead code nobody dares delete.

  • 02

    Quality baseline

    Building an evaluation set from your real historical cases so that, for the first time, there is a number for how well it performs.

  • 03

    Cost and dependency audit

    What it spends and on what, which providers and models it depends on, and precisely what breaks when one is deprecated.

  • 04

    Security and permission review

    What the system is permitted to do, what data leaves your perimeter, what is logged, and what a malicious input could cause.

  • 05

    Documentation reconstruction

    Architecture, data flows, prompts, permissions and failure modes written down, so you stop being one departure from not understanding your own system.

  • 06

    Stabilisation

    Monitoring, alerting and a rollback path put in first, so it stops being fragile before anyone starts improving it.

  • 07

    Remediation

    Fixing the prioritised issues from the assessment, against costs you agreed in advance.

  • 08

    Provider migration

    Moving off a deprecated model, an expensive provider or an abandoned framework, with quality measured before and after.

  • 09

    Decommissioning

    A safe retirement plan when the honest answer is that the system costs more than it returns.

What you receive

Concrete artefacts, not a slide deck

  • Written system assessment with a clear recommendation
  • Measured quality baseline against your real cases
  • Architecture, data-flow and permission documentation
  • Prioritised remediation plan with costs against each item
  • Runbook and handover - or a safe decommissioning plan
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.

Let's talk

Send us the repo and the login

The assessment is fixed-fee and read-only - we change nothing without your say-so. You get a written verdict on what it does, how well, what it costs and what would break it. If the recommendation is to retire it, that is what the document will say.