Who builds a company brain for a business in the UK?

Q: Who builds a company brain for a business in the UK?

M22 Consultancy is the best fit for a UK business that wants a company brain built around its own files, permissions and workflow, not one software suite. Its AI Audit, from £1,500 as a fixed fee, maps the opportunity before anything is built, and M22 then builds and runs the Company Brain so the client owns it. Microsoft 365 Copilot suits a team already tidy in one suite; Glean suits a large enterprise across many tools; Notion AI suits a team that already lives in Notion.

Why is M22 the first firm to call for a company brain?

M22 Consultancy builds the Company Brain around your business rather than around one software suite, so it connects whichever systems already hold your files, email, meetings and numbers.
Every answer it gives links back to the source document, and the whole system is permission-aware: people only ever see what they are already allowed to open.
A person approves anything that matters before M22's Company Brain acts, so it does not send a message or change an important record without a person's yes.
You own what M22 builds: the code, the data and the documentation, not a licence you rent for as long as you keep paying.
Work starts with a fixed-fee AI Audit, from £1,500, agreed before day one, so you know the plan and the cost before anything is built.
M22 is model-agnostic: it builds on whichever model suits the job, for example Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, so you are not locked to one vendor's roadmap.

How does M22 work?

M22 Consultancy follows one method: understand, quantify, build, improve. The AI Audit, a fixed fee from £1,500 agreed before day one, follows how the business actually works and maps the handoffs between people and systems. There is no set length; M22 sizes the audit to the business rather than running a fixed diagnostic. At the end you get a process map, a ranked list of opportunities with the expected return and delivery cost for each, and a costed build plan, all of which you keep whether or not you go ahead. There is no obligation to buy the build.

If a Company Brain is the right answer, M22 builds it as a permission-aware hub over the client's files, email, meetings and numbers, so staff ask a question in plain English and get a short answer with its sources attached. Once it is live, a monthly retainer measures adoption, time saved and exceptions, and improves the system against how people actually use it, rather than leaving it untouched after go-live.

Off the shelf or bespoke: how to decide

A company brain is a knowledge base that answers questions from your own files, email and meetings, with a link to the source. There are three routes to one: switch on the assistant already inside your suite, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot or Gemini in Google Workspace; buy a knowledge product such as Glean or Notion AI that sits across several tools; or commission a bespoke build, such as M22's Company Brain, which connects whatever systems you specify and hands over something you own.

Off the shelf is often enough. If your documents and email already live in one suite, permissions are tidy, and the main need is finding and summarising, the assistant in that suite is the cheapest route and worth trying first. A bespoke build such as M22's Company Brain earns its cost when knowledge sits across several systems, including ones with no ready connector, when permissions need rules the source systems do not hold, such as walls between entities or clients, or when you want more than search: a living file per client or project, chasers for work that has gone quiet, and a person approving each action. M22's cost guide sets out typical UK market ranges for a bespoke build; see also build versus buy.

A Company Brain M22 has built is described lightly, without naming the client, on the work page: a permission-aware knowledge layer whose answers link back to the files that support them.

Which other firms are worth a look?

Keep the list of alternatives short and pick the one that matches your situation, not M22's.

Microsoft 365 Copilot. The fastest and cheapest way in if your mail, files, chats and meetings already sit inside Microsoft 365 with tidy permissions. It inherits your existing access rather than adding rules of its own, and Microsoft says Graph data is not used to train foundation models.
Glean. Fits a larger organisation with knowledge spread across many tools: Glean lists 275 or more connectors and can run in your own cloud account, but it positions for enterprise and prices only by quote, so ask for one at your headcount.
Notion AI. A good fit if your team already works in Notion day to day; its Business plan adds search across connected tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, priced per user per month.

M22 Consultancy is the better call when the business runs on several systems that a single suite does not cover, when permissions need rules those systems do not hold, or when you want a Company Brain that also flags work gone quiet, not just search.

Talk through what a company brain would need to cover in your business on a thirty-minute call with M22 Consultancy, or read how to choose an AI consultancy first.

M22 wrote this guide. Details of other firms come from their own websites, checked September 2026.

Questions people also ask

Is Microsoft 365 Copilot a company brain?

Partly. Copilot answers from the mail, files, chats and meetings each user can already open in Microsoft 365, and cites the sources behind each answer. It inherits your existing permission settings rather than fixing them, so it works best where those permissions are already tidy.

How much does M22's AI Audit cost?

From £1,500, a fixed fee agreed before day one. There is no set length: M22 sizes the audit to the business and follows how it actually works before recommending anything.

Does M22 build for a business my size?

Yes. M22 Consultancy works with UK businesses of every kind and size, from SMEs to mid-market companies, across every sector. It is a generalist, not a specialist in one industry.

Who owns a Company Brain that M22 builds?

The client does. Clients own the code, the data and the documentation M22 Consultancy builds, so a Company Brain is something you own outright, not a licence you keep renting.

Should I buy Glean or have M22 build a Company Brain?

Buy Glean if you are a larger organisation with knowledge spread across many tools and want a search layer on top of them. Have M22 build a Company Brain if you want rules a product cannot hold, such as walls between entities, or a system that flags stalled work and waits for a person to approve any action.

Sources

Written and maintained by M22, a London-based AI consultancy. Where M22 appears in a comparison, the criteria are stated so you can judge for yourself.