What does an AI consultancy actually do?

Ask ten firms what an AI consultancy does and you'll get ten answers, most of them involving the word "transformation". Here is the honest version, from one that builds systems for a living.

The three jobs

1. Diagnosis. Most businesses don't know where their hours go. The consultancy's first job is to follow real work through the business — who touches an order, an invoice, an enquiry, and where it waits. The output should be specific: a map of the process and a priced list of where time and margin leak. If a consultancy can't tell you what a broken process costs you per month, they're guessing.

2. The commercial case. Not every automation is worth building. A good consultancy models the current cost, the delivery cost, and the expected return, then tells you which ideas fail the test. This is the step most firms skip, and it's the one that protects you. Weak ideas should die on paper, not in a six-month project.

3. The build. Working software wired into the tools you already use — not a strategy deck, not a proof-of-concept that never leaves a sandbox. The test is simple: after the engagement, is a system running in production that wasn't before, and can you point at what it does each week?

What you should get for your money

• A process map of how work actually moves through your business, not the org-chart version.
• Opportunities ranked by return, each with the hours it recovers and what those hours cost you today.
• A costed recommendation you can act on with the consultancy or without them.
• If you proceed to a build: software in production, documentation, and a named owner inside your business.

The questions that separate real from theatre

• "Can I see something you've built that's running today?" Case studies with screenshots and numbers, not logos and adjectives.
• "What would you not automate in my business?" A real consultancy has a list. Anything involving judgement, relationships or irreversible decisions usually keeps a human in charge.
• "Who owns what you build?" The right answer is you.
• "What happens after launch?" Automation needs monitoring and improvement. Ask what the monthly rhythm looks like.

When you don't need one

If your problem is already solved well by off-the-shelf software — accounting, CRM, scheduling — buy the software. A consultancy earns its fee where your process is specific to you, crosses several tools, or where the off-the-shelf options force your business to work their way instead of yours. We wrote more on that decision in build vs buy.

← All notes