← My Thinking

What an AI operating partner actually does

I've had some version of this conversation a few dozen times now. People hear “AI consultant” and picture either a software vendor or a contractor who writes code. It's neither, so let me just say it plainly.

I help professional services firms find where their expertise is leaking into the work around the work, and then build the system that stops it. The diagnostic half of that sentence matters more than the build half.

What I actually do

Most businesses that come to me have already tried something. They bought a tool, built an automation, and it either never got adopted or broke within a month. They usually blame the tool.

It’s almost never the tool. It’s that the process underneath was never written down, so the automation was built on an assumption about how the work happens rather than how it actually happens. Map the real process — workarounds, tribal knowledge, the step that only occurs because one person remembers — and the findings are right there.

Then I build the layer that was missing. Usually that’s a structured knowledge base, a written definition of what “good” means in your business, and two or three playbooks for the workflows that eat the most time. Built on the tools you already pay for.

What I don’t do

I’m not a software vendor. There’s no platform, no licence, no seat count. If the best answer for your situation is a €20/month tool you already have, that’s the answer and it’s free advice.

I’m not a dev shop. If you arrive with a spec, I’ll ask questions before we touch anything. A spec built on a broken process produces a working automation of a broken process.

I’m not a trainer. I’ll make sure your team can run what we build, but I’m not delivering a course on prompting.

I don’t run your operation for you. I build the system; your team uses it. If what you want is someone to do the work, you want a hire or an agency, and I’ll say so.

What an engagement looks like

A 30-minute call. I ask questions about how work moves through your firm and where it snags. I’m working out whether there’s a real opportunity here and whether I’m the right person for it. I don’t pitch on this call.

Weeks 1 to 2: the AI Opportunity Assessment, €3,000 up to 20 staff or €4,500 for 21 to 50. Interviews across your team, not just you. Five-layer scoring where every score cites something specific someone said or showed. The opportunities ranked by value, three numbers we agree to track, a 90-day plan, a tier recommendation, and quick wins with owners.

By day 90: the first priority, built and in use. One piece of work running on the system and measured against those numbers. If it isn’t live and measured by day 90, you can leave on one month’s notice.

Every month after: the next release. Something new or improved goes live, you get the scorecard, and we spend 45 minutes deciding what ships next. The partnership is €3,000 a month (Foundations), €5,000 (Growth) or €8,000 (Scale), on a 12-month term.

Sign within 30 days of the playback and the assessment fee comes off your first three months in equal parts. That’s deliberate. The assessment exists so nobody spends real money building the wrong thing, and the credit means starting doesn’t cost you twice.

The honest version of the value

I’m not selling software and I’m not selling hours. I’m selling a judgment: an honest read on where your operation is losing you money, and a plan for fixing it that holds up after I’ve gone.

That judgment is the part that can’t be bought off a shelf. I spent six years leading Salesforce’s Professional Services and Healthcare verticals, heading the teams that sold to thousands of firms like yours. I know what a good proposal looks like because I’ve written a few thousand of them. When an AI produces something plausible but commercially wrong, I can tell. That’s the whole difference between a system that gets adopted and one that gets switched off.

The value isn’t in the technology. It’s in knowing what to build, why, and in what order.

If that’s what you’re after, the fastest way to start isn’t a call. It’s five minutes with the AI maturity score, so we both arrive at the conversation already knowing where you stand.

Related: what an AI operating system is, and what it costs.

Where does your firm actually sit?

The AI maturity score rates you on all five layers using the same rubric as a paid Third Act assessment: the number, the rung that's stuck, and what the next rung up looks like.

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