From pilot to production in one engagement
Most AI work dies in the gap between a promising demo and a system people rely on. Our method exists to close that gap.
One engagement, three phases, a real exit
Find the process worth doing
We look for work that is frequent, expensive and well understood. Not the most exciting problem, the one most likely to reach production.
- Map the process as it actually runs
- Agree what success looks like, in numbers
- Get access to real data, not a sample
Build against reality
On your systems, your data and your permissions from the start. Nothing is demonstrated on a sandbox that will not survive contact with the real thing.
- Evaluation set written with your team first
- Weekly runs against live cases
- Approval gates wherever the risk sits
Run it, measure it, hand it over
It goes live with monitoring and an evaluation set. Your team learns to run it while we are still in the room.
- Monitoring and escalation path in place
- Runbooks and written decisions
- Named owner trained and confident
Decision point. Continuing is a choice you make with the results in front of you, not a default.
What we need from you
Three things. Without them we will tell you honestly that the project is not ready, because we would rather say so than run a pilot that goes nowhere.
One person who owns the process
Someone who knows how the work really happens and can settle questions quickly. Not a committee.
Access to real data, early
Sample data hides the problems that sink projects. The sooner we see the real thing, the sooner we know what we are dealing with.
Someone to hand it to
A person or team who will own the system afterwards, involved from the start rather than briefed at the end.
How the commercials work
Set up so the incentive is to finish, not to stay.
Retained, not time and materials
We are accountable to the outcome rather than the hours. A fixed fee for a fixed first phase.
Not day rates that reward slowness. One number, agreed before we start.
Phased, with a real exit
A defined first phase with a decision point at the end. Continuing is a choice, not a default.
Not open-ended engagements. You decide with results in hand.
Few clients at a time
We take on a small number of engagements so senior people stay on the work instead of selling the next one.
Not juniors on the bench. The people you meet do the work.
Why we turn some projects down
If a process is not stable enough to automate, or a plain rule engine would beat a model, we will say so. Hearing that early is cheaper for both of us than a pilot that quietly stops being used.