Good AI advice is worth more than any AI tool.
Every vendor has a tool to sell you. We start with how your business actually runs, tell you which problems are worth solving with AI and which aren't, and help your people get comfortable using what you choose.
The AI thinking your leadership team doesn't have time to do.
Most leadership teams know AI matters. What they don't have is the time to work out where it fits, or a senior person whose job it is to own the question. Large companies can hire someone full time to do that, or bring in one of the big consulting firms. Most small and mid-sized businesses can't justify either.
That's the gap we fill. We do the research, build the business case and work directly with your team, so your decisions about AI rest on how your business actually operates. You get the same kind of senior thinking, at a scale and a price that make sense for a business your size.
Smaller businesses are often better placed to get AI right than large ones.
You can move quickly.
When the people who make decisions are in the room, a good idea can be tried within weeks. In a large company, getting the same project approved can take longer than doing it.
You know your own workflows.
The people who run the work can tell you exactly where the time goes and what gets missed. In a large company that knowledge is spread across departments and hard to pin down.
You can see whether it's working.
With a smaller team, you'll know within a month or two whether people are using something and whether it's paying off, and you can change course without a lot of ceremony.
Most of our first conversations come back to the same three questions.
Where do we start?
Every vendor wants to sell them a tool, and nobody has sat down with them to work out which problems are actually worth solving.
We pick the two or three places where AI makes a real difference to how you make money, and get those right before adding anything else.
What will it cost?
They're being quoted in tokens and usage tiers, and nobody can tell them what that adds up to for the work their team actually does.
We translate the pricing into the jobs you'd use it for, and give you a realistic monthly number before you commit, including your team's time and the smaller costs that tend to get left out.
How do we get people to use it?
Their most experienced people can't be in every estimate, review and call, and the team needs a way to use that judgment when those people aren't in the room.
Training sticks when it's built around the work people already do every day, so that's how we run it.
You can work with us in four ways, depending on where you are.
AI Strategy & Roadmap
We look at where AI fits in your business, which tools are worth buying, and how roles on your team are likely to change. You end up with a plan your whole team can read, with real numbers for what it will cost.
Ongoing Advisory
A monthly working session with us. In between, we keep an eye on the tools that matter to you, track what you're spending against what you're getting back, and set aside hours each month to build when something's worth it.
Team Training
Hands-on sessions built around your own workflows, for up to ten people at a time. People leave knowing what they'll do differently on Monday morning.
Solution Build
We build the automation, workflow or integration for a specific job, with the scope and the measure of success agreed before we start. Everything is documented so your team can run it without us.
If you're not sure which one fits, that's worth talking through on a first call. Sometimes the honest answer is that you don't need any of them yet, and we'll tell you if that's the case.
Here's how an engagement usually goes.
We talk
We start with a 30-minute conversation about your business. We'll ask what's slow, what's expensive and what's been on your mind, and hold off on AI until we understand those.
We look closer
We spend time with the workflows that matter most and note where AI would help, where it wouldn't, and what it would cost.
We make a plan
You get real numbers and a sensible order of work. For each idea we'll say whether to buy something, build it or wait, even when waiting means less work for us.
We stay involved
We agree how we'll measure anything before we build it, and we check the actual numbers at 30 and 90 days. It's all documented, so you're never dependent on us to keep it running.
Here are the industries we work in most often.
A few things we've been thinking about
See all Thought StartersThe best place to start is a conversation.
Tell us a little about your business and we'll set up 30 minutes to talk it through. You'll get our honest view of where AI could help and roughly what it would cost, and if it isn't the right time yet, we'll say so.
Or email us at hello@simpleraven.com
We'll be in touch within one business day to find a time that works for you.