By Kim Leary
The short version
- AI is easy to demonstrate and hard to put to work. So the market is full of people selling the easy part.
- Advice that stops at the demo costs more than the fee.
- The common responses either spend more on the wrong thing or stop altogether.
- It talks about use cases, not tools. It builds things you can see working. And it tells you where AI isn’t the answer.
- We built one for ourselves first.
- Agree what AI is for in your business first. Then build one thing that works, properly, before the next.
You’re expected to know the direction, inspire the team and now lead on AI. Growing a business was lonely enough already.
So you look for help. LinkedIn is full of people sure they’ve cracked it. The consultants all have a framework. Some of the businesses we talk to have paid for months of AI consultancy and come away with a handful of impressive demos and a couple of builds that never quite worked.
Why it happens
AI is easy to demonstrate and hard to put to work. So the market is full of people selling the easy part.
A demo takes an afternoon and looks like magic. Connecting AI to your real systems, your real data and the way your team actually works takes thought, patience and someone who’ll still be there when it breaks. That’s the part most advice skips, because it’s harder to sell and slower to show.
The bar has also dropped. Anyone can build something impressive over a weekend now. Very little of it works end to end.
What it’s costing you
Advice that stops at the demo costs more than the fee.
What doesn’t fix it
The common responses either spend more on the wrong thing or stop altogether.
“We need an AI expert.” You need someone who understands your business first and AI second.
“The right tool will solve it.” A tool without a clear job and connected data just gives you faster confusion.
“Just trying AI is enough.” Trying is how you start. It isn’t a plan you can take to the board.
“Let’s wait until it settles down.” The tools will keep changing. The businesses that learned how to use them won’t be waiting.
What good AI advice looks like
It talks about use cases, not tools. It builds things you can see working. And it tells you where AI isn’t the answer.
Good advice starts with the problems your business already has: the report that takes a day, the leads nobody follows up, the content that all looks the same. It picks one, connects it to your real systems and shows it working on your data.
It leaves you owning what was built, with your team trained to use it. And it’s honest when the answer is a better process, not more AI.
If an adviser can’t explain what they’d build first and how you’d know it worked, keep looking.
What one working use case looks like
We built one for ourselves first.
Businesses going through a merger or acquisition often need exactly what we do. Researching each one by hand was taking days, and nobody had days to spare.
So we built a system that reads the news for M&A activity, finds the relevant director and marketing lead, checks their address through Companies House, sends a personal letter and connects on LinkedIn. When the connection is accepted, it hands back to us.
One problem, one trigger, connected to real sources, with a person taking over at the conversation. That’s the shape good AI work takes. Trigger-based prospecting explains how it works.
What fixes it
Agree what AI is for in your business first. Then build one thing that works, properly, before the next.
Growth consultancy starts with a day with your leadership team: where you’re going, what’s in the way and where AI genuinely helps. Then we work to that plan month by month, against a baseline agreed up front. The day is £2,800 + VAT.
When it’s time to put tools in your team’s hands, AI tools and training sets them up on your brand and your work, with half a day of training. From £2,800 + VAT.
Keep reading
- The board is asking about AI and you don’t have a view
- If it lives in a spreadsheet, there’s a better way
- AI is better at reading your marketing data than writing your copy
Questions about how to choose an AI consultant
Ask what they’d build first, how it connects to your systems and how you’d know it worked. If the answer is a framework or a list of tools, keep looking.
Usually because they start with the tool, not the business problem, and never get connected to real data and real ways of working.
With one problem you already know costs you time or money. Fix that properly, then move to the next.
You should. The prompts, the templates and the connections should be documented and handed over, with nothing that stops working if you change tools or advisers. If it only runs on their platform, you’ve bought a tool, not advice.
Our growth consultancy starts with a day with your leadership team, £2,800 + VAT. Ongoing support starts from £2,800 + VAT a month and renews every three months. Most businesses start with the day and decide the rest once they’ve seen what comes out of it.
Month one is the day and the plan, because nothing else works until the direction is agreed and the baseline is set. Month two is when work starts coming out against it, and you get the first report at the end of it.
Free resource
Build the business case. Work out what getting AI right is worth, and what waiting is costing you, then get your board to say yes.
The one thing to do next
Growth consultancy
A day with your leadership team on where AI genuinely helps, then a plan worked month by month. Day £2,800 + VAT, retainer from £2,800 + VAT a month.
