What it actually takes to ship a production AI agent in 2026
Beyond the demo. The five engineering disciplines that separate AI agents you put in front of customers from the ones that stay in dev forever.
Read the full post → Common Challenges
What we see in ai consulting.
The technology and process challenges that come up in nearly every engagement we run in this industry.
01
Scaling without losing AI-native craft
Most AI firms start small and excellent. Growing past 20 people without losing what made you good is the central operational challenge.
02
Pricing experiments at scale
Outcome-based pricing, retainers, license-plus-services — AI firms experiment with pricing models that legacy CRM does not support well.
03
Knowledge management for repeat patterns
AI work is full of repeating patterns. Capturing and reusing them is a major productivity lever.
04
Client onboarding speed
AI clients expect fast onboarding. Every day of internal admin is a day they could be getting value.
05
Demonstrating ROI to enterprise procurement
Enterprise procurement teams want hard ROI numbers. AI firms need infrastructure to capture and demonstrate them.
06
Compliance and security for AI deployments
SOC 2, ISO 27001, and customer-specific security requirements increasingly gate AI deals. The infrastructure to meet them is non-trivial.
How We Help
What we deliver for ai consulting firms.
Salesforce + integrated PSA for AI firms
Account, opportunity, engagement, and project management unified — configured for AI/data services pricing and delivery models.
Flexible pricing model support
Contract management that supports time-and-materials, fixed-fee, outcome-based, retainer, and hybrid pricing without forcing them into one shape.
Internal knowledge platform
Confluence or Notion integrated into your CRM so that every project benefits from prior project learning.
Onboarding automation
Templated onboarding workflows triggered by deal close — kickoff scheduling, document collection, environment provisioning, team intros.
ROI capture and value-realization platform
Structured ROI baselines, ongoing measurement, and client-ready ROI reporting built into every engagement.
Security and compliance infrastructure
SOC 2 readiness, ISO controls, and the technical and process infrastructure to pass enterprise security reviews.
Regulatory & Compliance Matters
What we navigate in ai consulting.
Compliance is not a separate workstream — it is embedded in every workflow we deliver. The major frameworks we work within:
EU AI Act
AI system classification, risk management evidence, transparency requirements, and conformity assessment workflows.
NIST AI Risk Management Framework
AI RMF implementation, risk profile documentation, and governance workflows aligned to NIST guidance.
ISO 42001 (AI Management Systems)
AI management system certification preparation, control evidence, and continuous improvement workflows.
Sector-Specific (HIPAA, GLBA, FERPA + AI)
Sector regulations as they apply to AI systems — data handling, audit logging, and decision explainability requirements.
Copyright & IP for Generative Content
Training data provenance, output review workflows, and IP risk documentation for generative AI deployments.
Algorithmic Accountability (state laws)
Emerging state AI laws (Colorado, California, NYC bias audit) — disclosure, impact assessment, and audit workflows.
Signature Service Categories
The major ai consulting practices our team runs.
Each category represents a deep specialization with dedicated playbooks, accelerators, and experienced practitioners.
01
Operations Platform for AI Firms
Salesforce + PSA configured for AI/data services pricing and delivery.
02
ROI & Value Realization
Structured ROI capture and client-facing reporting.
03
Compliance & Security
SOC 2, ISO 27001, and enterprise-grade security infrastructure.
04
Knowledge Management
AI-augmented internal knowledge platforms.
05
Customer Success for AI Engagements
Adoption tracking, renewal forecasting, and CSM workflows for AI/data clients.
Platforms & Tools
The technology stack we typically deploy here.
Salesforce + PSA platforms
PSA platform (Kantata, Certinia, etc.)
Notion / Confluence + AI retrieval
Compliance automation (Drata, Vanta)
Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure AI infrastructure
Customer success platforms
Knowledge management AI
Integration Ecosystem
The platforms we connect to in ai consulting.
Our team carries hands-on experience across the systems your firm already runs. Integration is rarely the bottleneck.
Anthropic Claude (API + Bedrock + Vertex)
OpenAI / Azure OpenAI
AWS Bedrock
Google Vertex AI
Salesforce Einstein / Agentforce
Microsoft Copilot Studio
LangChain / LangSmith
LlamaIndex
Pinecone
Weaviate
pgvector
Databricks Mosaic
Hugging Face
Snowflake Cortex
Unstructured.io
Vellum / Humanloop
Arize / Fiddler
Cohere
Recent Engagements
Real work for ai consulting clients.
A few examples of how these capabilities show up in practice — drawn from recent and active engagements (client names anonymized where appropriate).
01
PSA + Salesforce unification for a 30-person AI firm
Configured Kantata + Salesforce to operate as one platform — opportunity to engagement to invoice in a single flow. Founder no longer maintains a separate spreadsheet of project margins.
02
Outcome-based pricing contract management
Built contract and revenue recognition workflows for outcome-based pricing models — base fee + success fee triggers, milestone-based revenue recognition, and audit-ready documentation for the accounting team.
03
Internal knowledge platform with AI-augmented retrieval
Deployed a Notion + Claude-powered knowledge platform so every new project benefits from prior project learning — playbooks, patterns, and decisions surfaced via natural-language search from inside Slack.
04
Compliance infrastructure for a Series A AI firm
Built SOC 2 Type II readiness from scratch — security controls, evidence automation, vendor risk management. Achieved certification in 9 months.
05
ROI measurement system for an AI consultancy
Designed structured ROI capture across 40+ active engagements with quarterly client-facing reports. Renewal rate moved from 71% to 89% with measurable ROI in the conversation.
How Clients Engage Us
Four ways to work with us on ai consulting initiatives.
From short diagnostics to fractional leadership, every engagement model is designed around the client's stage and needs.
Model 01
Discovery & Strategy
Operational diagnostics for AI consultancies and AI-native software firms.
Model 02
Fixed-Scope Implementation
Specific projects covering PSA, compliance, or knowledge platforms.
Model 03
Managed Services
Ongoing operations support for growing AI firms.
Model 04
Fractional Operations Leadership
Senior operations leadership for AI firms scaling past 20 people.
Outcomes We Deliver
The metrics we actually move for ai consulting clients.
Engagements are measured by movement on the numbers that matter. These are the directions of travel we commit to.
01
AI pilot to production rate
Increase from <30% to >75%
02
Time saved per knowledge worker
5-15 hours/week
03
AI workflow accuracy
Reach 95%+ for production
04
AI governance findings
Reduce to zero material
05
Time to ROI on AI investment
<6 months typical
06
Employee AI adoption rate
Increase to 70%+
Signature Frameworks
Proprietary methodologies for ai consulting work.
Every engagement leverages reusable assets — frameworks, blueprints, and diagnostics built up over hundreds of client projects.
Framework 01
AI Readiness Diagnostic
Our two-week assessment that maps where AI will and will not create value in your organization, plus a sequenced roadmap with measurable outcomes.
Framework 02
RAG Reference Architecture
A battle-tested pattern for retrieval-augmented generation in enterprise — covering ingestion, chunking, embedding, retrieval, and evaluation.
Framework 03
AI Governance Operating Model
A framework for AI inventory, risk classification, approval workflows, and ongoing monitoring that scales beyond a single steering committee.
Framework 04
AI Agent Design Method
Our approach to designing AI agents that handle real work — tool use, error handling, escalation paths, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
Available Soon · 32 pages · 26 min read
The AI Consulting Playbook
How forward-leaning enterprises are structuring their AI program, governance, and platform decisions to move from pilots to production at scale.
A comprehensive guide to building an enterprise AI program that produces durable outcomes — covering strategy, governance, data foundation, platform selection, agent architecture, and change management.
Inside the report:
- ✓AI strategy: where to bet and where to wait
- ✓Governance frameworks: NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, EU AI Act
- ✓Platform selection: Claude, Bedrock, Vertex, Azure OpenAI
- ✓Agent architecture and the move from copilots to autonomy
Featured Insight
Insight & analysis from our ai consulting team.
Practitioner-level analysis from the consultants delivering the work.
AI Implementation
What it actually takes to ship a production AI agent in 2026
AI Implementation
Our Capabilities
How we help ai consulting clients.
Systems Integration
Connect the systems that run your business — CRM, ERP, billing, data, AI, analytics — into one cohesive architecture.
Learn more →Custom Development
Custom applications, platform extensions, integrations, and engineered solutions built when off-the-shelf software won't fit.
Learn more →AI & Technology Consulting
Strategic guidance from certified architects plus production AI deployments. System selection, roadmaps, audits, Agentforce, custom agents, and AI strategy — all under one practice.
Learn more →Revenue Operations
Align marketing, sales, and customer success into one revenue engine. Process, forecasting, attribution, and tech-stack optimization.
Learn more → More Industries
Sectors we also serve.
Ready to talk about your ai consulting technology?
Free 30-minute strategy session with one of our consultants who knows your industry.
Book a Consultation →