About
Who we are and what we do
Most UK organisations face two bad options when they need AI guidance. Large consultancies charge six figures and design for enterprises. Solo operators offer enthusiasm but lack the team to deliver. Neither option works for an SME with 30 staff, a charity watching every pound, or a local authority under pressure to do more with less.
We built Insightful AI because that third option should exist. Based in Warrington, North West England, we are a specialist AI consultancy. We help UK SMEs, charities and non-profits, and public sector organisations adopt AI safely, govern it properly, and measure what it delivers. We do not sell software. We do not take commissions from technology suppliers. Our advice serves your interests, not a vendor's sales target.
We hold a position the market often ignores: governance comes before tools. Every engagement starts with your data, your compliance obligations, and your team's capacity. If AI is not the right answer for your situation, we will tell you. We would rather lose a fee than waste your budget.
What we have delivered
Our work spans charities, law enforcement, SMEs, insurance, and public policy. The range is deliberate. AI governance problems look similar whether you run a 20-person charity or a regional police force, and our cross-sector experience means we bring tested approaches, not theory.
Named organisations we have worked with include the National Emergencies Trust, Cheshire Community Foundation, Cumbria Community Foundation, and Book Aid International.
Across these engagements, we have delivered governance policies, identified automation opportunities, run trustee-level training, and assessed team readiness for AI adoption.
Our advisory work has reached all 43 police forces in England and Wales through sessions delivered to the National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), and North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU). Charity leaders, including the CEO of the Fundraising Regulator, have attended our workshops. Independent press coverage from the TCUK26 conference described Insightful AI as advising UK law enforcement on AI governance, and we were featured on LBC News in an interview with Simon Conway on the same subject.
Upcoming engagements include a speaking session at The Conduit, London, covering AI applications in insurance and cross-sector governance.
How we work
We follow a structured delivery process: Discovery, Assessment, Pilot, Delivery, Governance. The full process is detailed on our How we work page, but the principles behind it are worth stating here because they shape every engagement.
Governance is built in from the start. We do not treat compliance as a box to tick after the technology is chosen. Every project begins with understanding your data, your regulatory exposure under UK GDPR and the ICO's (Information Commissioner's Office) current guidance, and your team's readiness.
We are vendor-neutral. No commissions. No preferred supplier relationships. No conflicts of interest. When we recommend a tool, it is because it fits your situation, not because we profit from the sale.
Every engagement needs a defined measure of success before it begins. Time saved, costs reduced, error rates improved, capacity freed. If we cannot define what success looks like for your organisation, the engagement does not start.
When AI is not the right answer, we say so. In our work with North West organisations, we regularly find that better process design or simpler automation solves the problem faster and cheaper than AI. We recommend the option that works, not the one that sounds impressive.
Our stance on responsible AI use is published in full on our Responsible AI page.
Our team
Our team brings together AI strategists, governance specialists, and technical builders who take projects from first conversation through to working solution.
Our co-founders, Ben Sefton and Kane Lukassen, bring nearly four decades of combined experience across policing, defence, and security. Their shared background in careers where data handling, operational security, and accountability carried serious consequences is the reason governance runs through everything we do.
Ben Sefton, co-founder and strategy lead
Ben spent 18 years as a Senior Forensic Investigator with Greater Manchester Police and has 28 years of leadership experience spanning forensic investigation and the private sector. He now leads AI strategy, governance, and client advisory work. Ben also serves as Chief AI Officer at Cheshire Community Foundation and is affiliated with the National Emergencies Trust and the North West Cyber Resilience Centre.
Read Ben's full bioKane Lukassen, co-founder and AI Operations lead
Kane served nearly eight years in the Australian Army, including with the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, followed by operational security and risk management roles in Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea. He leads AI Operations at Insightful AI, taking approved use cases from readiness review through to governed, monitored workflows that run in daily operations. He also holds a digital operations role at Alcimi.
Read Kane's full bioWhat to do next
Book a free discovery call. We will spend 30 minutes on your situation: what you are trying to achieve, what is getting in the way, and whether AI is the right path. No pitch, no obligation. If AI is not the answer, we will say so.
If you want to understand where your organisation stands before speaking to anyone, take the free AI readiness assessment. You will get an honest picture of your AI readiness and a set of recommendations you can act on with or without us.
You can also see the full range of what we offer on our services page.