AI Consulting & Advisory
We provide independent AI consulting for UK SMEs, charities, and public sector teams. No vendor commissions. No preferred platforms. We assess your organisation, identify where AI can save time or reduce cost, and give you a prioritised plan that reflects your actual situation.
The adoption roadmap
Market context
42% of UK companies abandoned most AI initiatives in 2025, up from 17% in 2024 (S&P Global). Over 80% of AI projects fail, twice the failure rate of traditional IT projects (RAND Corporation). Most of those failures share a starting point: organisations invested in tools before getting independent advice on whether those tools were right for them.
Ready to talk?
30-minute call. No obligation.
Most UK organisations know AI is worth their attention. What stops them is far more specific: they don't know which tools are worth their time, whether the advice they're being given is shaped by a vendor relationship, or how to assess what's genuinely worth doing for an organisation their size.
AI consulting means getting independent, expert guidance on where AI can help your organisation, which tools are appropriate for your size and budget, and what a realistic adoption plan looks like. You need it if you've been pitched by vendors, feel uncertain about where to start, or want an honest assessment before spending money on AI tools or implementation.
Most of the organisations we work with arrive at one of three points. They've received vendor pitches and don't know whether to trust them. They've started using AI tools informally and want to get that under control before it creates a governance or compliance problem. Or they've been asked by a board, trustees, or senior leadership to develop an AI position and need evidence and a structured plan to do it properly.
All three situations benefit from the same thing: a structured assessment of your operations, your data, your regulatory position, and a prioritised set of recommendations written specifically for your organisation. Not a sector report. Yours.
Our AI consulting services cover four areas: AI readiness assessment, governance and regulatory alignment, vendor evaluation and due diligence, and board-level advisory. They suit organisations entering AI adoption, those reviewing tools already in use, and leadership teams that need independent guidance before making procurement decisions.
Examines your operations, data, systems, and team capability against what AI adoption requires. For an SME owner-manager, this means identifying which tasks are genuinely worth automating and which aren't. For a charity, it includes mapping donor and beneficiary data against the ICO's (Information Commissioner's Office) expectations for AI-processed personal data. For a public sector team, it covers procurement route compliance and departmental accountability.
Checks your position against UK GDPR (the UK's data protection law, administered by the ICO) and the Data Protection Act 2018. It also covers the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in June 2025 and made significant changes to how AI-driven automated decisions are treated in UK law from February 2026. Organisations that cannot demonstrate appropriate safeguards are exposed.
We examine the tools you've been pitched or are considering, covering how they handle data, what their security configuration requires, and whether the commercial claims hold up. We have no commercial relationship with any AI vendor.
Gives leadership teams and trustees the analysis they need to make informed decisions about AI investment. This includes briefing materials, attendance at leadership meetings, and written assessments they can take into governance discussions.
All advisory engagements begin with a one-day AI readiness scoping workshop (£1,500 ex VAT), delivered on-site or remotely. The workshop produces a written findings and recommendations report. Advisory work then runs from that baseline at £1,200 per day ex VAT. Most SME and charity engagements use one to four advisory days over four to eight weeks.
Read more about how we structure every engagement on our How We Work page.
The scoping workshop gives us the specific information needed to produce organisation-level recommendations rather than generic ones. The written report covers your current AI position, your regulatory exposure, and the use cases worth pursuing, ranked by time-saving or cost-reduction potential.
Advisory days work through what the report identifies. No repeating ground already documented. No time spent on areas that don't apply.
| Right for you if | Not right for you if |
|---|---|
| You know AI is worth exploring but don't know where to start | You already know what you want built. See AI Software Development |
| You've been pitched by vendors and want an independent assessment | You need hands-on AI implementation in daily tasks. See AI at Work |
| Your board, trustees, or senior leadership are asking questions you can't yet answer | You only need staff training. See our AI training courses |
| You're using AI tools informally and need to govern that use properly | You need a formal written strategy document. See AI Strategy |
| You work in a regulated sector and need vendor-neutral guidance before any procurement | Your scope is implementation-only with no assessment phase needed |
| You're a charity that needs governance-ready advice before investing in AI | Your organisation has already completed a structured AI readiness assessment |
You receive a written AI assessment and recommendations report following the scoping workshop. Subsequent advisory days produce deliverables agreed at scope. These include a prioritised list of AI use cases, an implementation roadmap, a vendor evaluation summary where relevant, and an initial AI acceptable use policy appropriate to your organisation's size and regulatory exposure.
The scoping workshop report alone covers more ground than most organisations have previously mapped. It documents your AI readiness position, identifies the three to five use cases most worth pursuing, sets out your regulatory exposure, and provides a clear order of priority for what to do first.
If vendor due diligence is needed, we produce a written evaluation of the tools under consideration. If board-level advisory is needed, we prepare briefing documents and attend leadership meetings. If governance documentation is the output, we draft the initial policies and procedures.
You will never leave an Insightful AI engagement uncertain about what you paid for.
Advisory engagements begin with a one-day scoping workshop at £1,500 ex VAT, which produces a written assessment and recommendations report. Advisory work beyond that runs at £1,200 per day ex VAT. Most SME and charity engagements use one to four advisory days.
For comparison: independent AI consultants in the UK charge £50 to £300 per hour. G-Cloud senior advisory rates run £1,250 to £1,650 per day. Big Four strategy engagements start at £3,000 and reach £50,000 or more for larger scopes.
Our pricing is set to make expert, governance-led advisory accessible to SMEs and charities. Organisations that need this quality of advice should not be paying enterprise consulting fees to get it.
The difference between organisations that succeed with AI and those that abandon it is rarely talent or budget. It's whether they started with an honest, specific assessment rather than a vendor's roadmap.
Not ready for a conversation yet? The assessment helps you understand where your organisation stands.