AI Consulting for Businesses: What to Automate First, What Not To, and How Much You'll Save

Most companies who contact me don’t need to “implement AI.” What they need is to identify the two or three things that are eating up hours every week and see if they can be eliminated. That’s what I do in a consulting session: a practical diagnosis and a plan you can actually use.

I’m not going to sell you a forty-page “digital transformation strategy.” I’ll give you a short list, with numbers.

What’s included in the AI consulting

• Interview with the people doing the work, not just management. Lost hours are in the day-to-day: email, WhatsApp, quotes, moving data from one program to another.
• Map of repetitive tasks: how much time each takes, how often per week, and what errors they cause.
• What to automate and what not to. Some tasks don’t need AI (a simple rule is enough), and others aren’t worth automating because mistakes are costly. I’ll tell you clearly either way.
• Specific tools for your case: whether n8n or Make makes sense, an agent, a WhatsApp chatbot, or simply better use of ChatGPT or Claude in your team.
• Estimate of hours saved and monthly cost (servers, AI, licenses), so you can decide based on numbers.
• Data and GDPR: what information would leave your company, to which provider, and how to minimize it. (GDPR is the European data protection regulation.)
• A phased plan: starting with what saves the most with the least risk.

How it works

1. You tell me about your case by email or a short call. If I see you don’t need consulting (because the answer is obvious), I’ll say so and save you the money.
2. We review how you work, with the people who do each task and, if needed, by looking at the tools you already use.
3. I deliver the written plan: tasks, priority, tools, estimated monthly cost, and hours you can recover.
4. We go over it together and you decide. You can implement it with me, another provider, or your own team.

How is this different from hiring an automation directly?

It’s about the order. If you already know what you want to automate (for example, quotes or WhatsApp), you don’t need consulting: we go straight to it. Consulting is for when you know something can be improved but you’re not sure what or where to start, or when there are several options and you don’t want to get the priorities wrong.

What usually comes up in a diagnosis

From what I see in service businesses, retail, and offices, three or four of these almost always appear:

• Answering the same questions again and again by email or WhatsApp.
• Creating quotes by hand and chasing up those who don’t reply.
• Transferring invoices, orders, or delivery notes from one place to another.
• Preparing weekly reports by copying data from several tools.
• Looking for information within the company (“Where was the contract for…?”).

You have 43 cases by sector with typical results for each, and a real case with numbers from a company where I handle the technical side.

Do I need to have data or systems ready to use AI?

You don’t need to have everything organized. What you do need is to know where everything is: which program holds your clients, where invoices are stored, how an order comes in. Part of the consulting is exactly that: mapping things out and seeing what can be connected without changing programs.

Who it’s for

• Small businesses with 3 to 50 people who suspect they’re losing hours but don’t know exactly where.
• Companies that have already tried something with AI and it didn’t work, and want to understand why.
• Managers about to sign off on a major automation who want a second opinion before committing.

Price

It depends on the size of your company and how many areas we review. I’ll give you a fixed price before we start, and if we end up building something together, I’ll take that into account. If you want a first estimate of what not automating is costing you, try the calculator.

Frequently asked questions

Will you always recommend your own services?

No. If what you need is a tool that already exists and can be set up in an afternoon, I’ll tell you. And if there’s something I don’t do, I’ll point you to someone who can.

How long does an AI consulting take?

For a small business, the full diagnosis is usually done in one or two weeks, including interviews and the written plan. I’ll give you a delivery date in the proposal.

Does it include training for the team?

If needed, yes. Often the best “automation” is the team learning to use ChatGPT or Claude well in their work. For that, I offer AI training for businesses.