AI consulting questions, answered
Straight answers, before the call.
What consultancies and professional services firms ask us about AI: who we are, where to start, what it costs, how client data stays safe, training, and building. Each answer is short and links to the page that goes deeper.
Who we are, and who we work with.
What is AssumeAI?
AssumeAI (also written Assume AI) is a UK, founder-led AI consultancy and AI engineering firm for consultancies and professional services firms. It provides AI strategy, AI governance, AI training, AI development and AI automation, from the first workshop to working systems built inside the firm. It was founded by Rupert Wiseman and Hugh Dowling, and the company behind it is AdsumoAI Ltd (company number 16276829).Meet the team ↘
Who does AssumeAI work with?
Consultancies and professional services firms: management, specialist and boutique consultancies, and firms that answer to a chartered or professional body. Clients include The Litmus Partnership, Hillbreak, Coaching Without Borders, The Consultancy Growth Network, Plan Ahead PM, i10 and Clear AIMS. Several services, such as the enterprise deployment and the AI maturity assessment, are designed for firms of 20 to 200 staff.Read the case studies ↘
Is AssumeAI an AI consultancy in Leeds?
Yes. AssumeAI's registered office is 205 Madison East, St Cecilia Street, Leeds LS2 7ER. The firm works with clients across the UK and internationally, from Coaching Without Borders in Zurich to Classmaids in Florida, and runs workshops and training remotely or on site, whichever suits the team. You can reach us at hello@assume-ai.com.About AssumeAI ↘
What makes AssumeAI different from other AI consultancies?
AssumeAI sits between strategy firms that cannot build and AI development firms that cannot advise: the same founder-led team that sets your priorities also builds the systems. Every service has a published price and a guarantee, you own everything we build, and Rupert's legal background means safety, governance and risk controls come first. Behind the founders is an associate network of over 10 AI consultants and AI engineers.How we work ↘
Is AssumeAI a good AI consultancy?
Judge it on evidence rather than on our word. The case studies give results in hours and pounds: The Litmus Partnership saves 268 hours a month, a figure collected from the people who use the tools, and Clear AIMS now produces a proposal in five to ten minutes instead of two to three hours. Five clients explain on film why they chose us, and every service carries a published price and a guarantee.See the work and the client films ↘
What should we look for in an AI consultancy?
Look for four things. A firm that can both advise and build, so the plan and the delivery do not fall between two suppliers. A published price and a defined result for each engagement. Governance that covers your client data and your professional body. And a proper handover: you should own the code and the documents, and your team should be able to run what is built without the consultancy.AI for consultancies ↘
Where to start with AI.
How should a boutique consultancy start using AI?
Start by finding where the hours go, before you buy any tool. The free AI maturity assessment gives you a benchmark in about two minutes. If you want direction quickly, the AI Priorities Workshop runs one pain point workshop with leadership and one with the people doing the work, then gives you a roadmap of what to do first. If you already know the bottleneck, a 30-day sprint puts one working solution live within a month.
What is an AI maturity assessment, and is it the same as an AI readiness assessment?
Broadly, yes: many firms call it an AI readiness assessment. It measures where your firm stands on AI today. Ours is the AI maturity assessment: nine questions, about two minutes, built for professional services firms of 20 to 200 staff and benchmarked against comparable firms, with a scored report in your inbox immediately. It is free.Take the AI maturity assessment ↘
What is an AI strategy review?
An AI strategy review finds, costs and prioritises the AI opportunities in a firm before any money is spent on building. AssumeAI's takes about six weeks, depending on the size of the business. It combines organisational surveys, stakeholder interviews and a review of your tech stack, and hands you five documents: an AI implementation roadmap, an AI risk assessment, an assessment of your data, systems and cultural appetite, an AI audit report and an executive presentation. For The Litmus Partnership it identified 26 initiatives and 9,672 hours a year.The AI Strategy Review ↘
Should we start with strategy, governance or a build?
It depends on what you already know. If you are unsure where AI would pay off, start with the AI Priorities Workshop or the AI Strategy Review. If your people already use AI tools without agreed rules, start with governance. If you know the bottleneck you want gone, start with a 30-day sprint, whose first week agrees exactly what to build. Our usual order is strategy first, then governance and training, then building.All services ↘
What it costs, in pounds.
How much does an AI strategy review cost in the UK?
AssumeAI's AI Strategy Review costs from £12,000 and takes about six weeks. If it does not surface opportunities worth many times the fee, we keep working until it does. The lighter option, the AI Priorities Workshop, costs from £4,000 for two pain point workshops and a prioritised roadmap. For what the wider market charges, see our guide to AI consultant costs in the UK, and for a whole first-year budget, our guide to AI implementation cost.The AI Strategy Review ↘
How much does AI consulting with AssumeAI cost?
Every service has a published price: AI Priorities Workshop from £4,000; AI Strategy Review from £12,000; AI Governance Implementation from £3,000; Tailored AI Team Training from £5,000; 30-Day Implementation Sprint from £6,000; 90-Day Implementation Sprint from £15,000; Enterprise AI Deployment £20,000 excluding VAT; Managed Service from £5,500 per month. We will not quote for building before we know where your hours go, so you see the number, and the return it rests on, before you commit.See every price and what it includes ↘
Do your services come with a guarantee?
Yes, every one. If a 30-day sprint is not live and delivering value in 30 days, we keep working at no extra cost until it is. If the AI Strategy Review does not surface opportunities worth many times the fee, we keep working until it does. If training does not leave your team able to apply AI to their real work, we run the session again at no cost. Enterprise AI Deployment comes with a full refund if you are not happy, for any reason.See each service ↘
Will we be locked in to AssumeAI?
No. You own the code, the documents and the roadmap, whoever does the building. The 90-day sprint spends its last two weeks embedding the capability in your team, and enterprise deployments come with documentation of every agent and skill, so your team can maintain and extend them. If you want ongoing building capacity, the managed service runs month to month and you can change the level as the work changes.AI for professional services ↘
Client data, policy and rules.
How do professional services firms keep client data safe when using AI?
Use an enterprise AI platform under clear rules. In practice that means a platform on EU-based data hosting configured to your own data governance policies, internal and external AI policies, an impact assessment for each AI tool before it is used, and audit trails. We build inside your existing infrastructure rather than on top of it, and you own everything we build.AI governance implementation ↘
Can AssumeAI write an AI governance policy for our consultancy?
Yes. AI Governance Implementation, from £3,000 and usually two to four weeks, gives you a full framework rather than a single document: internal and external AI policies, impact assessments, audit trails and the compliance alignment behind them. It is tailored to your data, your clients, EU GDPR, any SOC credentials you hold and your chartered or professional body. If you want to start on your own, our free AI policy template and AI governance template are on our resources page.AI governance implementation ↘
Can you help a surveying firm comply with the RICS standard on the responsible use of AI?
Yes. The RICS professional standard on the responsible use of AI in surveying practice took effect on 9 March 2026. For Hillbreak, a specialist ESG and sustainability advisory firm for real estate, we assessed its existing AI policy against the standard, identified 12 new provisions and prepared a nine-document pack, including an updated internal policy, an external AI policy, impact and output reliability assessment templates, a risk register, an approved tools register and AI clauses for client engagements.The Hillbreak case study ↘
Training your people on AI.
What AI training do you offer consulting teams?
Tailored AI team training, from £5,000, built around your firm's real work: Claude, Cowork, Gemini, prompt engineering fundamentals and almost any other AI topic you need. Run it as a one-off workshop, remotely or on site, or as a sustained programme on our own platform. For Hillbreak we ran three Claude Cowork workshops and built six custom skills the team works from. If your team does not leave able to apply AI to their real work, we run the session again at no cost.AI team training ↘
Is there any free AI training?
Yes. Our resources page has free team training, including how to build a voice and persona document so AI writes like you, alongside our Oxford panels and workshops on AI risk, governance and the future of work, and a monthly AI roundup.Free AI resources ↘
Building AI tools and automations.
Can AssumeAI build AI tools and automations for a small consulting firm?
Yes. A 30-day sprint, from £6,000, builds one automation, assistant or agent for one clear workflow in about four weeks. A 90-day sprint, from £15,000, identifies, builds and embeds several in a quarter. Past builds include a benchmarking platform for The Litmus Partnership, an AI board advisor trained on more than 400 hours of The Consultancy Growth Network's material, and automations for Coaching Without Borders in which one form sets up a new project in four systems in about ninety seconds.See the work ↘
How can a consultancy use AI to write proposals faster?
Give AI your own templates and house voice to draft from, rather than prompting a general chatbot from scratch each time. We built a proposal generator for Clear AIMS that takes the average proposal from two to three hours of work down to five to ten minutes. Drafting a proposal from your templates is also one of the agents we typically build in an enterprise deployment of Claude Cowork or ChatGPT Enterprise.The Clear AIMS case study ↘
Can you deploy Claude or ChatGPT Enterprise across a firm of 50 people?
Yes. Enterprise AI Deployment is designed for firms of 20 to 200 employees. We help you choose between Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Enterprise, deploy it on EU-based data hosting to your governance policies, and build six to twelve working agents and skills around your real workflows, so they are there on day one. It costs £20,000 excluding VAT, with a full refund if you are not happy, for any reason.Enterprise AI Deployment ↘
Can we hire a part-time AI engineer for our consultancy?
Yes, through the managed service. An AssumeAI engineer is embedded in your firm at the level that suits you: half an engineer from £5,500 a month, one from £8,500 or two from £15,000. They sit side by side with your people, roll out your roadmap month after month and transfer the skills as they go, and you can change the level as the work changes.The managed service ↘