The AI Firestarter
A fixed-price, fixed-scope engagement, from curious to ready to act.
In six weeks, Firestarter takes one business unit, team, or location from curious about AI to ready to act. Five foundations, converging on a single outcome.
- 01
Training and AI literacy
Your exec and board fluent in what AI can and cannot do for the business.
- 02
Competitor benchmark
Your AI maturity, measured against your peer group.
- 03
Policy, regulation and governance
Reviewed against the EU AI Act, and written where it is absent.
- 04
Process and agent readiness
The easy wins, and the processes to redesign first.
- 05
Data and technology readiness
AI-readiness, tooling, and shadow-AI risk. Optional, and run with your IT team.
The outcome
A board-ready AI roadmap you can lead and invest behind.
One fixed price for the full scope, agreed before the work starts. The number is for the call.
After the roadmap
The roadmap is where the work starts.
The roadmap opens a managed path, so the engagement is not a diagnosis you are left to act on alone.
- 01
Embed adoption
Turn the plan into new ways of working, function by function, until AI is part of how the business runs.
- 02
Measure the returns
Track the value AI actually returns against the roadmap, so the board can see the payback.
- 03
Keep it current
Refresh the competitor benchmark and governance as the market and the regulation keep moving.
Questions
What people ask before the call.
- What is the AI Firestarter?
- A six-week, fixed-price, fixed-scope engagement that takes one business unit, team, or location from curious about AI to ready to act. It ends in a board-ready AI roadmap you can lead and invest behind.
- What is included?
- Five foundations: training and AI literacy for your exec and board, a competitor benchmark of your AI maturity against your peer group, policy and governance reviewed against the EU AI Act and written where absent, the processes worth redesigning first alongside the easy wins, and a data and technology readiness review that is optional and run with your IT team.
- How long does it take?
- Six weeks, with the scope agreed before the work starts. The timeline is fixed, so it fits inside a quarter and inside a board cycle.
- What does it cost?
- One fixed price for the full scope, agreed before the work starts. The number depends on the shape of the engagement, so it is settled on the call rather than published as a range that would not apply to you.
- Who is it for?
- PE-backed portfolio companies and mid-market businesses under pressure to hit hard EBITDA targets, where the board expects a view on AI. The people who usually carry it are the chief operating officer, the chief financial officer, and whoever owns risk.
- Who does the work?
- Two partner-level people on every engagement, committed for the full six weeks, so the team that pitches is the team that delivers. There is no pyramid of junior consultants underneath them.
- What do you leave with?
- A board-ready AI roadmap covering where AI creates value in your business, what it puts at risk, and what to fund first, plus the policy and governance written where you did not have it.
- What happens after the roadmap?
- Firestarter can embed adoption function by function, track the value AI returns against the roadmap so the board can see the payback, and refresh the benchmark and governance as the market and the regulation move. Ember, the platform built around each role, is in pilot and rolling out to clients first.
Time to light the fire.
From AI uncertainty to a board-ready roadmap in six weeks.