How an AI Consulting Engagement Runs: Working System in 100 Days, Fixed Fee, Embedded Team

We run the C.O.R.E. Method: Capture, Orchestrate, Run, Expand. Weeks 1-3 are Capture - stakeholder interviews, workflow audit, ROI model, opportunity map. Weeks 4-10 are Orchestrate - architecture, design, and build. Weeks 11-14 are Run - staged deployment, so your working system is live inside the first 100 days. After go-live, Expand continues at a lighter cadence. Longer programs run for full transformation scope.

Senior partners are embedded with the client team for the duration of the engagement. The same partners who scope the work also build it. There is no junior-consultant staffing layer between the client and the people doing the work, and no handoff between a strategy team and an implementation team.

Fixed-bid after the scoping call. Engagement scope, deliverables, and price are agreed before work starts. There is no hourly billing, no scope-creep change orders, and no surprise invoices. Full engagement price scales with the number of automations, agents, and integrations in scope - you get a fixed number after the scoping call, not a range. If you want a lower-commitment starting point first, the AI Accelerator (starting at $4,500) is a separate, fixed-price workshop product - a one-day strategy session, not this consulting engagement.

Capture (strategy and audit): weeks 1-3. Orchestrate (architecture and build): weeks 4-10. Run (deploy and stabilize): weeks 11-14 - a working system live inside the first 100 days. Multi-quarter transformation programs run 9-15 months. The structural difference from traditional consulting is the absence of a multi-month strategy phase before any system ships.

No. Strategy and implementation are one engagement with the same team. There is no contract gap, no rebid for the build phase, and no loss of context between recommendation and deployment. Firms that need only strategy can buy a 2-week strategy engagement; firms that need build and deploy buy the continuous engagement.

An executive sponsor (CEO, COO, or functional head), a workflow owner who knows the day-to-day process, and access to the systems being integrated. The partner team provides the AI engineering, integration, and project management capacity. The client team is freed from staffing the build.

Big 4 and MBB engagements typically staff junior consultants on day-to-day work with partner review at gates, bill hourly, and run multi-month strategy phases before any build starts. Our model uses senior partners directly, is fixed-bid against scope, and ships the first system in weeks. The Big 4 model fits enterprise transformations with budget for the staffing structure; ours fits mid-market scope where the staffing model has to be lean.

Operational ownership is transferred to internal staff at handoff if the firm chooses to operate the system in-house. Many firms continue at a lighter cadence for new builds and optimization. Documentation, runbooks, and monitoring dashboards are part of every engagement deliverable, so the firm is not dependent on the partner to keep the system running.

Yes. NDAs are standard. We work within client security and data-handling requirements as part of scoping - HIPAA, SEC/FINRA, and attorney-client privilege obligations, plus the security questionnaires and contractual data-handling commitments clients need to satisfy their own SOC 2 vendor-review process. Revenue Institute holds no SOC 2 attestation itself, and we say so upfront if a client's procurement process requires one. Compliance review with the client's GC, CISO, or compliance lead is built into engagements where the workflow touches regulated data.