Artificial Intelligence

AI Consulting for Small Business

The opportunity often sits inside an ordinary workday: an email that needs routing, an estimate assembled by hand, or a report rebuilt every Friday. That is where our small business AI consulting begins: finding the repetitive tasks, deciding where AI is useful and connecting the solution to software the team already uses.

AI assessments from $1,500. Team training $9,500 per team.

Book an AI Assessment AI training for your team
Attorney working on a laptop in a law office
Clients

Companies we’ve worked with.

What Small Businesses Automate First

Five tasks small businesses automate first

AI automation for small business usually starts with a task someone does every week, following the same steps and copying information between the same systems.

  • Customer intake

    A message, form submission or phone note arrives and someone has to read it, classify it and route it to the right person. AI can prepare the handoff for review.

  • Quotes and estimates

    Request details need to become your standard quote. AI can assemble a draft that the person who prices the work checks before it goes out.

  • Scheduling and follow-up

    Appointment reminders and unanswered-message follow-ups can be drafted or triggered within an agreed process.

  • Weekly reporting

    Someone spends Friday copying figures from several systems into a spreadsheet for the owner. A connected workflow can assemble a report from those sources.

  • First-draft paperwork

    Proposals, job descriptions and routine client emails can begin from an approved template and the relevant business information, with a person making the final decision.

Physician reviewing a patient bill at her desk
What an AI Consultant Does

What an AI consultant for small business does

The work starts with how your people work: which steps repeat, where information gets copied, and where a decision still needs a person. We review the software you already use and recommend one of three routes: subscribe to a tool, connect the systems you have, or build a defined workflow. Our clients include law offices, medical practices, agencies and software startups.

  • No developers needed on your side. We handle planning, integration and engineering for the agreed work.
  • A subscription may be the answer. If a general-purpose tool covers the job, the roadmap says so.
  • One team for advice and build. The people who make the recommendation can build it.
Off the Shelf or Custom

Off-the-shelf AI tools, connected workflows and custom systems

The roadmap recommends the simplest option that does the job.

  • An off-the-shelf subscription

    For drafting, summarizing and searching your own documents, AI tools for small business may already do what you need. A person asks a question, checks the answer and uses it in their work. We can help organize shared instructions and training so a team uses the tool consistently.

    AI training

  • A connected workflow

    When a task needs to read from a CRM, retrieve a price sheet, follow business rules and put the result into another system, the useful work happens between tools. We connect those systems, define approvals and test the outcome against actual business cases.

    AI integration services

  • A custom AI system

    As several workflows begin sharing information, an application with multiple integrations or specialized AI agents may become appropriate. The roadmap explains what would need to be built and which dependencies matter first.

    AI agent development
Built for Small Businesses

Insyght Studio, an AI platform we built for small businesses

We designed and built Insyght Studio as an AI platform for small businesses. It reads Google Analytics and Google Ads information and turns it into plain-language insights. The platform also creates and publishes content to WordPress and LinkedIn and delivers reports by email. Insyght Studio case study.

We also built CodeRaven, the code-review agent our engineers use. Engineers approve every code decision. What five months of AI code review found.

Cover of The Cognitive Agency by Mark Nguyen
From Our Founder

The Cognitive Agency.

Artificial intelligence is changing how agencies plan, create, and operate. The Cognitive Agency explores these changes and the decisions involved in bringing AI into everyday agency work.

Mark Nguyen · Co-founder, SLIDEFACTORY

The Cognitive Agency
How It Works

How small business AI consulting works

AI integration services
  1. 01

    AI Opportunity Assessment

    We begin with intake and discovery, interviews about the workflows, and a review of the systems people already use. We identify opportunities, constraints and the order in which changes make sense. See what the AI readiness assessment covers.

  2. 02

    Focused AI Implementation

    We scope and build one defined workflow into the tools the business already uses. The work includes the approvals and practical checks the process needs.

  3. 03

    Add workflows, systems or training

    Add connected workflows, a broader platform or team training as the first workflow settles in. See AI agent development.

What’s in your AI roadmap

The assessment ends with a prioritized roadmap: which workflow to address, which systems must connect, what can be handled with existing tools and where a person approves the outcome.

How the baseline is set

During the assessment we sit with the people who do the work and record how often a task runs, how long each pass takes and where it waits on someone. That baseline goes into the roadmap, so any change is measured against the same steps.

You can carry out the plan with your own team or have SLIDEFACTORY build the next step. For a deeper planning engagement, see AI strategy consulting.

What the roadmap covers

  • The process under review and the staff time it takes today
  • Where AI can read, summarize, draft or route information
  • Which decisions stay with an employee or manager
  • Subscribe, connect or build: the route for each task
  • Which business data may go into AI tools, and which accounts they run in
  • Dependencies and a recommended order of work
  • A first implementation to scope, or a recommendation to leave a process as it is
Getting Started

What small business AI consulting costs

Not sure where AI fits? Start with an assessment. Already paying for Claude or ChatGPT and your team isn’t using it? Start with training.

Not sure where AI fits?

AI Opportunity Assessment

Starting at$1,500

Our AI Opportunity Assessment shows where AI could improve your operations and which opportunities are worth pursuing.

Book an AI Assessment
What’s Included
  • Initial intake and discovery
  • Stakeholder and workflow interviews
  • Review of existing systems and processes
  • Prioritized recommendations
  • Practical implementation roadmap
Team already paying for Claude or ChatGPT?

AI Training for Your Team

$9,500per team

Five 2-hour sessions in one week. Your team learns Claude or ChatGPT on the tasks they already do, and by Friday each role has a working workflow.

See the Training Week
What’s Included
  • Up to 8 people from one company
  • Five 2-hour sessions, Monday to Friday
  • Saved instructions and one working workflow per role
  • A draft AI use policy for your lawyer to review
  • Session recordings and a 30-day check-in

In person or virtual, in your own Claude or ChatGPT account.

  • Focused AI Implementation

    One workflow from the roadmap, built into the tools you already use, with the approvals it needs.

    AI integration services

  • Custom AI Systems

    An application or set of AI agents for when several workflows share information.

    AI agent development
FAQs

Questions about AI consulting for small business

Does my small business need AI?

Some small businesses can make useful changes with tools they already pay for; others have workflows that need a more involved integration. We look first at repeated work, information handoffs and decisions that take unnecessary staff time. The assessment may recommend a subscription, an integration or keeping a process as it is.

How much does an AI consultant for a small business cost?

The AI Opportunity Assessment starts at $1,500. Scope depends on how many workflows we review, how many people we interview and how many systems are involved. Implementation is quoted after the roadmap. Its cost depends on the systems to connect, the condition of the data, the approvals the workflow needs, and how much is custom built rather than configured.

Do we need custom AI or can we use existing tools?

An off-the-shelf subscription can work for individual drafting, research, summarizing or document questions. Custom work becomes relevant when AI needs to move information across business systems, run a repeatable process or enforce rules specific to the company.

Will AI replace our staff?

We focus on repetitive tasks such as routing inquiries, drafting estimates and assembling reports. People remain responsible for approvals and judgments that affect customers, employees and the business. The implementation plan identifies those review points.

Do we need a developer on our team?

No. SLIDEFACTORY can handle the integrations, applications and technical setup. We work with the people who understand the day-to-day process so the implementation matches how the business operates.

What happens after the assessment?

You receive prioritized recommendations and a practical roadmap. You can carry out the plan internally, start a Focused AI Implementation with us or use it to plan a larger system. There is no requirement to commission development from the assessment provider.

Is our company data safe?

We use business and API tiers of model providers that, by default, do not use your submitted data to train their models. Integrations run in accounts you own. A pilot may use our Claude backend initially and then move to your accounts at handover.

Can you train our team to use ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. We can review existing subscriptions, configure business accounts, create shared instructions and provide training by role around actual workflows. See AI integration services.

Do you work remotely?

Yes. We work with businesses across the US, and discovery, interviews and working sessions can run by video. If you are near Portland, see AI consulting in Portland.

Work With Us

Tell us which task you'd change first.

Start with the process that takes the most time. We'll tell you what is worth changing and what it would take.

Talk About Your AI Project 4520 SE Belmont St, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon