03The process
How AI implementation works: consultation, diagnostic, build, handover
4 steps, in order, with the timings we plan to and the things we need from your side. The first two cost nothing. The fourth is where a fee exists at all.
The timings below are the shapes these steps usually take. They are what we plan to, not promises, and they move with how complicated the work turns out to be.
01
The four steps
- 01
The free consultation. Usually 30 to 45 minutes.
You describe how a normal week runs. We ask where the time goes and what you already own. By the end of the call we can usually name the first thing worth building. A short written note follows within a day or two. Nothing is charged and nothing is signed.
what happens on the call - 02
The free two-week diagnostic. Two weeks, running alongside your normal work.
The team goes into the actual work rather than the description of it. We sit with the people doing the jobs, time what they do, and read what your systems already hold. 2 weeks is long enough to see a full cycle of most work and short enough that nobody's month is disrupted. It still costs nothing.
- 03
The build. Usually a few weeks per piece.
We build the first piece, connect it to the systems you already own, and run it beside the old way until people trust it. Then the next piece. Small pieces that work beat one large thing that arrives late.
- 04
The running system, and the share. Measured against the baseline you agreed.
The automation runs. The same measure taken at the start is taken again. The fee is a share of the measured gain. If there is no measured gain, there is no share.
how the profit share is measured
02
What the two-week diagnostic produces
One document, written in plain language, that the business keeps whether or not anything gets built. It has 6 parts.
- 01
A map of the work. Every step a job passes through, in order, with who touches it and how long each step really takes. Most people have never seen their own process drawn out. It is usually the part that changes minds.
- 02
A list of every job AI could do. Ranked by what the job is worth and how hard it would be to change. Ranked, not listed, because the order is the useful part.
- 03
A list of the jobs that should stay with people, and the reason for each.
- 04
The proposed baseline. The exact measures we would use to tell later whether anything actually improved, and where each measure comes from in your own records.
- 05
A build order. What we would do first, second and third, and what each one depends on.
- 06
The honest gaps. Data that does not exist, systems that cannot be reached, and anything we could not verify. This section is never empty, and a document with an empty version of it is not worth reading.
Every figure the document cites is listed on where every savings figure comes from.
03
Access and information required
Access
- Read access to the systems that hold the work: the CRM, the accounting package, the help desk, the shared drive. Read access first, and write access only for the specific piece being built.
- A short conversation with 2 or 3 people who actually do the work each day. Not managers describing it. The people doing it.
- Sight of a normal month, not a good one. A clean sample is a misleading sample.
- Whatever internal rules apply to data in your business, told to us before we start rather than after.
How it is used
- We use the least access that lets us count the work, and we say what we are asking for and why.
- Anything personal about your customers or staff stays where it is unless there is a written reason for it to move.
- If you cannot give us access to something, that is a fine answer. It goes in the honest gaps section of the document rather than being guessed at.
04
Who does what on your side
This does not need a project team, and it is not a change programme with a steering committee. It needs 3 roles, and one person can hold more than one of them.
- 01
One decision-maker. Somebody who can say yes to a change in how a job is done, without going away for 3 weeks.
- 02
One person per area who knows the real process. The person everybody asks when something goes wrong. Roughly an hour a week during the 2 weeks, less after.
- 03
One person who owns the numbers. Usually finance. They pick the baseline measure and they check it at the end. This matters more than anything else on this list, because their agreement is what makes the arrangement measurable rather than arguable.
Everyone else carries on as normal. That is deliberate: if a change needs half the company's attention to work, it will not survive the month after we leave.
05
Handover, and who runs it afterwards
You do. That is the point of the last step.
- 01
Everything is built on systems the business already owns or can own outright. No part of it sits on an account only Praxis can reach.
- 02
The people who will use it are trained before handover, doing their real jobs, not watching a demonstration.
- 03
The written notes are in plain language: what it does, what to check weekly, what to do when it stops, and how to switch it off.
- 04
The old way stays available for a while. Nothing gets switched off until the new way has been running beside it long enough to be trusted.
- 05
If it needs changing later, you can ask us or you can ask anybody. It is not built to lock you in.
06
AI implementation, function by function
The process above is the same everywhere. What changes is the work itself.
Questions
What should you know before the first call?
- How long does an AI implementation take from first call to running system?
- The free call is 30 to 45 minutes, the free diagnostic is two weeks, and a first build is usually a few weeks, because it is built in small pieces that go live one at a time. Those are the shapes these steps usually take, not fixed promises.
- What system access does the work need?
- Read access to the systems that hold the work, such as the CRM, the accounting package and the help desk, plus write access only for the specific piece being built. The least access that allows the work to be counted is the access requested.
- How much of your staff's time does this take?
- Roughly an hour a week from one person per area during the 2 week diagnostic, and less after that. One decision-maker and one person who owns the numbers also need to be involved. Everybody else carries on as normal.
- What happens to the automation after handover?
- The business owns and runs it. It is built on systems the business already owns, the people using it are trained before handover, and it ships with written instructions covering weekly checks, failures and how to switch it off.
- Can the business stop after the free diagnostic?
- Yes. The diagnostic document belongs to the business either way, and there is no charge for it and no obligation attached to it. Some businesses take the build order and do it themselves.
- What if the diagnostic finds nothing worth automating?
- Then it says so. That happens when the real problem is a broken process rather than a slow one, and automating a broken process only makes the wrong result arrive faster. Saying it in week two is cheaper for both sides than finding it out after a build.
Where this leads
This page is one part of the whole offer: AI implementation, paid from profit.
Start with a free consultation
The first step is a call that costs nothing and ends with a written list either way. Tell us what the business does and where the week hurts most.
No obligation · a scoping conversation first