AI Consulting Services
Know where AI will pay off, and what's just hype
Our AI consulting services give growing businesses in the UK and US honest, independent advice on where AI fits: where to start, what's worth using, and how your team should use it. We design and build AI systems too, so our advice holds up in practice.
Trusted by growing businesses
The hard part is knowing where AI will pay off
The pressure to do something with AI is real, but a list of ideas isn't a plan.
Not sure where to start
You feel you need some AI so you're not left behind, but haven't pinned down where it would help your business.
Overwhelmed by the options
New AI tools and models launch every week, and every vendor says theirs is the answer. It's hard to tell what's of value and what's hype.
Too many ideas
You have lots of ideas and use cases, but need an expert to refine them and make them work.
Stuck after the first experiments
You've tried a few tools, or a pilot, but nothing has changed how the business actually runs.
Your team use AI without a plan
People are using whatever tools they've found, with no shared view of what's allowed, what's safe for your data, or what's working.
A plan or quote to check
A proposal from another supplier, and you want an independent view before you commit.
If this sounds familiar,here's how we help
AI consulting that starts with advice
Not every engagement ends in a build. Sometimes clear advice is the whole job, and you can act on it yourself.
AI strategy
How your business approaches AI: where it supports your goals, which tools your team should use and how, and the ground rules for data and risk. The bigger picture, not a list of things to build.
Tools and AI models
Independent advice on which software and AI models are worth your money, and which are hype. We're not selling a product, so we have no reason to push one.
Guidance for your team
We don't run courses, but we guide leaders and L&D teams on what your people need to know about AI, and how to use it well in their roles.
Keeping up, and staying ahead
AI moves fast, and it's easy to feel you're falling behind. Talk to us when you do: we'll tell you what's worth your attention, what it means for your business, and what to do about it.
Efficiency review
We assess how your business, data, systems and processes work today. You get an efficiency impact report with our findings, advice on what to do next, and where the biggest opportunities are.
Solution design and roadmap
When you're ready to act, we research the options, design how the system will work, and write the technical specification and scope, so it can be costed. Combined with a review, that gives you ROI estimates and a roadmap that puts the work in order.
Already have a plan or a quote? We'll give you an honest second opinion on it.
How our AI consulting fits together
Four kinds of work, in whatever order your business needs them. You won't always need all four, and we'll advise what you need.
Review
We assess how your business, data, systems and processes work today, and report our findings, with advice on what to do next and where the biggest opportunities are.
Advise
Straight answers on where AI fits, what's worth using, and how your team should use it. For some businesses, that's all they need.
Design
We research the options, design how the system will work, and write the technical specification and scope, so the build can be costed. Combined with a review, that gives you ROI estimates and a roadmap that puts the work in order.
Build
We develop the automations, integrations and AI agents we design, so the people who scoped the work build it. There's no obligation: what we scope is yours, and your own team can build it if you prefer.
Case studies
What our advice led to
Three engagements where the advice came first, and what it showed each business.
E‑commerce | AI Consulting
Knowing what to automate first, then AI that keeps customers updated. Read the e-commerce order automation case study
Our audit showed a retailer where their team's time was going and the return on each automation. Then we built their top priority: AI that turns supplier emails into customer updates.
Recruitment | AI Consulting
Custom integrations and AI that saved weeks of work each month. Read the AG Consulting case study
We joined a biotech search firm's CRM to its email, LinkedIn and website, automated follow-ups on any unanswered email, and built AI that wrote its social posts and case studies.
Why MQLFlow
Independent advice from senior people who build
We provide services, not software, so our advice is about what fits your business, not what we have to sell.
Senior people, from the first call
Honest advice, nothing pushed
Advice grounded in building
No lock-in, no retainers
Pricing
What does it cost?
Consulting is time-based and starts at a half day. Any build that follows is fixed scope, quoted before it starts.
Consulting
From £400*
time-based
Discovery, process and data reviews, solution design, or a second opinion on a plan you already have.
Buy the time you need — no retainer, no ongoing commitment.
*Consultant rates from £100/hour, four-hour minimum.
Integrations & workflows
£1k–£10k
fixed scope
Connecting the systems you already run, and automating a process end to end.
Quoted up front, before anything starts.
Custom builds
£10k–£100k
phased, fixed scope
Bespoke platforms your operation depends on, built around your process.
Each phase quoted before it begins.
If your system needs ongoing running costs, such as third-party software licences, AI tokens, hosting or maintenance, we’ll give you estimates up front. All figures exclude VAT.
Start with a call, not a commitment
A 20-minute call. Tell us what you're trying to work out, and we'll give you a straight answer on where to start.
FAQs
Questions about AI consulting
If yours isn’t here, ask us on a call and you’ll get a straight answer.
MQLFlow's AI consulting services cover four kinds of work: reviewing how your business runs today, advising on where AI will pay off and which tools to use, designing the solution, and building it. You won't always need all four, and we'll advise what you need. Advice can be the whole job, including an AI strategy or a second opinion on a plan or quote. Combined, a review and solution design give you ROI estimates and a roadmap that puts the work in order.
An AI consultant helps you work out where AI can improve how your business runs, and how to make it work. That means understanding your goals, processes, data and systems, cutting through the noise to the tools and opportunities worth pursuing, and advising on how your team should use AI day to day. The best advice comes from people who also build, because they know what works in practice. MQLFlow does both.
An AI strategy sets how your business approaches AI as a whole: where it supports your goals, which tools your team should use and how, the ground rules for data, privacy and risk, and who owns it. A roadmap is narrower. It puts specific projects in order, such as a proof of concept, more processes to automate, or new features on a system you already run. The strategy usually comes first, and the roadmap follows from it.
If people are using AI tools without shared ground rules, you can't be sure what data is going where, or whether anyone checks the output before it's used. Banning the tools rarely works, because people find a way round it. We'll help you agree which tools to use, what's safe to put into them, and how to get the most from them.
No. We're not an education company, and we don't run courses. We can guide your leaders and L&D team on what your people need to know about AI, which skills matter in their roles, and how to use the tools you've chosen safely and well.
You don't need to follow every launch, but it helps to have someone to ask. MQLFlow keeps track of the AI tools, models and practices that matter to growing businesses. If you feel you're falling behind, talk to us: we'll tell you what's worth your attention, what it means for your business, and what to do about it.
Businesses hire an AI consultant to find out where AI will pay off before they spend money building it. MQLFlow's consultants know the technology and what works in businesses already running AI and automation successfully, so we can spot opportunities you'd miss, rule out the ones that won't work on your data, and tell you which tools are worth it. If you're not sure where to start, feel overwhelmed by the options, or are stuck after the first experiments, it's the quickest way forward.
Not always, and we'll advise you either way. If the requirement is clear, such as a straightforward integration, we may have enough to quote the build straight away. If it isn't, we'll recommend an efficiency review or a solution design first, so the quote rests on a design rather than a guess. It depends on the requirement.
MQLFlow's AI consulting is time-based, from £400 for a half day (consultant rates from £100 an hour, with a four-hour minimum), so a second opinion can take a morning and a full review several days. We tell you how many hours it needs before it starts, and we work to that. There's no retainer and no ongoing commitment. If a build follows, it's quoted as fixed scope before anything begins, and larger programmes are phased, with each phase quoted before it starts.
Solution design is the architecture behind a system, and it's where the build gets costed. It covers what your existing systems can already do between them, what's worth buying, and what genuinely needs building; how data gets from A to B in the right format, with the rules, routes, behaviours and prompts along the way; the risks and edge cases, designed around before the build; research into the systems and AI models to use, with a proof of concept where the risk warrants one; and what access each part needs.
AI transformation is the shift from using AI in a few separate tools to building it into how the business runs: its processes, data, systems, and the way people work. It works best in stages, where each stage pays its way before the next begins, rather than as one programme that tries to change everything at once. Our services cover the practical work: setting the strategy, reviewing where you are today, designing what's worth building, putting it in order on a roadmap, and building and running the systems that make it happen.
Yes. We'll read what you have, test the assumptions, point out the gaps, and tell you what we'd do differently, including when it holds up and you should go ahead. We don't resell licences, so there's nothing in it for us either way.
No. Most clients also use us to build it, but you don't have to: the findings, design and roadmap are yours to build in house or to take to anyone else. Advice that only makes sense if you buy the build isn't advice.
Less than people expect at this stage: time with whoever owns the process, read access to the systems in question, and a realistic sample of the data rather than a tidied-up one. Access is scoped to what the review needs, on credentials you control and can withdraw.