What is AI strategy consulting?
AI strategy consulting answers four questions before anyone writes code: what should we apply AI to, in what order, what will it cost and return, and who owns it. The output is a sequenced roadmap with a business case attached. Our version is Microsoft-specific — we start from the Copilot and Power Platform capability already in your licensing rather than designing a greenfield AI stack.
How is this different from the big AI consulting firms?
The large firms are built for enterprise-scale transformation and are genuinely good at it. Their engagements typically run eight to sixteen weeks of discovery before a recommendation, and assume you'll build most systems from scratch. Ours runs three weeks, starts from what your licences already include, and is delivered by the same team that would build it. If you need a global AI operating model across dozens of business units, use a large firm. If you run on Microsoft and need a funded plan this quarter, that's us.
We've already tried AI and it didn't go anywhere. Is this different?
That's the most common situation we're called into. Stalled AI programmes usually fail for three reasons: the use case was chosen by enthusiasm rather than impact, nobody owned the outcome after the pilot, or the data wasn't ready and that only surfaced late. The sprint deliberately front-loads all three. We start by understanding what didn't work, because the failed pilot is usually the most useful data in the room.
How much time does this take from our team?
Roughly six hours in total across three weeks — two workshops of about ninety minutes with department leads, a short session with IT, and the final executive readout. We do the analysis between sessions rather than in them, which is why the sprint is short. Read-only tenant access covers most of what we'd otherwise have to ask you for.
How do you price the engagement?
The strategy sprint is a fixed fee scoped to headcount and site count, agreed before we start. No hourly billing and no open-ended discovery phase. If scope genuinely changes we discuss it before anything moves. Where the sprint identifies recoverable licence spend, we report that figure explicitly so you can weigh it against the fee rather than take it on faith.
Do we need our data organised before we start?
No. Assessing your data landscape is part of the work, not a prerequisite for it. What we do need is access to see it. If data readiness turns out to be the blocker for your top use cases, that becomes an explicit early item on the roadmap rather than a surprise six months in.
What do we actually receive at the end?
Four things: an AI readiness assessment scored against the Ladder, a ranked use case backlog with effort and impact scoring, a business case with a spend baseline and payback period, and a twelve-month roadmap with named owners and success metrics. Plus an explicit list of what we recommend you don't pursue this year, which clients often say is the most useful page.
Do you also build what you recommend?
Yes, and you're under no obligation to use us for it. Empathy Technologies has 31 Microsoft specialists who deliver Copilot rollouts, Power Automate flows, Copilot Studio agents and Power Apps. The advantage of the same team planning and building is that the roadmap is costed against real delivery estimates rather than assumptions. Some clients take the roadmap and execute internally, which is a perfectly good outcome.
Can this work alongside our internal IT team?
It's designed to. Your team knows your systems and politics better than any outside firm will. We bring the AI sequencing model, the Microsoft depth and the pattern recognition from other tenants, then hand over documented decisions your team owns. Rung 04 of the Ladder is explicitly about the point where you no longer need us.
Which regions do you work in?
India, UAE, Australia, Canada and the USA. Delivery is remote by default with workshop hours set to your timezone, and we operate as a Microsoft Partner through Empathy Technologies with a 31-person delivery team.