AI
AI consultant
A lot of AI advisors have appeared in two years. The question I think is worth asking all of them is what they last built, and whether it is still running.
- Same-day reply
- Fixed price
- No lock-in
- Builds it himself
- No vendor deals
- Concrete over strategic
- Also says no
Service
AI consultant
What the advice covers
- Mapping where in the business there is genuinely something to gain, and where there is not.
- Reviewing vendor proposals and what is actually included in what is being sold.
- Choosing model and hosting against your data requirements.
- An estimate of running costs once it is no longer a pilot.
- A plan for who maintains it once I am gone.
On saying no
A share of the ideas put in front of me are not worth building. Either because there is not enough volume to justify it, or because ordinary software solves it better and cheaper.
I say so. It is not good business in the short term, but it is the only way the advice is worth anything.
The format
It usually starts with half a day where I talk to three or four people from different parts of the company. That gives a far better picture than a meeting with management alone, because it is the others who know where the time goes.
Afterwards you get a short memo with what I would do, in which order, and what each item would take.
Deliverables
What you get
Concrete deliverables, not a report of recommendations someone else has to find time for.
- Conversations in-house
Half a day with three or four people from different parts of the company. It gives a different picture than a meeting with management alone.
- A prioritised memo
What I would do, in which order, and what each item would take. A couple of pages, not eighty.
- Proposal review
If you have vendor proposals: what is actually included, and what gets expensive later.
- A session for management
Concrete, with examples from your own business rather than general slides about what AI is.
Process
How it works
Four steps. You know what happens when, and you can stop after any of them.
- 01
Find the task
We look for the work that gets done many times a week, follows a pattern and annoys the people doing it. That is where the first win is.
- 02
Measure the baseline
How long does it take today and how often does it happen. Without that number you cannot say afterwards whether anything improved, and it becomes one gut feeling against another.
- 03
Build and evaluate
I build a test set of real examples early and measure against it every time the prompt or model changes. It is the single thing most often missing in projects I take over.
- 04
Put it into production
Into the systems people already work in, with logging on everything and a way to switch it off. Plus an agreement on who owns it once I am gone.
Who does the work
I am the person you will be working with
My name is Mikkel and I have been building for the web since 2010. There is no project manager in between, and you will not get a junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built, and I am the one building it.
Day to day I am a partner at Bigum&Co, and I have worked on more than 400 projects across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Call or write — I usually reply the same day, and I will say straight away if the job is not a fit.
- Experience
- 16 yrs
- Projects
- 400+
- Rating
- 5.0
- Reply time
- Same day
In depth
AI consultant
What to ask an AI consultant
A lot of AI advisors have appeared in two years, and the field is hard to read from outside. The question I would ask is what they last built and whether it is still running. Not what they advised on — what exists that is still in production.
The next is what they earn on beyond the advice. Do they have a partner agreement with a platform, a referral commission, or an implementation team that needs work? None of that is disqualifying, but it should be on the table, because it shapes the recommendation.
And the third is when they last advised someone not to build something. If the answer is never, you will probably get a recommendation regardless of what you ask.
For my own answers: I build things myself, I have no vendor agreements or commissions, and I regularly advise against. It is not good business in the short term, but it is the only way the advice is worth anything.
Advice that ends in something
A report describing the possibilities in general terms is easy to write and hard to use. So I write the memo as a list of things that can be started, each with an effort estimate and a reason for why it sits where it sits.
That also means some items are small. "Switch this feature on in the subscription you already have" is a perfectly valid item if it solves something. Advice does not have to end in a development project to have been worth the money.
The memo is written so someone else can execute it. If you would rather have your own team or an agency build it, that does not change the content.
Reviews
What people say about me
Mikkel Tschentscher is my lifeline when something is urgent and nobody else can work it out.
Torben Wiese(translated from Danish) Mikkel is a man after my own heart. Executes at lightning speed, has an eye for detail and is always there when you need him. It does not get better than that.
Tini Owild(translated from Danish) He is simply a pro. Highly competent and precise, brings good input, and is a huge support.
Carsten Johan Thessen(translated from Danish)
Services
Why me
- 16 years of experience
I have built for the web since 2010 and seen most of the ways a project can come off the rails. It makes the estimates more honest.
- 400+ projects
Across ecommerce, pharma, construction and the public sector. Chances are I have seen something close to your job before.
- You talk to the person coding
No project manager in between, and no junior on the job because the senior was busy. What you agree is what gets built.
Brands I have worked with
A selection. Some freelance, some through agencies, some across several years.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Do you also sell the solution afterwards?
- Sometimes, if you want that. But the memo is written so someone else can execute it, and I write the same thing regardless of who ends up doing the work.
- Do you have experience in our industry?
- I have worked across ecommerce, pharma, construction, the public sector and plenty else. But the important knowledge about your industry is yours — my job is to translate it into something buildable.
- Can you present to our management team?
- Yes. I prefer to make it concrete with examples from your own business rather than general slides about what AI is. Most people have seen enough of those.
- What does an advisory engagement cost?
- It depends on scope. A single memo after half a day on site is different from following a project over six months. Write what you are dealing with and I will come back with a concrete quote.
- Can you sit on a steering group?
- Yes. I do it for a couple of clients, typically monthly. It works best when I have been involved in assessing the technical basis beforehand.
- Do you advise on tooling for the whole company?
- Yes, and it is often the cheapest place to start. There is usually already something paid for that does more than people know, and usually a subscription or two nobody uses.