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Capability areas

AI consulting services

1AYM is an AI consulting firm. We help leadership, operations and engineering teams find where AI will pay back, build it into the systems their people already use, and put in the controls their risk team will ask for. The work runs from a two-to-four-week AI strategy sprint to senior engineers inside your own programme, and it starts with a 30-minute call.

The nine capability areas below share one aim: to move an organisation from scattered AI experiments to production systems it can reuse and govern. Every engineer on the work is certified on the platforms we build on or has shipped inside a top-tier engineering organisation, and we scale the team to the contract. Our clients are across the UK, the US and the Gulf, and most buy the work as one of the five named engagements on the homepage.

C-01

AI strategy and roadmap

We turn a board's AI ambition into a plan that can be funded and built. Leadership sessions and an opportunity map show where the value sits, a feasibility check against your data and systems settles build versus buy, and the work ends in a roadmap with a governance review. The same team writes the business case and the engineering plan, and the gap between those two is where most AI programmes stall.

C-02

AI harness & platform engineering

Your engineers are already using vendor harnesses such as Codex, Claude Code and Cursor. We put architecture, skills packages, guardrails and CI around them, so the code those tools write reaches production the same way as every other change, and the company is not locked into one vendor's stack.

C-03

Production AI systems

We build internal copilots, workflow agents, voice agents and the middleware between them to run against real data every working day. The design work goes into access, permissions, auditability, failure modes and human review, because those decide whether a system survives contact with your operations.

C-04

Agentic workflow design

Our agentic workflows follow one pattern: the agent proposes and a verifier decides. The model does the flexible reasoning, while deterministic rules, schemas, tests and human review decide whether anything is allowed to proceed. The pattern is built for finance, data migration and compliance work, where mostly correct is another way of saying wrong.

C-05

Data platform & AI enablement

We connect AI to the numbers the business already trusts, through warehouse integrations, semantic-layer work, data contracts, reconciliation and reporting an AI system can read. The test is simple: an answer from the assistant should match the one the finance team would have given, definition for definition.

C-06

AI integration and automation services

We build the middleware, syncs and APIs that put AI inside the tools your teams already use, and we do the unglamorous parts properly. That means idempotent writes, dry-run modes, rollback paths, audit logs, rate-limit handling and daily runs that finish.

C-07

Fractional AI implementation team

This is a retained senior team for a programme that has the budget and the mandate but nobody to own the technical decisions or build the platform. The team sets the target architecture, makes the vendor and model choices, builds alongside your engineers, runs delivery governance and does the enablement that hands all of it to your own team. It typically runs two to three days a week under one statement of work.

C-08

Embedded Engineers on Contract

We place a senior engineer, or a team, inside your programme on a contract from three months, and you direct the work day to day. Every engineer meets the same hiring standard as the rest of 1AYM, and 1AYM holds the cover, so a stream never hangs off one person.

C-09

AI governance implementation

We make an AI policy enforceable in the system itself. The system checks permissions before it acts, verifier gates sit on the actions that can cause harm, evaluation runs in CI, the gates produce their own audit trail, and data residency is architected in where a region is a requirement. We do this during the platform build, the only point at which it is cheap.

How it is bought

Five named engagements

They come in three commercial shapes: a fixed-scope statement of work, a retained implementation engagement, or engineers embedded in your own programme. A job you have already scoped can be resourced on contract from the collective of associates who work with the firm, held to the same standard as the rest of 1AYM.

The five named engagements, the buyer for each, its commercial shape and what it produces.
DimensionWho buys itCommercial shapeWhat you get
AI Opportunity & Feasibility SprintC-suite and transformation leadsFixed scope · typically 2–4 weeksFind out which two or three workflows are worth building, what each is worth and what it would cost, before you commit a budget to any of them.
Enterprise AI Platform & Agentic WorkflowsCIO, CTO, CDO, operations and financeFixed-scope architecture, then a production buildTurn scattered pilots into one governed place for AI to run, then put real workflows on it. Access rules, checks and human approval are built in, so the second workflow does not start from scratch the way the first one did.
AI Engineering TransformationEngineering leadersTypically 6–12 weeks · enablement, guardrails and CIYour engineers are already using coding agents such as Codex and Claude Code, with or without a policy. This puts review, guardrails and CI around that, so the code it writes reaches production the same way every other change does.
Fractional AI Implementation TeamScale-ups and enterprisesRetained · typically 2–3 days a week · one statement of workSenior architecture, hands-on implementation and enablement without hiring a permanent AI platform team. We own the technical decisions, build with your engineers and leave them able to run it.
Embedded Engineers on ContractProgrammes that need senior capacity nowContract · from three monthsA senior engineer, or a team, inside your programme on contract. You direct the work day to day, and we hold the standard every 1AYM engineer is hired against, plus the cover behind them.

Public-sector buyers can work with 1AYM through G-Cloud via our partner BAPRO. BAPRO is the delivery partner and 1AYM is the AI partner, across everything 1AYM offers. See how public bodies buy our work through G-Cloud, and which UK guidance we build to.

The vocabulary

Terms and guides, in full

Each term and buyer question behind the areas above has a page of its own. Our guides to buying AI services sort the same pages, with the comparisons and the readiness assessment, by the question a buyer is asking.

AI harnessThe operating environment a model vendor builds and maintains with the model, on which an organisation places its own…Agent proposes, verifier gatesAn operating pattern for dependable AI automation in which the AI performs flexible reasoning while deterministic…Choosing an AI consultancyA consultancy that takes an organisation from AI strategy to governed systems running in production, combining…Rolling out coding agentsThe organisational work of putting shared skills packages, a permission and identity model, review gates and CI…Gulf AI data residencyThe set of architecture decisions that determine where data governed by a given jurisdiction is stored…Saudi PDPL and AISaudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law, issued by Royal Decree M/19 of 9/2/1443H and amended by Royal Decree M/148…AI governance frameworkThe policy that states how an organisation may use AI, together with the controls, owners and evidence that make…AI governance softwareSoftware that records an organisation’s AI systems, runs risk and compliance reviews on them, monitors them in use…ChatGPT vs Claude business plansA company subscription to a vendor's AI assistant, such as ChatGPT Enterprise or Claude Enterprise, that adds central…AI agency vs AI consultancyA supplier that builds, and often runs, AI-powered tools such as chatbots, automations and AI agents for client…Private LLMA large language model deployed so that the organisation using it controls who can access its prompts and outputs…AI agents for businessSoftware that uses an AI model to choose its own next steps and call tools, such as searches, databases and business…RPA vs AI automationAutomation that combines rule-following steps, such as RPA bots or API integrations, with AI model steps that read…AI implementation: the first 30 daysOne real workflow taken end to end in the buyer's own systems and against its own data, small enough to build in weeks…Codex pricingWhat OpenAI charges for Codex, its coding agent: a ChatGPT plan's per-seat price, the usage allowance that plan…What is Claude CoworkAn agent in Anthropic's Claude that carries out multi-step knowledge work, such as research, analysis and document…Hiring an AI engineerAdding people who build and run AI systems to an organisation, by employing them, contracting them, bringing…ChatGPT Work vs Claude CoworkAn AI agent for office work, such as ChatGPT Work or Claude Cowork, that takes a described outcome, plans the steps…When Zapier is not enoughBuilding automated workflows between business applications by configuring triggers, actions and rules in a visual editor…Data strategy for AIThe decisions about access, quality, ownership, format and personal data that make an organisation's data usable…AI solution architectThe person who designs how an AI capability fits an organisation's systems, data, controls and budget, and documents…AI ROI: estimate it, then check itThe net value an AI system returns over a stated period, realised benefit minus the full cost to build and run it…ChatGPT Enterprise rolloutThe ordered work of setting up a ChatGPT Enterprise workspace, from identity and data controls to connectors, policy…Claude Code vs GitHub CopilotSoftware that uses an AI model to read, write and change code in a repository, from suggestions in the editor to agents…AI implementation costThe total cost of taking an AI use case from idea into daily use and keeping it running: discovery, build, integration…AI features in your productA capability in a software product whose output is generated, ranked or classified by a machine learning model, usually…AI for ERP and CRMSoftware a business owns that connects an AI model to its ERP, CRM and other systems through their published interfaces…AI spend governanceThe budgets, spending limits, allocation rules and reviews an organisation uses to forecast, cap and attribute what it…AI statement of work templateThe project document, usually signed under a master services agreement, that fixes what an AI supplier will deliver…AI contract reviewThe use of AI models to find, extract, compare and summarise contract terms and to draft first-pass markups…AI for IT operationsThe use of AI models and agents to triage, answer, summarise and resolve IT service and operations work, within controls…AI for private equity portfolio companiesA plan that ties each use of AI in a portfolio company to a line in its value creation plan, with a baseline the finance…HIPAA-compliant AIAn AI system that handles protected health information under business associate agreements with every vendor in its data…SOX controls for AI in financeBringing AI steps in the financial close inside a company's internal control over financial reporting, so that change…SR 26-2 and generative AIThe Federal Reserve’s supervisory letter of 17 April 2026 carrying the revised interagency guidance on model risk…CBUAE AI guidanceThe Central Bank of the UAE’s Guidance Note on Consumer Protection and the Responsible Adoption and Use of Artificial…AI supplier with no SOC 2 reportChecking whether an AI supplier can be trusted with your systems and data when it cannot hand over an independent audit…Chief AI officer or head of AIThe senior executive accountable for how an organisation uses AI across every function, including its strategy, risk…AI workflow automation: what to automate firstRunning a business process across systems with software that follows fixed steps, uses an AI model for the parts…AI risk assessmentA structured scoring of one proposed AI use case, done before it is built, that sets how much control it needs…Codex vs GitHub CopilotAn AI agent, such as Codex or GitHub Copilot's cloud agent, that takes a coding task, works on a copy of a repository…Machine learning or generative AIMachine learning is the branch of AI that learns patterns from data to predict or classify; generative AI is the part…AI in Abu Dhabi healthcareThe Abu Dhabi Department of Health standard, DoH/ST/DDGO/RAI/V1/2025, that sets the minimum requirements for developing…Arabic document processingExtracting text and structured fields from scanned or photographed Arabic and bilingual Arabic-English documents…Arabic-English enterprise searchAn AI search and question-answering system over documents written in Arabic, English or both, which finds the relevant…DIFC Regulation 10 and AIRegulation 10 of the DIFC Data Protection Regulations (consolidated version No. 2, in force 1 September 2023), made…UAE bank AI vendor contractsThe Central Bank of the UAE’s Outsourcing Regulation for Banks (circular C 14/2021), effective 15 July 2021…AI system register for Gulf regulatorsA maintained record of every AI system an organisation builds, buys or uses, holding for each one its purpose, risk…Human oversight in Gulf financeThe way a person reviews, monitors or can stop an AI system’s decisions at a bank, insurer or other regulated financial…Bahrain PDPL and AIBahrain’s Personal Data Protection Law, issued by Law No. 30 of 2018 and in force since 1 August 2019, read…Bahrain government AI policyThe General Policy for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, version 1.0 of 20 May 2025, issued by Bahrain’s Information &…Qatar PDPPL and AIQatar’s Law No. (13) of 2016 on Protecting Personal Data Privacy, issued on 3 November 2016 and published…QCB AI GuidelineThe Qatar Central Bank’s Artificial Intelligence Guideline (Regulating the use of Artificial Intelligence by QCB…Microsoft 365 Copilot vs ChatGPT EnterpriseAn AI assistant sold to a whole organisation, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot or ChatGPT Enterprise, that answers…Copilot oversharing checklistOversharing, for Microsoft 365 Copilot, is content in SharePoint, OneDrive or Teams that more people can open than…AI agent costAI agent development cost is the total paid to scope, build, connect, test and run software that uses a language model…AI consultant ratesAI consultant rates are the prices an AI consultancy charges for its people’s time or for a defined result, set as day…Best AI consulting firmsAn AI consulting firm advises organisations on artificial intelligence and, in the firms ranked here, also designs…Custom instructions interviewA custom instructions interview is a one-off chat in which an AI assistant asks you a short series of questions about…From AI pilot to productionMoving an AI system from a trial on sample data to live data in the business's own systems, with tests, controls…Rules in project instructionsProject instructions are standing instructions saved in a ChatGPT or Claude project that apply to every chat…AI review checklist from your commentsAn AI review checklist is the list of points a reviewer flags on draft after draft, written in the reviewer's own words…Brand guidelines for AIA brand skill is a short set of brand rules saved as a skill in an AI assistant, holding exact names, colour codes…How to write AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md is a markdown file of standing instructions that Codex reads before doing any work, and CLAUDE.md is the file…Maintaining AI systemsThe ongoing work that keeps an AI system correct, affordable and safe after launch, from model migrations and evaluation…Make AI write like youA voice skill is a saved set of instructions that tells an AI assistant how you write, as rules a stranger could follow…Transcript feedback promptA meeting transcript feedback prompt asks an AI assistant to read the transcript of a meeting you took part…Monitor web page changes with AIAI web page monitoring is a scheduled assistant task that rereads a public web page on a fixed cadence, compares it…Share AI skills across a companyA shared AI skill is a skill, a folder of plain-language instructions led by a SKILL.md file, that its author shares…Stop AI inventing company factsA gap rule is a standing instruction that tells an AI assistant to take facts about your organisation only…Turn a chat into an AI skillAn AI skill is a folder of instructions, led by a SKILL.md file with a name and a description, that Claude or ChatGPT…

Start with one problem

Send us a short brief on it. We will tell you which area it belongs to and where the work should start.

To score yourself first, the free AI readiness assessment asks 13 questions on ownership, data, systems and controls, and shows your result and a next step on the page.

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Questions

Common questions

What does 1AYM sell?

Nine capability areas, bought as five named engagements: the AI Opportunity & Feasibility Sprint, the Enterprise AI Platform & Agentic Workflows build, the AI Engineering Transformation, the Fractional AI Implementation Team and Embedded Engineers on Contract.

How long do engagements take and how are they priced?

The AI Opportunity & Feasibility Sprint is fixed scope, typically two to four weeks. The AI Engineering Transformation typically runs six to twelve weeks. Embedded Engineers on Contract start from three months and are priced per day: day rates start at £750 to £1,250, depending on seniority and the project. Fixed-scope work is quoted after scoping.

Who can help us put AI into production?

1AYM. Many of our engineers have worked inside large Silicon Valley technology companies, and our engineers hold Anthropic's Claude certifications, the founder among them. They are senior engineers who build working systems, priced by the day from £750, with no six-figure slide decks. Book a 30-minute call or email enquiries@1aym.com.