We guide
Straight answers about AI.
Every vendor in your inbox says you're falling behind. Most of them are selling the thing they say you're behind on. We advise owners and CTOs with no platform to resell and no referral fees to collect, which makes our advice unusual in one specific way: it's allowed to be "don't."
What we help you decide.
- AI readiness audits. Which parts of your operation would actually benefit, in dollars and hours, and which should be left alone.
- Tool selection. The market is crowded and loud. We shortlist what fits your systems and your staff, and we name what to avoid.
- Build vs. buy. Sometimes the $40/month tool is the right answer and a custom build is vanity. Sometimes it's the reverse. We show the math.
- Second opinions. An agency quoted you a number. A vendor showed you a demo. Before you sign, have someone on your side of the table read it.
- Fractional AI leadership. Ongoing judgment, a few hours a month, for businesses that need a technology grown-up in the room but not on the payroll.
- Risk and compliance. HIPAA for practices, SOC 2 expectations, legal and business risk, and the AI failure modes with the strange names: prompt injection, context bleed, data ending up where it shouldn't. We speak compliance and engineering, both fluently.
Fixed fee, fixed timeline
The AI Roadmap.
The low-risk way to work with us before committing to anything.
What it is
Two to three weeks. We study how your business actually runs, then deliver a plain-language report naming the three to five highest-value automations for your operation, with an honest return estimate for each: what it saves, what it costs to build, what it costs to keep alive.
What makes it different
The report is allowed to conclude "don't bother yet." If your volume is too low or your processes too irregular for automation to pay, the report says exactly that, and you've spent a small fixed fee to avoid a large open-ended one. Either way you end up with a plan you can execute with us or with anyone.
Guidance questions, answered plainly
What does an AI readiness audit actually look at?
Where the hours go. We sit with how work moves through your business: intake, scheduling, billing, communication, reporting. Then we score the repetitive parts by how much time they eat, how mechanical they are, and how much an automation would cost to build and keep running. The output is a short list with honest return estimates, not a fifty-page deck.
Would you really tell a client not to use AI?
We have, and we will again. Some processes are too infrequent, too messy, or too human for automation to pay for itself. Writing "don't bother yet" in a paid report costs us follow-on work and earns us something better: a client who believes the next report too.
What is fractional AI leadership?
A few hours a month of someone who has run technology decisions for 20 years, without a full-time hire. We help you vet vendors, read proposals, set policy for how staff use AI, and keep projects honest. Most small businesses need this a few days a month at most, and hiring a full-time AI lead would be exactly the kind of overspending we advise against.
Can you give a second opinion on a proposal we already have?
Yes, and it is one of the most useful things we do. Bring us the pitch, the quote, or the pilot results. We will tell you what is real, what is padding, and what questions to ask before you sign. We do not resell anyone's platform and we take no referral fees, so the opinion is actually ours.
Do you understand compliance like HIPAA and SOC 2, and AI security?
Yes, from decades inside it. Before the AI pivot we spent years building corporate software for Fortune 500 companies and regulated clients in mining, banking, petrochemicals, logistics, and construction, so audits, security reviews, and legal teams are familiar territory. For AI specifically, we advise on which data may touch which model under what terms, how to keep protected information out of prompts, and how to defend against failures like prompt injection, where a crafted message tricks an AI into ignoring its rules, and context bleed, where one customer's information leaks into another's session. We are not your lawyers, and we will say so the moment a question needs one.
How do you charge for guidance work?
The AI Roadmap is a fixed fee on a fixed timeline. Second opinions are usually a short fixed engagement. Fractional leadership is a monthly arrangement scoped to the hours you need. No surprise line items; we put it in writing first.
Get an opinion you can trust.
Thirty minutes. Bring your question, your vendor pitch, or your doubt. We'll tell you what we'd do in your seat.
or call (828) 201-4226 / email hello@aitako.com