AI consultancy for UK SMEs

It is a structured review of where AI fits across a small or mid-sized business, followed by the build and training that put the useful workflows into production. At OpenKit it runs as a fixed-fee engagement: the audit comes first, then we configure the workflows on top of the tools you already run, then we train your team to keep them going. Most engagements run between two and four weeks.

Engagements are fixed-fee and agreed before kickoff, so there are no surprises mid-project. A standalone audit is the smallest entry point, a combined audit and build is the most common shape, and an Embedded AI Lead retainer is an option afterwards. We share the specific figure on the discovery call once we understand what you need.

Because that is where the return comes from. UK government research found that businesses where over half the team uses AI are nearly twice as likely to report rising revenue as those where fewer do, 19% against 10%, so we build for adoption across the team rather than a clever tool that a few people try once and abandon.

Most AI projects ship with no way to tell. We set a baseline before we build, agree the measures that matter with you, and report movement against them at each review, so the value is a number you can see rather than a matter of opinion. It is also how we earn the next piece of work.

No. The most common starting point is no in-house AI capability at all, and the training builds that capability during the engagement. The audit assumes a business that already works and needs to find where AI fits, not a data team waiting for direction.

OpenKit holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials, and works to UK GDPR on every engagement. Each one includes a data protection review against ISO 27001 controls, and for SMEs in regulated sectors such as legal, healthcare and finance we work to your sector obligations as standard.

Most engagements need configured workflows on top of the tools you already run, not a custom model. The audit names the few cases where a custom build would genuinely pay back, and those become bespoke builds that we scope separately. Many SME engagements never need one.

A typical sequence is a one-hour discovery call, a proposal within a week, kickoff within two weeks of sign-off, a two-week audit, then two weeks of build and training. From the first call to running workflows is roughly six to eight weeks, and the audit on its own is two.

Yes. The audit ships a written report, a data protection review, a risk register and a sequenced rollout plan, which together are a complete deliverable. Some clients hand that plan to an internal team and stop there, and others continue into the build and training. The decision sits with you.

Yes, and that is often where the work compounds. A firm large enough to have real data and process but too small to justify a full-time in-house AI hire is the clearest fit, because the audit finds more to do and the team has somewhere to take it.

Big Four firms typically deliver a strategy deck and hand the build to a separate team. OpenKit delivers the audit and the build with the same engineers, so the person who writes the audit is the person who configures the workflows and trains your team. There is no account-manager layer between the work and the people doing it.

A Fractional Chief AI Officer advises on strategy and reviews work from the advisory chair. An Embedded AI Lead is an engineer who ships, which suits firms that already know what they want built and need someone to build it on a rolling retainer. We do the latter.

We have delivered engagements across retail, legal services, healthcare diagnostics, hospitality, professional services and education. The audit method stays the same while the data handling and rollout sequence change by sector, so ask for a sector-specific reference on the discovery call.

Yes. OpenKit works from offices in Cambridge and Durham with SMEs across the United Kingdom. On-site sessions are available as part of any engagement, and remote-only engagements are common.