AI consulting and transformation
We help a business decide where AI will make a real difference and then put it in place, one team at a time. The aim is a team that works differently a month later, not a strategy document.
Where AI should do the work
Most teams have been handed AI tools and no plan for using them. Some people in the team use them every day, most use them now and then, and nobody has agreed which work AI should take on. We start with the work itself rather than the tools. We look at the tasks a team repeats every week, because repeated work with a clear output is where an AI routine pays back fastest and where a person can check the result.
We work with marketing, communications and insight teams. We know how these teams spend their weeks, what their reports look like and which of their tasks are safe to hand to a routine. We say so when a question is outside that experience.
What makes our approach different
We listen first. We take the time to understand what the team needs and what it is measured on before we propose anything. We build the plan together with the people who do the work, because a routine they chose is one they keep. We choose the right solution for the job, which is usually the model your business has already approved and rarely the newest tool. And we test and measure everything as we go, so by the time we report, the team has a month of real use behind the numbers.
This is how we transform the way a team works without disrupting the work it has to do this week. It is also why we count what is still in use at day 30 and report what was dropped. A programme that only counts what it launched cannot tell you whether it worked.
How an AI consulting project works
- We listen. A half-day with the team leader and the people who do the work, to understand what the team is for and what gets in its way.
- We audit how the team spends its time, task by task and person by person. It takes a week and the team fills in a short sheet each day.
- Together we choose three repeated tasks that an AI routine can take on. We choose with the team, not for it.
- We put a routine in place for each one within four weeks, inside the tools your business has approved, and we train the people who will run it.
- A month later we count what the team still uses and what it has dropped, and we report both with the hours returned.
What you get from an AI consulting project
A short plan that says where AI should do the work and why. Three working routines your team owns and can change. A count at day 30 of what is in use, what was dropped and the hours given back, with every figure showing how it was counted.
Training for leaders and teams
Some leaders need to set the direction before any team is ready for a routine. We offer one-to-one training for a leader who has to decide what AI means for their function, and a half day for a leadership team that wants a shared view of where AI fits and where it does not.
An example: a time audit of one marketing team of six
One audit, drawn three ways. Each chart answers one question about the same week, and the three tasks in blue are the ones we would start with.
Where each person's hours go
The audit starts with a sheet each person fills in for a week. Laid out as a grid, it shows at a glance which tasks take the most hours and who carries them. The weekly report alone takes 43 hours across six people, and the insight analyst spends a third of her week on it.
The team's week, added up by task
Adding the hours up across the team shows which tasks are worth a routine. Half of the team's week goes on work that is repeated in the same shape every week. The three tasks in blue are repeated, have a clear output and can be checked by a person, which is the test for a first routine.
Each person's week, split by the kind of work
Each task is classed by the person who does it as repeated, needing judgement, or meetings and coordination. The split shows who gains most from a routine. Meeting notes are the task people most want to hand over, and the one that is quickest to automate.
Questions people ask us
How does Barley Labs do AI consultancy and AI transformation differently?
We start with a time audit rather than a technology review, we build the routines with the team rather than for it, and we measure at day 30 rather than at launch. Most programmes report what was delivered. We report what the team kept, what it dropped and why.
Which teams does Barley Labs work with?
Marketing, communications and insight teams in global brands and growing businesses. The method works for other teams, but these are the ones we know from the inside.
Does Barley Labs build the AI routines or only recommend them?
We build them, inside the tools your business has approved, and we hand them over with written instructions. A recommendation that nobody builds is the most common way an AI plan fails.
What happens when a team drops an AI routine?
We say so in the report and we find out why. Usually the routine solved a problem the team did not have. That is a useful finding, and it is cheaper to learn it in month one than in year one.
If you would like to talk about a team, our details are on the contact page.