AI CONSULTING · PORTLAND, OR
AI Consulting for Portland Small Businesses
You keep hearing about AI. Every vendor says buy theirs. Nobody's told you plainly what it can actually do for a 15-person business in Portland — or what it can't. That's the job we do: we map your operations, find where AI and automation genuinely help, build it, and measure the result. Starting with a roadmap from $2,500, and a free call before that.
Where to start
Start with the question you're actually asking
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We drown in repetitive work.
Quotes, scheduling, invoices, follow-up emails, data entry between systems that don't talk. That's workflow automation — our most common project, and the fastest payback.
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We want to grow without hiring.
Lead follow-up that never sleeps, customer questions answered instantly, proposals drafted in minutes. AI as capacity, not headcount.
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We don't know where to start.
That's what the Discovery Sprint is for: one to two weeks, we map how your business actually runs, and you get a prioritized plan — even if you never hire us again.
And the industries: we work with service businesses, restaurants and food brands, trades and local operators, professional services — companies with 15–75 people and more work than hours.
The differentiator
What we'll tell you that vendors won't
AI is genuinely transformative for some workflows and a money pit for others. Part of every engagement is naming which is which for your business. If your problem is better solved by a $30/month off-the-shelf tool — or by not using AI at all — that's what the roadmap will say. We sell judgment first, and we'd rather lose a project than sell you something that won't pay for itself.
How it works
Start small. Prove it. Then decide.
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Discovery Sprint — from $2,500, 1–2 weeks.
We map your workflows and hand you a prioritized plan you keep, whether or not you go further.
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Pilot — from $8,000, 30 days.
One workflow, built and running inside your business, your team trained, the result measured. Not a demo — a working system.
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Full implementation — from $20,000, 8–16 weeks.
Two to three connected workflows across your team, with dashboards and 30 days of support.
No retainers required, no faith required. Each step earns the next.
Proof
Built by operators, not vendors
We spent our careers running strategy and operations inside Fortune 100 businesses. We've sat where you sit — managing a P&L, leading a team, having no time to evaluate seventeen AI tools. That's the lens every recommendation goes through: does this pay for itself in your actual operation, run by your actual people.
FAQ
Questions Portland owners ask about AI
How much does an AI consultant cost?
Market rates run $100–$600 an hour depending on who you hire. We don't bill hourly: our Discovery Sprint is $2,500–$5,000 fixed, a 30-day pilot runs $8,000–$15,000, and full implementations range to $45,000. Fixed fee, agreed up front, so the meter is never running while you think.
What does an AI consultant actually do?
The honest version: we figure out which parts of your operation a machine should handle, then build that and prove it worked. Concretely — we map your workflows, find the repetitive time sinks, build the automation, train your team, and measure the hours or dollars recovered. Strategy and the build, not a slide deck and a goodbye.
What can AI actually do for a small business?
The reliable wins are unglamorous: answering routine customer questions, drafting quotes and follow-ups, moving data between systems, summarizing calls, scheduling. Done right, that's real hours back every week. The flashy stuff you see in demos is usually the wrong place to start — the boring workflow with the big time sink is where payback lives.
Do I need to be technical to work with you?
No — most of our clients aren't. We explain everything in plain business terms, your team gets trained hands-on, and everything we build runs inside tools you can see and control. If a recommendation can't be explained without jargon, it doesn't survive our own review.
- What if AI isn't right for my business?
- Then we'll say so — in writing, in the roadmap you paid for. Sometimes the answer is a cheaper off-the-shelf tool, a process fix that needs no software, or "not yet." About the most valuable thing a consultant can tell you is what not to spend money on, and we're comfortable being that consultant.
- How fast will I see results?
- The pilot is designed to answer this: one workflow, live inside your business, with a measured outcome by day 30. If the numbers aren't there, you stop — that's the point of starting small. Discovery alone often pays for itself just by killing projects that would have wasted money.
- Is my business data safe?
- Yes — this is a first-class design constraint, not an afterthought. We're explicit about which tools see what data, we favor setups where your data stays in your accounts, and we'll tell you plainly when a tool's data practices should rule it out. You approve every tool before it touches anything real.
- Do you work with businesses outside Portland?
- Yes — Portland is home base, and we work across Oregon including Bend and Central Oregon, plus remote engagements anywhere in the US. AI consulting travels well over video; the workflow mapping is the same whether we're across the table or across the state.
- Do you also build websites?
- We do — custom-coded sites are the other half of the practice, and the two often meet: a fast site that ranks, plus automation behind it that handles the leads it brings in. If you need both, we scope them as one plan.
Web design in Portland → /web-design-portland AI consulting in Bend → /ai-consulting-bend
Ready when you are
The first call is free — and genuinely exploratory
Thirty minutes, no pitch. You'll leave with at least one concrete idea, whether or not we ever work together.