Managed AI Operations
The tools change roughly every month. A retainer that keeps your setup current, ships one improvement a month, and gives your team someone to ask, so the gains from the rollout compound instead of fading.
- Fixed monthly fee, month to month
- One shipped improvement every month
- Direct line for your department champions
What happens six months after a good rollout
The setup that worked in March is half out of date by September. A vendor changed how connectors work. A new capability shipped that would remove another two hours a week, and nobody had time to look at it. A skill broke when the supplier changed their invoice layout and the person who built it has moved on. None of this is anybody's fault. It is what maintaining a moving system looks like, and nobody in a busy business has spare hours for it.
Managed AI operations is that upkeep, done by the people who set it up, for a fixed monthly fee.
What the retainer covers
- Keeping the setup current. When the tools change, your skills, connectors and templates are updated before anyone notices they broke.
- One improvement a month. Agreed at the start of the month, shown working at the end. A workflow that was still manual, a skill extended to another team, a report that stops being rebuilt.
- A direct line for your champions. The person in each department who others ask has someone to ask in turn. Same or next business day.
- A quarterly review with leadership. Hours against baseline, what the team is actually using, what is not worth keeping, and what is worth doing next.
- Onboarding for new starters. A new hire gets set up the way the rest of the team was, rather than inheriting a laptop and working it out.
- Watching the vendors so you do not have to. A short monthly note on what changed in the tools you use and whether it matters for your business.
Why a managed service rather than hours
An hours-based retainer invites minute counting on both sides and caps the value at whatever fits in the hours. A managed service is judged on what changed. The fee is fixed, the outputs are defined, and if a month goes by with nothing useful shipped you will know, because we will have agreed what it was going to be.
Who it suits
- Businesses that have completed a rollout and want the gains to hold and grow.
- Businesses using AI every day across their departments, with no one whose job it is to keep it current.
- Leaders who want a quarterly number on what AI is actually saving, not an impression.
Who it does not suit
A business that has bought licences and not yet changed how the work is done. A retainer cannot fix that. The AI Ops Audit and the rollout exist for that, and we will point you there rather than sign you up for something that will not help.
Further reading
Common questions about the retainer
Is this an hours bucket?
No. It is a managed service with a fixed monthly fee and a defined output: your setup stays current, one improvement ships each month, and your team has someone to ask. Hours-based retainers turn into timesheet arguments and cap what you get. We would rather be judged on what changed.
Can we start on a retainer without a rollout?
Only if your team is already using AI on real work. The retainer keeps something running; it cannot stand in for setting it up. If you are not there yet, the honest starting point is training or the audit, and we will say so.
What counts as "one improvement a month"?
Something a named person in your business can use on Monday that they could not use the month before. A new skill for a workflow that was still manual, an existing one extended to a second department, a report that no longer needs rebuilding, a connector to a system that was not wired in. We agree it at the start of the month and show it working at the end.
What is the minimum term?
There is none. Month to month, cancel with a month’s notice. Most clients stay because the tools keep changing and it is cheaper than keeping up themselves, not because a contract holds them.
How does support work?
Your champions in each department have a direct line to us, with a response the same or next business day. Questions from the wider team route through them, which keeps the champions growing and keeps the retainer priced sensibly.
What does it cost?
A fixed monthly fee set at the end of the rollout, sized to the number of departments and systems in scope. No usage billing from us; your AI subscriptions stay on your own account. Quoted, like everything else, rather than published.
Keep the gains, and keep adding to them
Fifteen minutes on where your team is up to, and whether a retainer is the right next step or a step too early.
Book a discovery call15 minutes. No sales pressure.