Find the first portco wins
Deploy into one or two companies, quantify workflow or product ROI, and use the results to decide where a portfolio playbook should expand next.
See PE fit →EMBEDDED AI OPERATOR
Find and ship the AI wins hiding in your workflows and product surfaces.
AE embeds a senior AI operator with your team to identify, prioritize, build, and test high-value automations and new AI-native product opportunities. Production results in weeks, not quarters.
$10,000 / week Full-time embed · 3-week minimum sprint to start
Includes discovery, opportunity mapping, automation and prototype buildout, deployment, documentation, stakeholder alignment, and roadmap development. You keep everything we build.
START HERE IF
You need traction before a transformation plan.
The operator is AE's fastest front door: one senior practitioner, embedded in the real work, finding where AI can create value now across operations, product surfaces, and new revenue opportunities. It is built for teams that need evidence before they fund a larger AI program.
Automate real operational work
Start with back-office, document, reporting, and customer workflows where recovered hours, error reduction, or cost savings can be measured quickly, then surface the larger product and revenue opportunities behind them.
See mid-market fit →Find the AI-native offer
Identify new product capabilities, service tiers, customer experiences, or revenue surfaces that were not practical before AI, then test the first version with real users or operators.
See product-surface strategy →WHAT YOU GET
Outcomes, not deliverables.
Working proof in production
Impact-driven workflow automations or product-surface prototypes shipped continuously. Things people at your org can actually use, starting in the first week.
Prioritized value backlog
A living map of 8-15+ automation, product, and revenue opportunities with impact and effort estimates. Updated as we learn more about your systems and customers.
AI readiness assessment
A practical assessment based on your actual systems, workflows, product surfaces, data, and approval processes. Where AI fits, where it doesn't, and what needs to change.
Documentation and handoff
Runbooks, maintenance notes, and handoff materials for everything we build. Your team can run it without us.
THE OPENING SPRINT
Prove value quickly.
The first three weeks are structured so you know quickly whether this is working. Most engagements continue past this; the sprint exists to establish direction and build confidence.
Week 0 Pre-engagement
3-5 business days before Day 1.
- Kickoff call (90 min) with sponsor and key stakeholders
- Async intake: stack, existing automations, product surfaces, team, recent AI experiments, pain points
- Access provisioning and AI policy alignment
Week 1 Discover and land
- Shadowing, interviews with 3-8 operators, system walkthroughs
- Opportunity triage: initial map of 20-30 operational, product, and revenue candidates narrowed to a shortlist
- Validate the shortlist with your sponsor and lock focus for Week 2
Friday readout: what we've learned, opportunity map, proposed focus for Weeks 2-3.
Week 2 Build and ship
- Ship a first small but visible automation or prototype. Something a specific person will notice and start using
- Start to build the highest-leverage opportunity from the shortlist. The kind of project a conventional vendor would scope across multiple weeks
- Deploy, document, and train the humans who'll use or evaluate it
Friday readout: first proof live in production + scoping memo for ongoing work.
Week 3+ Steady state
By Week 3, the engagement is in its ongoing rhythm. Continuous shipping from the prioritized backlog, continuous documentation, continuous backlog refinement.
In production by end of Week 3:
- 2-4 automations or prototypes in active use
- Prioritized, living value backlog (8-15+ items)
- AI readiness assessment
- Scope and priorities for ongoing work
HOW WE WORK
AI is core to delivery.
AE Studio partners with those at the frontier of AI research like Anthropic and DARPA, and works on the hardest problem in the field today: getting agentic systems to work reliably inside enterprise organizations. The operator who embeds with you builds and breaks these systems for a living.
AI-assisted discovery
Faster system walkthroughs, interview synthesis, opportunity mapping.
AI-assisted build
Code, automations, prototypes, and documentation produced with AI and reviewed by the operator, who remains accountable for everything shipped.
AI inside what we build
Many automations and product prototypes use LLMs. We design for reliability and human oversight, and we're explicit about where AI fits.
WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
Set us up to move fast.
Executive sponsor
A decision-maker available ~15 min/day, empowered to approve scope and access without multi-week cycles.
Access to systems
Accounts, credentials, and API access provisioned before Day 1 where possible, within 24 hours thereafter.
Access to people
Introductions to the people whose work, product surface, or customer experience is being changed and the domain experts who make the work correct.
Fast decisions
When we propose building or testing something, we need a yes or no. Flag approval bottlenecks in Week 0.
EXPLORE MORE
Other ways to work with us.
LET'S TALK
Bring us the hard problem.
We'll bring the team that ships.
Get in touch [email protected]