AI Consulting Services
Not sure where AI fits in your business? We help you figure that out, and then we build it. Strategy, implementation, and ongoing support from a team you can actually talk to.
AI Consulting That Ships
AI consulting is about helping leaders decide where AI fits in the business, what to build, how to de-risk it, and how to actually get it into production. That last part is where most projects fall apart. Traditional AI consulting follows a familiar pattern. A firm runs some workshops, produces a strategy deck, hands it over, and leaves the actual build to someone else. You’re left with a framework and a search for a development partner who can make sense of it.
LaunchPad does the full cycle. We help you pick the use case, prove it works, build the production version, and support it after it goes live. Your business doesn’t have time for six-month strategy engagements that end in a slideshow. You need answers fast, and you need a partner that can actually deliver the project, which is exactly where LaunchPad Lab comes in.
Our AI consulting services are grounded in 13+ years of production software engineering and 730+ shipped projects. Our Chicago-based team has built AI-powered systems for clients in finance, healthcare, legal, education, and professional services. Same people from the first conversation to the final launch.
From AI Strategy to Production Deployment
Whether you’re exploring AI for the first time or scaling proven use cases, we help you validate ideas, build responsibly, and implement solutions your team can actually use.
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AI Strategy & Roadmap
Two weeks spent with your team to map your workflows and spot the 3–5 AI use cases worth your time. We rank them by impact and complexity, recommend a first build, and give you honest timeline and scope estimates. You leave with a plan you can act on, not a slide-deck to file away.
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AI Proof of Concept & Pilot Development
Before we build anything, we take a close look at your data, your systems, and your team. We tell you where the gaps are, what obstacles there are to overcome, and the fastest route to getting your AI project up and running. It’s this groundwork that makes GenAI, agents, or predictive models actually have an impact on your business.
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AI Readiness & Opportunity Assessment
Test the idea before you commit to the full build. In 2–4 weeks, we will put together a working prototype using your real data and a real workflow, so your team can see how it behaves in practice. If it’s ready to scale, we’ll say so. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.
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AI Implementation & Production Build
Pilot validated? We’re ready to build the real thing. That covers architecture, engineering, integrations, guardrails, monitoring, and deployment. The same team that shaped the strategy builds the product, so nothing gets lost in translation.
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AI Governance & Adoption Advisory
The parts of AI that aren’t about the code. We help with prompt policies, cost controls, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, compliance alignment (SOC 2, HIPAA where applicable), and rollout change management. This is the non-technical work that separates AI pilots from AI in production.
Problems We Solve
Most AI consulting starts with the wrong question. "How do we use AI?" gets asked before "what's actually broken?" We do it the other way around. We look for the real friction first — the team buried in tickets, the ops crew lost in PDFs, the sales team flying blind. Then we figure out if AI is the right fix. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't, and we'll tell you straight.
How We Run AI Consulting
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Discovery & AI Opportunity Mapping
We spend two weeks with your team. We map how work actually gets done, look at your data and systems, and find the places where AI will have the most impact, and the places it won’t. You get a ranked list of use cases, a recommended first build with scope and timeline, and an honest read on whether you’re ready. If the answer isn’t a build, we’ll say so before you spend another dollar.
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Pilot Build & Validation
When the use case is strong, we present a working proof of concept to your team in 2–4 weeks. Not a mockup. A real system running on your real data. We measure it against the success metrics we agreed on up front, show you what works and what doesn’t, and give you a clear go or no-go based on evidence.
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Production Launch & Continuous Improvement
We build the production version with the same care we’d give any software product: solid architecture, clean integrations, monitoring, cost controls, guardrails, and security review. Then we stick around. We watch how it performs, refine prompts, fine-tune models, catch any issues before they become problems, and grow the system as your team finds new ways to use it.
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2
weeks
from discovery to a validated AI roadmap
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3X
faster response
across the service and support channels
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60%
reduction
in repetitive manual work
Featured Consulting Projects
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Sales Discovery Portal
CDK's sales team had spent 25 years running discovery with pen and paper, then typing everything into Salesforce from a hotel room. We ran a Blueprint Workshop to align on goals, chose a Progressive Web App for the format, and built a guided discovery portal that syncs back to Salesforce in real time. Adoption hit 80% of the sales team on first release, and training time dropped by more than 90%.
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AI-Powered Knowledge Assistant for Prosci
Prosci needed a better way for users to access and use its large library of research, training content, and tools. Information was spread across systems and was difficult to search. We built an AI-powered assistant using OpenAI that pulls from Prosci’s content and delivers clear, relevant answers. This improved how users find information and learn from it. The platform now supports over 10,000 users across 50+ countries, with faster access to the content they need.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI consulting?
AI consulting is the work of helping a business figure out where AI fits, what to build, and how to get it into production without wasting time or money. A good AI consultant looks at your workflows, data, and team, then helps you pick the use cases that are worth pursuing. Some firms stop at strategy. Others stop at a prototype. The ones worth working with stay close through the full build and keep improving it once it’s live.
What does a typical AI consulting engagement look like?
A typical engagement moves through four clear phases. It starts with a two-week discovery sprint to map workflows and spot the best AI use cases. From there, we build a proof of concept in a few weeks using your real data. If it works, we move into the production build, with full engineering, integrations, and guardrails. After launch, we stay on for monitoring, improvements, and new features as your team finds more ways to use it.
What's the difference between AI strategy consulting and AI implementation?
AI strategy consulting is about deciding what to do. AI implementation is the work of actually building it. Most firms do one or the other. Strategy firms hand you a plan and leave the build to someone else. Dev shops take a spec and build it without questioning whether it’s the right thing. LaunchPad does both, with the same team from start to finish. No handoffs, no lost context, no finger-pointing when something doesn’t work.
How long does an AI consulting engagement take?
An AI consulting engagement usually takes anywhere from two weeks to six months or more, depending on scope. Discovery and roadmapping run about two weeks. A proof of concept takes two to four weeks. A production MVP usually lands between eight and sixteen weeks. Full platform builds with deeper integrations run three months or longer. Ongoing support and optimization carry on from there, since AI systems need care as your data and business change.
Do you only do strategy, or do you also build AI software?
We do both. LaunchPad Lab is a product engineering firm first, so the team that shapes the strategy is the same team that writes the code. That matters because strategy built by people who can’t build tends to miss the practical details: what your data can actually support, what’s realistic to integrate, what will break under load. We stay involved from the first workshop through production launch and long-term support.
What industries does LaunchPad Lab work with for AI consulting?
LaunchPad Lab works across industries where AI can remove real friction from the business. That includes financial services, healthcare, insurance, legal, professional services, private equity, education, and non-profit. We’ve built AI-powered systems for consumer lenders, change management leaders, and enterprise software companies, among others. The common thread isn’t the industry. It’s teams with real workflows, real data, and a specific problem they want AI to help solve.
Why should we work with a product engineering firm instead of a Big 4 consultancy?
A product engineering firm is the right choice when you need the thing built, not just planned. Big 4 consultancies make sense when you need a global firm with thousands of consultants and deep enterprise audit relationships. LaunchPad is different. We’re a Chicago-based team you can meet in person, working in one timezone, with the engineers who will build the software sitting in the same room as the strategists. That closeness is how things actually get shipped.
Start with a Real Conversation
Tell us what you're trying to figure out. Whether AI is the right fix for the problem in front of you, how to get past the pilot-to-production gap, or what to build first. A 30-minute call with one of our senior engineers will tell you more than a dozen vendor pitches. No deck. No pipeline pressure.