“We've gone from experimenting with AI to having an internal AI platform our staff uses every day.”
For small and mid-sized businesses
Get AI working
in your business
I'm Anthony Whitaker. I find where AI pays off and hold it to a 3× return, checked every quarter. Bring me in to lead a safe, effective adoption of AI in your business, or bring in my full team with the 90-day AI Accelerator when you want the full plan and a rapid transformation.
- Map the business · M1
- First workflows · M2–3
- Expand across teams · M4–12
- ROI review · quarterly
Every quarter — we measure the return against the 3× target and agree what's next.
Clients and partners
What clients say
“That one project is worth about $25,000 a year and closed a security gap we needed to close anyway.”
What leaders say
“Anthony is the most gifted technological mind I have worked with.”
“His ability to evaluate solutions and find strengths and weaknesses is by far the best I have witnessed.”
“He has an ability to architect technology solutions that excite engineering teams and gets buy-in from stakeholders.”
Who this is for
Built for leaders who need AI working across the business, not in a lab.
You don't need more theory. You need a lead who will set the direction, decide what's worth building, and keep the program moving, with numbers to show for it.
Manufacturing & logistics Staffing Healthcare CPA & advisory Family offices Technology and other B2B businesses with real operations.
A good fit if
- You own or run a small or mid-sized business: owner, founder, CEO, COO, GM or practice leader.
- Your board, partners, investors or your own customers keep asking, “So… what’s our AI plan?”
- You’ve seen the demos, but nothing has made it into daily operations.
- Your team is already at capacity, and you may not have an IT department to lean on.
- You want senior AI leadership without hiring a full-time executive.
- You can name an internal champion and give them time for this.
How the retainer works
Leadership and strategy, from one person who stays.
The retainer is me. I sit with your leadership team, own the roadmap, and decide what's worth building. Light work can happen inside it. Most delivery is a separate statement of work, or you can raise the retainer if you want that work to continue. Your side is a named champion and time with the leaders whose teams are changing.
Map the business
Month 1
Interviews with your leaders and a walk through how work actually gets done. We score every opportunity by impact and feasibility, and say plainly where AI should not be used.
You get
AI opportunity map
A ranked view of where AI pays off across the business, and where it doesn’t.
Choose the first workflows
Months 2–3
We pick the first workflows and train the people who will use them. Work that fits the retainer, I do. Anything larger is its own statement of work, or we raise the retainer if you want that work to continue.
You get
A clear first scope
Light work done inside the retainer. Larger builds written up beside it.
Expand across the business
Months 4+
We take the same approach to the next processes and teams: priorities, guardrails, and your people’s skills, so the program doesn’t depend on a single project. New builds follow the same split.
You get
An AI program, not a pilot
More of the business covered, with governance in place.
Measure and decide
Every quarter
We measure hours saved, costs avoided and errors reduced against the 3× target, report it to you and your leadership team or board, and agree the next priorities.
You get
Quarterly ROI report
Numbers you can take to your board, and a roadmap that stays current.
Compared with typical AI consulting
| The usual engagement | A fractional AI lead |
|---|---|
| A project with an end date | An ongoing seat at your leadership table |
| Ends with a strategy deck | A plan you run, checked every quarter |
| Advice, then another firm builds it | I stay. The build is scoped with me |
| A full-time AI hire | Senior AI leadership, without the full-time hire |
The plan and the build
The AI Accelerator
A 90-day bootcamp for leaders who want the full plan and the work done for them. You get the roadmap, and a real portion of the project, done by my delivery team with me leading it. This is the larger engagement. The retainer is the leadership seat. The Accelerator is the plan and the build together.
Where it usually starts
Start where the work is most repetitive. Then keep going.
The goal isn't AI everywhere. It's AI where it earns its keep. Every engagement is shaped to your business, but most first workflows look like one of these.
Operations
- Order-entry copilot that reads emails and drafts structured orders
- A “how do we do X?” assistant trained on your SOPs
- Summaries and notes for recurring meetings and service calls
Customers and revenue
- Email assistant that drafts replies to common customer questions
- Inquiry triage that routes requests to the right person faster
- Quote and proposal drafts assembled from your own templates
Finance and admin
- Collections assistant that drafts and logs follow-ups
- Recurring reports assembled from several systems
- Invoice and PO review that flags exceptions
The target
Every initiative is chosen and measured against a 3× return.
We aim for a 3× annualized return on what you invest in AI. It decides which ideas get built and which don't, and it's the number we track together every quarter.
- Outcomes first
- We agree on real outcomes before building: cost removed, hours saved, errors avoided. Not demo metrics.
- All of the return counts
- Hard savings, avoided costs, capacity unlocked and working-capital gains all count toward the target.
- Measured every quarter
- Progress against the target is reported each quarter, so you always know what AI is returning.
Who you'd work with
Big-tech engineering, applied to small and mid-sized businesses.
I spent more than ten years building AI systems and leading the programs that put them to work for companies like Amazon, Salesforce, Google and the NFL. Along the way I kept seeing the same thing: leaders of smaller companies being sold impressive demos that never turned into savings.
So I work differently. I start by finding where AI will actually reduce cost or effort. If I can't find a clear return, I'll tell you, and you won't spend money on a build. If I can, I stay to lead it. Small work I do myself. When you want the project done, my team builds it with me.
- Previously built for
- Training
MIT Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation
Vanderbilt Generative AI Strategic Leader
Questions and objections
What leaders ask before they call.
How much does this cost?
The retainer is a monthly fee for my time as your AI lead, scoped to how much we take on. The Accelerator is a 90-day bootcamp and includes my delivery team, so it's the larger of the two. On the 20-minute call we look at the likely return and which one fits before anyone commits.
How is this different from hiring a Head of AI?
You get the seat: the roadmap, the calls on what gets built, and a report to leadership, without a full-time salary or a long search. Beyond light work, the building is scoped separately. If you want a team doing the project from the start, that's the Accelerator.
How much of my team's time will this take?
A few hours a week across a small group: you, a champion for each area we're working on, and someone from IT if you have one. I run discovery and the decisions. Your team provides context and feedback. When a delivery team is on the work, they take the build.
Is our data secure?
We work within your existing security and compliance requirements. That usually means enterprise-grade AI tools, making sure your data isn't used to train public models, and getting IT's sign-off before anything goes live.
IT will kill this.
That's why we involve them early, keep the scope realistic and work with your existing systems. The goal is a small, well-contained project, not an end run around IT.
Do we need a specific tech stack or AI platform?
No. We start from what you already have. If a new tool is needed, it will be lightweight and justified by the return.
Our data is too messy.
So is everyone's. We don't try to fix your data forever. We start where your data is good enough to support one meaningful workflow.
We tried AI before and it fizzled out.
Most attempts stall because nobody owns them, they aren't tied to a real process, or they launch without guardrails. On a retainer there's a named owner (me, alongside your champion), specific processes and outcomes measured every quarter.
Won't this just lead to layoffs?
That's rarely how it plays out. Most companies seeing gains from AI reinvest them in new capabilities and growth, and the people using AI shift to higher-judgment work while it handles the routine.
We already have someone internally working on AI. Does that conflict?
It helps. I give their ideas structure and build capacity, and they bring the context that anchors the work in your culture.
What if an initiative doesn't pay off?
Then we see it early and change course. Ideas are scored and pressure-tested against the 3× target before anything is built, so most bad bets are dropped on paper, not in production, and the quarterly review catches anything that isn't earning its keep.
What's the difference between the retainer and the Accelerator?
The retainer is me. I lead the program: the roadmap, the priorities, and the light work that fits. Most delivery is a separate statement of work, or you can raise the retainer if you want that work to continue. The Accelerator is a 90-day bootcamp. You get the full plan, and my delivery team does a portion of the project as part of it. Choose it when you want the work done, not only a leader in the room.
Next step
Book a 20‑minute call.
No pitch deck. You'll leave knowing whether you need me as your AI lead, a 90-day Accelerator with my team, or neither, and if neither, what I'd do instead.
- 0–5 min Your business and where the pressure is coming from
- 5–15 min Where AI could take work out of your operations
- 15–20 min An honest take on what's worth pursuing, and what isn't
Prefer to write first?
Tell me what's slowing your team down. I reply within one business day.