An AI consultancy.
That ships, not decks.

Three honest categories: (1) strategy work — AI readiness assessment, use-case prioritisation, build-vs-buy decisions, model and vendor selection. (2) Implementation — designing, building and deploying the actual AI systems (voice agents, chatbots, workflow automations, document automation, internal tooling). (3) Operations — running and tuning the systems post-deployment, change-management, training your team. Pure-strategy consultancies stop at (1); FrictionZero is built around (2) and (3) — strategy work happens, but it is in service of getting something shipped and measurable inside the same engagement.

Brainpool, Faculty and the Big-4 sell senior-strategy days at city day-rates — useful if you need a board-level AI roadmap or a regulatory readiness audit, expensive if you actually want a system shipped. FrictionZero is implementation-first: we run the strategy work in week 1, then build and deploy from week 2. The pricing model is partnership-based — an implementation fee plus a share of the measurable uplift we generate, not a per-diem. Best fit: a UK firm that has read enough strategy decks already and wants a system live in 6–12 weeks.

Three pricing patterns in the market: (1) day-rate strategy work — typically GBP 1,800–3,500 per consultant-day at the Big-4 and the brand-name boutiques; (2) project-fee implementation — typically GBP 25–250k per delivered system depending on scope; (3) partnership-aligned — implementation fee plus a share of measurable uplift (cycle time saved, revenue uplift, cost displaced). FrictionZero uses pattern 3 — our fee scales with the outcome, not the deck count. We disclose exact numbers in the Friction Audit.

The "30% rule" comes from McKinsey and Stanford HAI work suggesting that for any business process, AI tends to absorb the 30% of work that is repetitive-and-judgement-light, leaving the other 70% — the high-context, high-stakes, human-judgement work — for human operators. The rule is a planning shortcut, not a law: in some processes (transcript summarisation, document classification, simple email response) AI absorbs much more than 30%; in others (regulated advice, complex negotiation, brand-critical creative) it absorbs much less. We use the rule as a starting question in the Friction Audit, then measure the actual ratio per process.

Both — in the same engagement. Pure-strategy-first engagements often produce thick decks and no live systems; pure-build-first engagements often ship things the wider business cannot adopt. We run a tight week-1 strategy workshop (use-case prioritisation, build-vs-buy, risk and compliance scoping) then move directly to implementation in week 2. The strategy artefact you walk away with is the prioritised system roadmap, not a 60-page deck.

The consultancy itself is not specifically regulated, but the systems we deploy are subject to: UK GDPR + the Data Protection Act 2018 (data handling), the ICO's AI guidance, sector-specific regulators (SRA for legal, FCA for financial services, MHRA for medical devices, OFSTED for education, HMRC for accounting practice), and — from August 2026 — the EU AI Act for any system serving EU users. We deploy with documented data flow diagrams, model cards for high-risk systems, and a named human supervisor signed off pre-go-live.

Standard engagements: AI receptionist or WhatsApp chatbot live in 4–6 weeks. Document workflow automation 6–10 weeks. CRM and process automation across multiple departments 8–14 weeks. Multi-system AI rollout across a 200+ person firm 3–6 months. The first measurable system is always live inside the first 60 days — we structure engagements that way deliberately, because momentum is the single biggest predictor of internal adoption.

UK accounting practices, UK law firms, UK estate agencies, professional and trade services, call centres and contact centres, debt-counselling practices, dental and medical practices. Sector-specific compliance literacy — ICAEW / ACCA, SRA / LSB, HMRC AML, CQC, NHS DSPT, NCR — is part of the consultancy work. We do not work in defence, gambling or adult-content sectors.