AI Consulting for Small Business
Stop guessing where AI fits your business. Find out in two weeks, with proof.
A fixed-price AI readiness assessment that ends with a prioritized roadmap, a straight go or no-go answer, and a working prototype built on your own data. Something your team can click, not just read.
Fixed price. Fixed scope. About six hours of your team's time, total.
Most AI assessments end with a report. Ours ends with your first AI win.
Plenty of consultants will sell you an AI readiness assessment. Almost none will ship working software inside one. We build software for a living, so your assessment includes a real prototype of your highest-value use case, built on a sample of your actual data and live in a sandbox you can use for 30 days after we wrap.
2 Weeks
From kickoff to leadership playback.
~6 Hours
Of your team's time, total.
1 Working Prototype
On your real data, included.
Built For Two Kinds of Teams
Same process, tuned to where you're starting from. Not sure which fits? The free readiness check below will tell you in 10 minutes.
“We keep hearing about AI and don’t know where to start.”
For: Established businesses without an internal IT team. You know AI matters. You want someone who speaks plain English, shows you exactly where AI helps your operation, and proves it before you invest big.
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Optional on-site kickoff day - A plain-language report you can hand to your leadership team
- The vendor landscape decoded: the tools you'll be pitched, and our honest take
- A quick-win prototype running on your own data
“Our team already builds with AI. Help us make it production-grade.”
For: Teams with developers or technical builders already shipping with AI (internal tools, automations, and AI-assisted code) who need security, durability, and standards to match the speed.
- Complete AI proof of concept
- AI development maturity scorecard across five dimensions
- One tool hardened to production grade, with the before and after documented
- Team standards your builders can pattern off
Two weeks, four phases
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Align & Discover
A 90-minute kickoff with your team to agree on outcomes and success criteria. Then we inventory your systems, data, and security posture so everything after is grounded in your reality.
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Identify & Score
A two-hour workshop with 3-5 of your people surfaces where the real pain lives. We score every AI opportunity on value, feasibility, and time to impact, and together we pick the one we'll prove with a prototype.
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Assess & Safeguard
We review your architecture against your top use cases, evaluate build versus buy honestly, and hand you a tailored AI governance starter pack. This is also where we build your prototype.
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Deliver & Launch
A 60-minute leadership playback: live prototype demo, executive brief, readiness scorecard, and a 90-day roadmap with owners and milestones, plus our straight answer on whether to proceed.
Everything You Need to Make The Call
- Readiness scorecard with a current-state architecture picture
- Prioritized AI use-case portfolio, scored by value and feasibility
- Top three opportunities with business cases
- AI governance starter pack — acceptable-use policy, data rules, review gates
- Build-vs-buy evaluation for your top use cases
- A working prototype on your data — yours to use in a sandbox for 30 days
- Executive brief and 60-minute leadership playback
- 90-day roadmap with milestones and owners
- A written go/no-go recommendation
Our promise
We'll tell you if the answer is no.
If no use case clears our value bar, our recommendation will say “don't proceed yet” and include exactly what to fix first. That's the point of a fixed-price assessment: our only incentive is the right answer.
Free AI Readiness Assessment
10 quick questions, instant results, no email required to see your score
When the answer is go, we build it with you
If you don't have an engineer to hand a roadmap to, we bring one. A senior Clear Function engineer works inside your business, with your people and your systems, and puts the use case the assessment picked into daily use. You see it working every week.
The first result has a fixed price, quoted before you commit. When it runs, we hand it over with plain-language instructions, or the same engineer stays on month to month if you want more.
What Our Clients Say
Don't just take our word for it, take theirs!
“They have excellent developers; they can articulate and design around a business problem. Many developers just develop without seeing the business solution, so it helps a lot to have a team like Clear Function.”
“I am confident Clear Function is one of the best in the business.”
“[Clear Function's] ability to build relationships with both their clients and their developers over the years is impressive. The quality never suffers.”
“Response was always immediate, no question we had was too big, too small, or made to feel "dumb" … They work in a very collaborative fashion … all hands on deck.”
“You guys CRUSHED IT!! … [We] look forward to our continued work together going forward!”
“Best [PCI DSS] requirement six walkthrough I’ve ever had. I wish they all could be this way.”
How much does AI consulting cost for a small business?
Our AI Readiness Assessment is $3,500, fixed. Our AI Security and Standards Review starts at $7,500, scoped to team size and the tools in review. Both prices are set in writing before you commit, and there are no hourly overruns.
What is an AI readiness assessment?
An AI readiness assessment tells you where AI can create measurable value in your business, whether your data and systems can support it, and what to do first. Ours goes one step further: we build a working prototype of your top use case so you see the value instead of taking our word for it.
Do we need technical staff to do this?
No. The AI Readiness Assessment is built for businesses without an internal IT team. Everything is delivered in plain English, and we handle the technical work.
What exactly is the prototype?
A working demonstration of your single highest-value use case, built on a sample of your real data, running in a secure sandbox you can access for 30 days. It's a proof, not a production system. Productionizing it is what the 90-day roadmap covers.
What if our data is a mess?
That's one of the most common findings, and it's part of the assessment. You'll get a clear read on whether your data supports your top use cases, and if not, the shortest path to fixing it.
What happens after the assessment?
You choose what follows the roadmap: run it internally, have a Clear Function engineer build the first use case inside your business, or bring in a fractional CTO for ongoing technology leadership. If you continue with Clear Function advisory work within 60 days, your full assessment fee credits toward it. A build is quoted on its own, so the assessment is never a discount on one.
How is your engineer building it different from staff augmentation?
With staff augmentation, you direct the engineer and you own the result. Here, the result is ours to deliver. The role is called a forward deployed engineer: a senior engineer who works inside your business, with your people, systems and data, and owns getting one result into daily use. You judge us on whether it works, not on hours.
Do you work with companies outside Memphis?
Yes. The assessment runs remotely by default, with an optional on-site kickoff day for local and regional clients.
Next step
Two weeks from now, you'll know.
Book a 30-minute scoping call. We'll tell you which starting point fits, what your fixed price would be, and what your prototype could be, all before you spend a dollar.