AI Transformation Advisory

Done-for-you AI advisory for firms that want growth, not time saved.

Using our C.L.A.I.M. Method™, we align your technology and your people with your firm’s growth goals, and partner with your leadership from strategy through results.

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A drawing of freed hours, each one aimed at a single target the partners chose and counted until the result is checked off.

The Outlier Practice difference

AI has many uses. We focus on one: helping your firm grow.

We aim technology at what’s limiting growth. Your people are developed and reinforced alongside it, because that’s what turns AI into growth. We partner with you from strategy through execution, as hands-on as your goals require, and measure success in outcomes.

As underdogs ourselves, we’re driven to help independent firms win against larger, better-resourced competitors.

An oil painting of an accounting firm's team gathered in a sunlit office, laughing together.

How it works

Our C.L.A.I.M. Method™ de-risks execution of your growth strategy and decreases time-to-goal.

  1. Choose one goal

    The one growth result that matters most (revenue, margin, time back for life, etc.)

  2. Locate the constraint

    Identify the technical, process, structural, or behavioral factors limiting the growth result.

  3. Amplify the constraint

    Use technology and people to expand capacity and increase leverage where it’s needed.

  4. Invest the freed capacity

    Turn freed capacity into the exact work that grows the firm. This is where the ROI is made.

  5. Measure the goal itself

    Track verifiable progress against the growth result, not just hours saved.

Your path from AI to ROI

  1. Strategy consultation Free

    We learn your firm and its growth goals, and show you what an Opportunity Audit would uncover.

  2. Opportunity Audit

    Using your firm’s growth goals, we pinpoint the gaps in data, processes, platforms, people, and structure. You receive a blueprint for unlocking growth, whether you implement it yourselves or with us.

  3. Calibration

    Together, we commit to an implementation plan with clear milestones and growth targets, and we scope the support it requires.

  4. Execution 3–6 months

    We work alongside your leadership to carry the plan through, adjusting as the numbers come in.

    Scoped to your plan

    • Custom AI agents
    • Team training
    • Reinforcement coaching
    • Platform and vendor selection
  5. Growth goals, achieved

    Results verified from your own numbers. Your team can scale the method without us, with our support whenever you need it.

Revenue per coach

+13.8%

with the same hours worked per coach

We ran the C.L.A.I.M. Method™ on a leadership training & coaching firm, first

Choose one goal. The firm wanted to grow revenue. Every idea for AI got judged against that one goal.

Locate the constraint. The firm’s ability to take on more clients was limited by coaching capacity. The default fix was hiring more coaches, which was a long and difficult process for this specialty firm. But then we audited where coach capacity went: 20 to 25% of it was admin, like note-taking, managing data across systems, writing reports, and context switching between sessions.

Amplify the constraint. Instead of hiring, we built Campbell, a sophisticated AI platform that assisted with all non-coaching tasks. Data remained private and secure. The coaching stayed human, and important data was reviewed by humans for accuracy.

Invest the freed capacity. The leaders decided in advance where the freed capacity would go: back into coaching, starting with the opportunities the firm had been turning away.

Measure the goal itself. We tracked revenue per coach, the closest measure of the goal. It rose 13.8%, without coaches working longer or harder. The coaches got a better week too, with more time on what they loved (coaching) and less on what they didn’t (admin).

The C.L.A.I.M. Method™ works across industries, firm sizes, technical abilities, and cultures.

Common questions

Can we do this ourselves?

Some firms can, and we will say so. Those firms usually already have a Chief AI Officer or equivalent role, change management experience, and the internal capacity to reinforce new behaviors. The Opportunity Audit report will provide a strong blueprint for firms wanting to DIY. For most firms, the value is the execution of the plan and the done-for-you results.

We paid for outside help before and nothing changed.

Lack of follow-through and ROI are the failures this is built against. The work runs on a weekly rhythm with your COO or leadership team, and the numbers are pulled from your data. You get proof of change during the work and again after we leave.

Will our people actually use it?

Training happens on your own workflows, on approved platforms, and it is led and scheduled as part of the plan. Where change management is the real gap, reinforcement coaching keeps new routines going after enthusiasm fades. Success means transformation, not completion.

What about client data?

Early in the work your firm sets a one-page policy for what may and may not go into AI, as well as approved platforms.

Custom AI agents operate within existing system permissions and enterprise security policies. Access is controlled through integrations, and all agent actions are logged so activity can be monitored and audited.

How is it priced?

A fixed fee, set by the scope of your plan. Never per seat.

Half is paid when we start. The other half is paid at the end, and only if the growth targets we agreed on together are hit. Our incentives are aligned with yours: we only earn our full fee when your firm grows.

The results are agreed with your partners in writing at the start, and every number comes from your own systems, confirmed by someone at your firm. If we cannot help you reach the outcome, we have failed.

Your actual fee appears only in your proposal, after we know your plan.

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Let’s talk about your firm’s goals and how AI will help you exceed them.

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Our why

Independent firms must prosper.

In a desirable world, the underdog must have a chance to win. Speed versus size, legacy versus brand, ingenuity versus strength. Dynamism requires competition. Clients and professionals must have the ability to choose independence and thrive.

Today, resources win.

Size is a proxy for power. There are few things that can’t be won with more available resources to throw at them. Industry consolidation is emptying out the “middle,” pressuring independent firms to sell, stay small, or struggle.

Technology is the great equalizer.

Every firm has access to the same intelligence. The outliers are breaking away based on how, where, and why it’s used. Firms of all sizes deploying AI strategically across the people, services, and operations that grow them can benefit disproportionately to the resources they have available. But to do so requires thinking and acting differently, aligning resources correctly, and moving boldly into the future.

Embrace the new leverage.

Leverage is the multiplier between what you put in and what you get out. For decades, the profession has embraced Maister’s vertical leverage: the staff-to-partner ratio. To increase leverage, a firm had to add people and push work down. In this model, size won. AI adds the horizontal dimension, a multiplier for every person and process in the firm. Growth potential becomes untethered from available time, headcount, and capital. This is how an outlier firm finds its unfair advantage.

Heart is now the differentiator.

In the Industrial Revolution, machines disrupted muscle. In today’s intelligence revolution, machines are disrupting minds. The heart must take center stage, so that human ethics guide financial engineering. We must ensure that AI works for us, not instead of us. This approach forces us to choose raising ambition over reducing costs, expanding human capacity over replacing it, increasing agency over reducing it. It’s easy in theory but difficult in practice. Implementing this ideology means an increasing number of professionals will have the ability to earn more while working less. The outlier firms that lead with heart will become magnets for top talent, creating an upward spiral that elevates the owners, employees, and clients alike.

Be an outlier.

History had room for slow and steady. The future will reward those who embrace it first. Our job is to live in that future, translate what we find, build what you’re missing, and teach what will help you win. Our job is to ensure your prosperity.

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