AI Strategy Consulting
AI strategy consulting for growing businesses: roadmapping, vendor evaluation, and build-versus-buy decisions from an architect who ships the software.
You Don't Have an AI Problem. You Have a Decision Problem.
Every vendor pitching you AI has an answer before they've heard your question. Your board asks about your "AI strategy," and nobody in the room can say what that means for a business your size.
Meanwhile the real decisions pile up: build or buy, which vendor to trust, whether a process is even worth automating. Get one wrong and it costs money. Get the sequence wrong and it burns the budget and the goodwill you'll need for the next attempt.
This Is a Good Fit If...
- You're facing a build, buy, partner, or wait decision and want an honest outside read first
- You've been asked for an "AI strategy" and nobody has explained what it should contain
- You're weighing AI vendors and want someone with nothing to sell checking the pitch
- You want a written, prioritized roadmap before anyone starts building
Strategy First, Build Second
AI strategy consulting is advisory work, not build work. I help you decide what's worth automating, in what order, and whether to build, buy, or partner for each piece. You walk away with a written roadmap, not code.
I keep strategy separate from delivery on purpose. It's hard to hear an honest "this isn't worth building" from someone who bills for the building. When you're ready to build, AI automation and implementation is a separate engagement, and you're free to take the roadmap anywhere.
What This Actually Looks Like
Most engagements start with the AI Readiness Audit, a fixed-price engagement ($2,500 to $5,000) that scores where you stand and hands you a prioritized roadmap. If you want the framework behind that scoring first, the AI readiness guide walks through it. Need something bigger, like a vendor evaluation or a full roadmap? We'll scope it to the decision you're actually making.
Advice From Someone Who Has Actually Shipped the Software
Strategy firms hand you a roadmap and never touch the build. Workflow shops can wire up a demo but run out of engineering depth fast. I'm an architect with 23+ years of experience who still ships production code, so when I say a timeline is realistic, or fiction, it comes from having built the thing.
And you work with me directly, from the first call to the finished roadmap. No account manager, no hand-offs.
Common Questions
Advisory work that helps a business decide what to do about AI before anything gets built: which processes to automate, in what order, and whether to build, buy, or partner for each. The deliverable is a written roadmap, not software. At Reaction21 it typically starts with the AI Readiness Audit, a $2,500 to $5,000 fixed-price engagement.
Strategy decides what to do and whether it's worth doing. Implementation builds it: the automation, the integration, the feature. Strategy produces a roadmap; implementation produces working software. Reaction21 keeps them as separate services so the advice isn't shaped by what would be profitable to build.
If you want a return on the spend, yes. MIT's 2025 research found that AI builds done entirely in-house fail at roughly twice the rate of builds with outside expertise in the decision. Skipping strategy doesn't save time; it moves the cost from planning to rework.
Start with the specific decisions you're stuck on, not the trend you're reacting to: what to automate first, build or buy, which vendor to trust. A structured assessment like the AI Readiness Audit turns those into a scored, prioritized roadmap.
Even though Gabriel was a vendor, he proved to be an indispensable and trusted member of my team. He approaches each project with a strategic mindset, considering factors such as SEO, optimization, performance, and usability. He is one of the most pleasant, positive individuals I have ever worked with!
Is AI Strategy Consulting What You Need?
Tell me the decision you're trying to make. I'll give you a straight answer, even if it's that you don't need a consultant at all. The first conversation is free.
You're talking directly to Gabriel — not a sales rep or account manager. Typically responds within one business day.