Where to start with AI in a small business: a five-question audit
Before you buy another AI tool, answer these five questions. They'll tell you where AI will pay off in your business, and where it won't.
AI consulting for small businesses
AI that works for the way you work.
The big consultancies built their AI practices for the Fortune 500. We built ours for everyone else: senior people, fixed scopes, real systems live in weeks, on the tools you already use.
The problem
You have the tools. You don't have the results.
Most small businesses already pay for AI somewhere: a chatbot subscription, a CRM add-on, a tool someone signed up for on a Friday. What's missing isn't software. It's someone who understands both the technology and how your business actually runs, and who'll wire the two together properly.
That used to mean hiring a firm like Accenture. Now it means hiring us.
How we work
All services Assess. Build. Run.
01 / Assess
Find the payoff
We map how work moves through your business and pinpoint the two or three places where AI will save real time or money. You get a prioritised roadmap with expected returns.
AI opportunity audit
02 / Build
Ship it into your workflow
We design and build the system — agents, automations, integrations — inside the tools your team already uses, with humans in control of anything that matters.
Fixed-scope build sprint
03 / Run
Make it compound
We train your team, monitor what we built, and keep improving it. Every month the system gets a little smarter and takes on a little more.
Ongoing partnership
What you can count on
How we engage Every engagement, the same commitments.
WeeksFrom kickoff to a working system, not months of discovery decks
1 priceFixed scope and fee, agreed in writing before we start
100%Of customer-facing actions approved by your team until you say otherwise
0 lock-inYou own everything we build, documented and handed over
What we build
Practical AI for the work that eats your week.
AI agents
Agents that do the legwork
Research, qualification, triage and follow-up handled by agents that check before they act and ask when they're unsure.
Automation
Workflows that run themselves
Client onboarding, document collection, approvals and reminders. Your team only steps in when something actually needs them.
Integration
Your tools, finally connected
Inbox, CRM, ERP, docs and project tools wired into one flow, so information is entered once and is always where you need it.
Knowledge
Answers from your own documents
Private assistants that search your policies, proposals and past work, so the team stops asking the same three people.
Reporting
Visibility without the spreadsheet
Automatic status updates, weekly summaries and dashboards pulled straight from where the work happens.
Enablement
A team that's confident with AI
Hands-on training and simple guidelines, so your people use AI well, safely, and without needing us forever.
Our stack
Built on the frontier.
We build with the same models and clouds the largest companies use, and pick the right one for each job rather than locking you into a single vendor.
Anthropic
OpenAI
Google Cloud
Why Dimsou
The middle option that didn't exist.
Big consultancy
Built for enterprise budgets.
- Large minimum engagements
- Partners sell, juniors deliver
- Months of discovery decks
- Often recommends new platforms
Freelancer or DIY
Cheap to start, costly to fix.
- Tool-first, not business-first
- No one owns it after launch
- Fragile, undocumented builds
- Hit-or-miss quality
Dimsou
Senior expertise, small-business scope.
- Fixed scopes you can budget for
- Senior people design and build
- Live in weeks, measured in results
- Built on the tools you already use
Insights
View all insights Notes from the field.
Playbook
Field notes
Why AI projects stall in small businesses (and how to avoid it)
The tools work. The projects stall anyway. Here are the four patterns we see most often, and the simple fixes for each.
Engineering
Human-in-the-loop: how we build AI agents you can actually trust
Autonomous AI makes for great demos and nervous business owners. Here's the design pattern we use to get the speed of an agent with the judgement of a person.
How is Dimsou different from a big consultancy?
You work directly with senior people who design and build the system themselves, not a partner who sells it and a junior team who delivers it. Engagements are fixed-scope and measured in weeks, and we build on the tools you already use.
We're a small team. Is AI even worth it for us?
Often, yes. Small teams feel the time savings most because every hour comes off someone who's already stretched. But not always. The free consult exists so we can tell you honestly whether there's a project worth doing.
Do we need to change our software?
No. We connect and extend what you already use: your inbox, CRM, ERP, documents and project tools. No rip-and-replace.
Which industries do you work with?
Service businesses of 5–200 people: professional services, agencies, clinics, trades, property, logistics and more. The patterns (intake, documents, follow-up, reporting) repeat across industries. We also run a dedicated bid intake and estimating program for commercial subcontractors.
How do you keep AI from making mistakes with our clients?
Anything customer-facing is human-approved by default. Our agents check history before acting, never invent information, and escalate anything ambiguous. You decide if and when to loosen that.
What happens after the build?
You own everything we build. We document it, train your team, and can stay on a monthly plan to monitor, improve and extend it, or hand it over completely.
Find out where AI would actually pay off in your business.
A free 30-minute call. We'll ask about your workflows, point out the two or three places AI is worth it, and tell you honestly if it isn't.