Puddle Alley, AI consultingPuddle Alley, AI consulting

AI consulting for established businesses

Find the one AI project that pays for itself, and have it working in two weeks.

I help firms in Northern Ireland and the UK pick the AI ideas worth doing, build them on real data, and hire the people to run them.

Book a free 30-minute callSee services and prices

Now booking November and December

Most businesses don't need an AI strategy. They need one problem solved properly, then another.

Sound familiar?

  • Your best people spend hours a week re-reading documents, re-typing the same information into three systems, and chasing people for answers.
  • Everyone has tried ChatGPT, but nothing has changed in how the business actually works.
  • Vendors keep pitching AI, and nobody in-house can tell what is real.
  • You need someone technical to hire the right people, and to say no to the wrong ones.

Software I've built for

  • Tesco Bank
  • Sky
  • Global
  • Cirrus Logic
  • Zipcar
  • Mind Candy
  • Carv

Services

Four ways I help

Fixed scope and price, agreed before we start. Most of my clients are professional services firms, but the work fits any business that runs on documents, email, and spreadsheets.

2 weeks · From £6,000

AI Prototype Sprint

Cut the hours your team loses to re-reading, re-typing, and chasing. We pick the one task that costs you most and build a working AI tool for it, on your own data.

  • A working prototype your team can try
  • A demo for your partners or directors
  • Costs and next steps to take it live
  • Code and documentation handed over
More about AI Prototype Sprint

Half day · From £1,500

AI Team Workshop

Turn "everyone has tried ChatGPT" into changed habits. Your team spends half a day using the AI tools they already pay for on their own real work.

  • Your team using AI on real tasks
  • A ranked list of your best AI opportunities
  • Simple guidelines for safe, confidential use
  • In person in Northern Ireland, or remote
More about AI Team Workshop

Per role · From £2,500

Technical Hiring

Hire engineers and AI specialists who can do the job, without being able to judge it yourself. I run the technical side so you don't make a £60k mistake.

  • Interview process and scorecards
  • Technical interviews run by me
  • Clear hire or no-hire write-ups
  • Help with offers and onboarding
More about Technical Hiring

Monthly · From £2,000 a month

Ongoing AI Support

Keep AI moving after the prototype without hiring a CTO. A senior engineer on call to build, review vendors, and give you straight answers.

  • Agreed days each month
  • Prototype and pilot development
  • Vendor and tool reviews
  • Cancel any month
More about Ongoing AI Support

How a sprint works

From idea to working prototype in ten working days

  1. Day 1

    1.Pick the idea

    A half-day session to choose the one use case with the clearest payoff and agree what "working" means.

  2. Days 2–9

    2.Build on your data

    I build the prototype against your real documents, systems, and workflows, with a check-in every few days.

  3. Day 10

    3.Demo and handover

    A live demo for your partners or directors, the code and docs, and a costed plan for taking it live.

Track record

Putting machine learning into real products since 2016

AI is new to most businesses. Shipping it is not new to me. I'm a former startup CTO with 15 years building software used by millions of people.

You get me, not a team of 150. The person on the first call is the person who builds the prototype and presents it to your partners or directors.

More about me

  • 2026

    AI adoption for a multinational professional services group

    Prototyping internal AI tools and running technical hiring for the team that will own them.

  • 2020–24

    AI video recommendations at One21Two

    Designed the recommendation system behind a music-tech platform as co-founder and CTO.

  • 2019

    Machine learning for a high-street bank

    Auto-categorised business banking payments with ustwo and a third-party data science team.

  • 2019

    On-device AI at Carv

    Worked with the ML team to run their ski-coaching model efficiently on Android, in three months.

  • 2016–17

    Voice biometrics at Cirrus Logic

    Built the test and demo platform for a Fortune 500 voice-recognition chip launch.

Confidentiality

What about confidential data?

The first question every partner or director asks, and the right one. This is how a prototype is built.

Your NDA, signed first
I sign your engagement letter and NDA before I see a single document, I work under your own information security policy, and Puddle Alley Ventures Ltd carries professional indemnity insurance.
Your data stays yours
Prototypes run in your own cloud or Microsoft 365 tenant where possible. Nothing is used to train a model, and nothing is kept once the work is handed over.
Business-grade AI only
I use the business tiers of the AI providers, whose terms exclude your data from training, and I tell you plainly which provider is used and why.

Contact

Got an AI idea worth testing?

Tell me what you want AI to do for your business. I reply within one working day to book a free 30-minute call.

Location
Belfast, and remote across the UK