The AI Verdict Sprint · the paid diagnosis

In three weeks, know exactly what AI is worth to you.

A fixed-scope diagnosis of your operations and your team. You leave with five written deliverables: your workflows mapped, your use cases ranked by expected return, the no-gos in writing, a budgeted roadmap, and a session with your leadership team to decide on it.

Book your free fit call

A free 30-minute call to take an objective read of where you stand on AI today. If this is the wrong moment for you, we say so.

3Weeks
fixed scope
5Written
deliverables
10Interviews
across your teams
5Use cases
costed in full
What's in it for you

You go from "AI should help"
to a plan you can act on.

01

You decide on evidence

Every use case comes back with a number attached: expected return, cost to build, and what it needs from your team. You choose between options that have been measured, rather than pitched.

02

You know where the money goes first

The roadmap is ordered, so you know which project earns its keep soonest and which ones wait. The weak candidates are named as such, in writing, with the reasoning behind each one.

03

You know your team can run it

We read your team's readiness alongside the technical fit, because a system nobody adopts returns nothing. Each surviving use case comes with the skills gap it opens and how to close it.

What makes it different

Everyone diagnoses the tech.
We diagnose the tech and the team.

The build is 20%, adoption is 80%. A system your team never picks up returns nothing, however good the technology, so readiness belongs in the diagnosis rather than in the post-mortem.

The usual way
  • Lists tools and use cases
  • Assumes the team will figure it out
  • Hands you a slide deck of possibilities
  • Ends when the report is delivered
  • Success measured by the length of the list
The ZECEO way
  • Ranks use cases by expected return, with the weak ones named in writing
  • Reads your team's readiness and skills gap as part of the diagnosis
  • Hands you a budgeted roadmap you can take to your board
  • Points to the next step: upskill, build, or wait
  • Success measured by the right decision
Before the Sprint

It starts with an honest look
at where you stand.

Nobody should commit to a three-week engagement off a first conversation. So we start with two short sessions, and neither of them commits you to anything.

Free · 30 minutes

The fit call

An objective read of your situation: what you have already tried, where your teams lose time, how ready they are, and what is realistically within reach. You leave with a clearer picture whether or not you ever work with us.

Free · 30 minutes

The scoping session

If the Sprint is the right move, we go deeper on the operational detail: the scope to cover, the teams involved, access and timing. That is what turns a conversation into a firm, precise proposal you can approve or decline.

Nothing begins until you have seen and approved the full proposal, with the scope and the price fixed in it.

How the three weeks run

A fixed method,
not a black box.

Week 1

Map

We get inside how your teams actually work and where the hours go.

  • Interviews with the teams and the sponsor
  • Workflows and time sinks mapped
  • A first read of your team's readiness
Week 2

Rank

Each candidate is costed and scored one by one, and the ranking is built from the numbers.

  • Expected return and effort scored per use case
  • Prerequisites and adoption conditions named
  • The skills gap attached to each surviving case
Week 3

Decide

We hand you a decision you can act on, in order, with the budget attached.

  • A prioritised roadmap with a budget range per solution
  • The upskilling your team needs, mapped
  • A working session with your leadership team
What you leave with

Five deliverables to decide
your AI spending on.

Each one answers a question you have to answer anyway: where the time goes, what is worth building, what is not, in what order, and who signs off.

The process map

Where your teams actually lose time today, agreed with the people who do the work. The baseline every number in the report is measured against.

The ranking

Five use cases costed in full and ordered by expected return, each with its prerequisites and adoption conditions. Everything else we find is listed.

The no-go list

What does not earn its cost, named in writing with the reasoning. The document you use to close a debate internally, delivered whatever the verdict.

The roadmap

The sequence, the budget range per solution, the internal resources required and the milestones. Built to be defended in front of a board.

The decision session

One working session with your leadership team to take the decision, with the supporting pack you keep.

You own 100% of what we produce. The roadmap is written so that another provider, or your own team, could execute it without us.

The scope, in full

Fixed boundaries.
Published, not buried.

A three-week diagnosis works because it is bounded. Here is exactly what is inside the engagement and what sits outside it, so the proposal holds no surprises.

Included
Duration3 weeks
Interviews10 sessions, one hour each
ScopeFixed at the scoping session, before any proposal
Use cases costed5 in full, the rest listed
Report revisions1 round of comments, then final
Decision session1 with your leadership team
Not included
  • Development, prototypes or proof of concept
  • Data cleaning or migration
  • Vendor selection or negotiation
  • Team training and programme delivery
  • Implementation of the roadmap
  • Supplier specification documents
On the exclusions Vendor selection sits outside the Sprint by principle rather than by scope. We resell no software, hold no vendor relationships and take no referral fees, which is what makes the ranking worth reading. The rest are separate engagements, and the roadmap tells you which ones you need.
What we need from you

Three weeks is short.
It works if you are in it.

One point of contact

A single named person who can open doors, book the interviews and chase the documents. Committee coordination costs days we do not have.

Your time, twice

The sponsor sits in at the start and at the decision session. A diagnosis conducted without the decision maker produces a report nobody acts on.

Documents within 48 hours

Process documentation, tool inventories and volume data as we ask for them. The clock keeps running while we wait.

The guarantee

If nothing is worth building,
you pay half.

If the Sprint finds no use case worth the investment, that verdict is written into the final report and the second half of the fee is waived. The no-go list is delivered either way. You still leave with your processes mapped and a documented reason to hold your budget, which is worth more than a project that quietly fails eighteen months from now.

50%

waived if the verdict is that nothing on the list earns its cost. Written into the report, not negotiated afterwards.

Where it leads

The roadmap names
the next move.

Two of our practices can execute what the Sprint ranked. Which one the roadmap points to depends on whether the gap is in your team's skills or in your systems. Often it is both, in a stated order.

If the gap is in the team

Training & AI Adoption

We build your team's AI skills on the real use cases the Sprint surfaced, and hand you the programmes and internal academies you keep.

See Training & Adoption →
If the gap is in the systems

AI Automation

We build the systems the Sprint ranked highest, on your data, documented and handed over. Your team is trained to run them.

See AI Automation →

Neither is a condition of the Sprint. The roadmap is written so you could execute it with your own team, or with anyone else.

FAQ

The honest questions,
answered honestly.

How much does the Verdict Sprint cost?
It is a fixed price, agreed in writing before any work begins, and it moves with the size and complexity of your operations. The scoping session exists so the proposal you receive is precise, and so you never discover a cost after saying yes. Anything outside the published scope is quoted separately and never assumed.
Why five use cases and not everything you find?
Because costing a use case properly takes half a day, and a list of thirty ranked on instinct is worth less than five ranked on evidence. Everything we find is listed. Five are instructed in full, chosen with you at the end of week one. If your operations warrant more, we scope a wider Sprint at the scoping session rather than thinning the analysis.
Does the Sprint give me a detailed automation budget?
It gives you a budget range per solution rather than a line-by-line quote. A precise number requires build-level specification, which is a project in itself. What you get is an order of magnitude solid enough to decide with, to prioritise between solutions, and to defend when you ask for the funds.
What happens if the scope needs to grow mid-Sprint?
We tell you at the point we see it, and you decide. Additional domains, extra interviews or a second round of revisions are quoted as an amendment before any work on them starts. Three weeks holds because the boundaries hold.
What is the difference with a free consultation elsewhere?
Most free consultations are a sales call in disguise. Our fit call is an objective read of your situation, and you keep what you learn from it even if we never work together. The Sprint is a different order of thing: three weeks inside your operations, five written deliverables, and a roadmap you own outright.
Do I have to run the Sprint before working with you?
No. If the fit call shows your situation is already clear, the priority already identified and the internal case already made, we say so and go straight to the work. Selling a diagnosis for something you have already diagnosed would be charging you for a step you do not need. The Sprint earns its place when the direction is genuinely open.
Do I have to commit to a bigger project afterwards?
No. The Sprint stands on its own. You leave with a complete plan you could hand to anyone, including another provider or your own team. If you continue with us on adoption or automation, that is a decision you make on the evidence.
Start with the free fit call

Get an objective read on where you stand.

  • A free 30-minute fit call with the founder, no commitment
  • An honest assessment of your situation, your teams, and what is realistic
  • A second session scopes the Sprint properly, if it is the right move
  • A firm proposal with the scope and the price fixed, before anything starts

NB: The Sprint is built for mid-market operations. The fit call decides together whether it fits.

30 minutes. Directly with the founder.

An honest answer either way.

Book my fit call Usually available within the week.
ZECEO
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