AI Proof Pilot
Automate your most painful process, proved on your own numbers
Pick the single task that eats your team's week. We build an intelligent AI system that does it on your real data, for a fixed fee, with the success metric agreed up front.
Live on one process in about two weeks. Proved on your metric in 30 days. One extra month on us if needed. £9,950. Hit the metric, or you don't pay.
The problem
Smart, expensive people doing work that software should handle
Your best people lose hours every week to the same repetitive admin: copying data between systems, formatting the same reports, chasing information, triaging the same inbox. It's expensive, it's draining, and it's exactly the kind of work that doesn't need a human. Most teams know this. They just don't have a safe, proven way to hand it over.
The offer
One painful process, automated and backed by a metric
Pick the repetitive task draining the most hours from your team. We scope it, lock the success metric in writing at kickoff, and build a working AI system that does it on your real data for one fixed fee. Once access and data are in place, it's typically live in about one to two weeks. Then you get 30 days to see it hit the number on real work. If we can't get there, you don't pay.
Live in about two weeks, proved over 30 days
One process, from baseline to live in about one to two weeks once access is in place, then measured against the metric we locked at kickoff.
Scope & lock the metric
We pick one painful process, lock the single metric that defines success in writing at kickoff, and measure where you are today. Without a baseline there's no way to prove the saving, so this comes first.
Build & go live
We build on your real data and your real edge cases, not a sanitised demo. Once access and data are in place, the workflow is typically live in about one to two weeks. You see it working through the build, not just at the end.
Prove it on real work
You get a 30-day prove window to hit the metric on real work. Hit it and the balance falls due, including if we get there early. Fall short at day 30 and we carry on for up to another 30 days at no extra pilot cost. If we still can't get there, you don't pay.
What you get
Something working, and the proof it works
A working AI system
Not a slide deck or a throwaway prototype. A system doing your chosen process on real data, in production.
Evidence against the locked metric
The before-and-after numbers: how long the process took, how long it takes now, and the hours reclaimed, measured against the metric we agreed at kickoff. Evidence, not assertion.
Hand-over docs and a runbook
Everything your team needs to run, monitor and trust the system: how it works, what to watch, and what to do if something looks off.
Recommendations to scale
Where the next highest-leverage automation sits and what it would take, so you decide what comes after with eyes open.
What a pilot looks like
Two example workflows
The flow is simple by design. Making it reliable on your real data is the work. That's what a pilot builds and proves.
Illustrative examples of the shape a pilot can take, not real client systems.
Supplier & contract onboarding
OnboardingYou stay in control. Anything the system isn't sure about gets routed to a person.
Documents arrive
Whatever the format: PDFs, scans, emailed forms, each supplier's own layout. The system takes them as they come.
The system processes it
Reads each document, pulls the key terms, and cross-checks them against your existing records and rules, the part that quietly eats hours of a senior person's week today.
Human review
Only the cases the system flags as uncertain reach a person. Everything clear-cut is handled automatically. You set where the line sits.
Recorded across systems
Written into your CRM, finance and document systems consistently, with nothing missed or keyed in twice.
Quote & proposal preparation
QuotingYou stay in control. Every quote is checked by a person before it goes out.
Request comes in
From wherever they land (inbox, web form or CRM), captured automatically so nothing slips.
The system prepares it
Pulls the right pricing, terms and history, and drafts a complete quote, the work that normally ties up your best person for an afternoon.
Human review
Your team reviews and adjusts before anything goes out. The system does the heavy lifting; the judgement stays with you.
Sent to the client
Delivered, logged and tracked, so follow-up never falls through the cracks.
Every pilot runs on the Forta Toolkit, the same AI infrastructure behind all our client systems
Observability
Every model call traced
Safety
PII redacted, guardrails on
Cost control
Spend capped per workflow
Durability
Retries, recovery, no lost work
The guarantee
We carry the risk, not you
Before we build, we lock the one metric that defines success, in writing, and measure your starting point. Once it's live, you get 30 days to see it hit that number on real work, and one further month on us if we're short. We hit the metric, or you don't pay, and you keep everything we've built. The guarantee holds as long as you hold up your side: the access, data and timely feedback we agree at kickoff.
The metric, locked at kickoff
We define the one number that means success, in writing, before any build starts. No moving the goalposts later.
Hit it and the balance is due
The second half is only ever due when the metric is hit and evidenced. Get there before day 30 and it still counts. You never pay out the clock.
Short at day 30? One more month on us
Up to another 30 days on the same scope and metric, at no extra pilot cost. If we still can't get there, you don't pay and you keep everything we built.
Proof
What our clients say
“Our vision was completely understood and our goals became Forta Studio's goals. The end result is nothing short of incredible.”
Sean Brattley
Founder, MerchantLink
“Proper quality work from people who clearly care about what they put their name to.”
Harley Sanders
Founder, Incus Audio
The maths
How it pays for itself
One person doing eight hours a week of repetitive admin, at a loaded cost of around £50 an hour, costs you roughly £20,000 a year, every year, indefinitely.
A pilot is a one-off £9,950. If it works, that saving keeps landing, year after year. Even after the running costs of keeping it live, the pilot pays for itself comfortably inside a year, and the system keeps running long after.
And if it doesn't hit the number we agreed, even after the free extension? You don't pay. That's the whole reason the guarantee exists: the maths only works in your favour.
Here's an illustrative shape of a typical pilot:
A growing firm brings on new suppliers and clients regularly, and each one means onboarding: collecting documents, checking the details, cross-referencing them against existing records, and setting everything up across their systems. It's careful, repetitive work, and it's usually done by someone senior enough to catch the mistakes, which makes it expensive.
A pilot would scope that one process, agree the metric (say, cut the hours spent per onboarding by 80%) and build a system that reads each document, extracts and validates the key details, sets up the records automatically, and flags only the cases that genuinely need a human.
At around 12 hours a week reclaimed from senior staff, that's roughly £37,000 a year back before running costs. Against a £9,950 pilot, the saving is the easy part: the only question we'd answer first is whether your version of this is as clean as it sounds. That's what the scoping call is for.
At a glance
~12 hrs
Reclaimed each week
~£37,000
A year, before costs
£9,950
One-off pilot fee
Run your numbers
Put your own figures in
Reclaimed hours are worth
£20,800
a year, gross
Net saving after running costs
£12,400
with Run & Maintain · £700/mo
Pilot pays back in
10 months
9.6 months to be precise
Reclaiming this is worth ~£20,800 a year. Hosting and AI usage run on your own accounts at cost (about £200/month); Run & Maintain adds £500/month for us to run it, so it's £700/month all in. Your net saving is £12,400 and the pilot pays back in 10 months. You'd carry hosting and AI usage self-hosting anyway; the £500/month is just for us to run it, monitor it and fix it.
Pricing
One fixed fee to prove it, then a simple way to keep it running
The pilot
£9,950+ VAT
Fixed fee. One process, live in about two weeks and proved over 30 days.
What's included
- Scoping workshop and the success metric locked in writing
- A measured baseline of the current process
- The working AI system, built on your real data
- Hand-over documentation and a runbook
- A 30-day prove window on real work
- A readout of the proven result against the baseline
- A further 30 days at no extra pilot cost if we're short at day 30
- Recommendations on what to automate next
The metric is locked in writing at kickoff. We hit it, or you don't pay. The number that defines success is fixed before we start.
How it's paid
- 50% deposit on signature, due before kickoff.
- 50% balance when the agreed metric is hit and evidenced, in the prove window or the extension, including early.
- No extra pilot fees during the free extension.
- If we still can't hit it, the deposit is refunded in full, the balance is never invoiced, and you keep the deliverables, provided the access, data and feedback we agreed at kickoff were in place.
Keeping it running
OptionalRun & Maintain
From£500/month + VAT
Once it's proven, we keep it doing its job, so the saving keeps landing month after month. We host, monitor and maintain it for a fixed monthly fee. Hosting and AI usage run on your own accounts, managed by us and billed to you at cost, never marked up. The natural next step, never a condition.
What it covers
- Hosting and infrastructure managed by us, billed to your accounts at cost
- Monitoring and alerting via the Toolkit's observability layer
- Error handling, retries and incident response
- Model and prompt updates as providers change
- Small tweaks as the process evolves, up to 2 hours/month included
- AI usage stays on your own AI accounts, billed to you, never marked up
Or run it yourself
You own the system and the code, so you can take the handover and self-host it on your own infrastructure. Running costs go straight to your own accounts, never marked up. The trade-off is simple: if you self-host, it isn't supported, monitored or maintained by us. Run & Maintain exists for the teams who'd rather that stayed our problem.
We only take two pilots a month
Each one gets our full attention from kickoff until the metric is hit. That's the only way the guarantee works, extension included. When the month is full, it's full.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How it works
- We lock the metric. Before anything starts, we define the success metric and the baseline together, in writing, at kickoff. You know exactly what we're aiming at and how it'll be measured.
- You secure your slot. A 50% deposit books your place in the build schedule. It's fully refunded if we can't hit the agreed metric, so it's tied to your result, not just a payment.
- We build and go live. We automate the one workflow we've scoped and get it running in your business, typically about one to two weeks after access and data are in place. You keep everything we build, whatever happens.
- We prove it over 30 days. Once it's live you get a 30-day prove window on real work. When the metric is hit and evidenced, the balance falls due, and that counts if we get there early. Fall short at day 30 and we carry on for up to another 30 days at no extra pilot cost. If we still can't get there, you don't pay: deposit refunded in full, balance never invoiced, and you keep everything we built.
What's included in the fixed fee, and what isn't?
The fee covers everything we do to deliver the pilot: scoping, building, testing, and handing over a working system on your data, plus documentation. What it doesn't cover is running the system once it's live. After the pilot you choose how it runs:
Managed (Run & Maintain). We host, monitor and maintain it from £500/month + VAT. Hosting and AI usage stay on your own cloud and AI accounts, managed by us and billed to you at cost, so they're never marked up and you keep full visibility. The fee is for the running and support, not the running costs themselves.
Self-hosted. Take the handover and run it on your own infrastructure and accounts. All running costs go directly to you, never marked up. The trade-off is that it isn't supported or maintained by us.
Either way there's no markup on usage. We'll give you a clear estimate of expected monthly running costs during scoping, and cost controls are built in as standard so there are no surprises.
What happens to my data?
What if you don't hit the metric?
How does payment work?
The pilot fee is fixed at £9,950 + VAT, split in two and tied to the result rather than the calendar:
- 50% deposit on signature, due before kickoff. It books your slot in the build schedule.
- 50% balance when the agreed metric is hit and evidenced. That applies in the initial prove window or the extension, and it counts if we hit it early. You never wait out the clock to pay for something already proven.
There are no additional pilot fees during the free extension. If we still can't hit the metric by the end of it, and you've met the access, data and feedback dependencies we agreed at kickoff, you get the full deposit back, the balance is never invoiced, and you keep the deliverables. If those dependencies aren't met, the guarantee path doesn't apply and the deposit is non-refundable under the agreement.
Who owns the code?
Do I have to take the retainer?
Can it really go live in a couple of weeks?
Can we automate more processes later?
Yes, and it costs considerably less than the first one. Most of a first pilot's fee goes on foundations rather than the process itself: connecting to your systems, getting access to your data, the safety and monitoring layers, and understanding how your business actually works. That's all built and paid for after the first pilot.
A second process only pays for the process. Additional workflows start from £4,950 + VAT, around half a standalone pilot, with the exact figure depending on complexity and how many new systems it needs to touch. Same fixed fee, same agreed metric, same guarantee.
Adding workflows increases what we're running for you, so the Run & Maintain fee steps up accordingly, and we'll always price that before you commit.
I've finished a pilot and want to go further: do I need another audit?
Book your pilot call
Pick a time to discuss your pilot build with us
A short, no-pressure call to find the right process and confirm the pilot is a fit. If it isn't, we'll tell you.
Prefer to reach out first? Get in touch via the contact form.