Question 1

Why does this work when most AI pilots don't?

Accepted Answer

Most AI projects never reach production. Gartner's 2024 forecast estimated that at least 30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned after proof-of-concept by end of 2025 (Gartner, "Predicts 2024: AI and Society" — gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases). The Workflow Audit → Automate → Deploy & Watch model exists to shortcut that failure pattern: the Workflow Audit identifies which manual workflows are worth automating before any code gets written, the monthly automate cadence keeps scope honest, the 30-day adoption check kills workflows nobody uses, and forward-deployed engineers keep everything alive on call.

Question 2

How much does Uplift AI cost?

Accepted Answer

Three monthly build tiers, each scaled to a different size of bottleneck and each available month-to-month at the standard rate or at a 20% discount with a 3-month commitment. Targeted Automation (Single-Workflow Optimization): $22,500/mo standard or $18,000/mo committed — 1 forward-deployed engineer isolates a single data path that touches 1-2 apps and automates it end-to-end. Connected Pipelines (Department-Wide Integration): $40,000/mo standard or $32,000/mo committed — 2 embedded engineers bridge 3-5 applications and teach the AI to follow complex business logic across multi-step workflows; the most popular tier. Custom Infrastructure (Company-Wide Transformation): $72,500/mo standard or $58,000/mo committed — a full forward-deployed engineering squad (3+ engineers) does deep infrastructure engineering across your full database and file deep-sync, typically including a proprietary knowledge architecture spanning thousands of legacy documents. Each workflow under active build has a usable first version live in your tools inside two weeks; we keep shipping into it until it runs reliably under full production, at which point it moves to ongoing care and a new workflow takes the open active-build slot. The same named team stays on your account for the duration of the engagement. Separately, AI Care is available at $5,000/month flat for clients whose backlog is caught up: maintenance-only on workflows Uplift originally built and deployed. After the first 3 months on any build tier, the engagement continues month-to-month at the committed rate, with a Continuity Hold option (30% of the active tier, up to 60 days per hold, capped at 90 cumulative days per year) that preserves the named team and committed rate when work needs to pause. Start month-to-month at the standard rate with no commitment. Commit to 3 months within 45 days of your first month and we credit the first-month premium back ($4,500 / $8,000 / $14,500 depending on tier), so try-then-commit costs the same total as committing on day one. Annual pre-pay saves an additional 10% on the committed rate. If you start with the $10K Workflow Audit instead, $1,667/month comes off your first 6 months on any build tier.

Question 3

How do I know which scale fits my business?

Accepted Answer

By the scale of the bottleneck you need cleared. Targeted Automation fits when one specific manual process is costing your team 40+ hours a week — one forward-deployed engineer isolates a single data path and automates it end-to-end (interacts with 1-2 apps). Connected Pipelines fits when an entire department (Finance, HR, Operations) is bogged down by manual data handling and screen-switching across multiple tools — two embedded engineers bridge 3-5 applications under complex business logic. Custom Infrastructure fits when you want proprietary AI infrastructure that transforms how your entire workforce accesses information — a full engineering squad does deep infrastructure engineering, typically centralizing thousands of legacy PDFs, contracts, and operational guidelines into a private natural-language search engine. If you're not sure which scale fits, the $10K Workflow Audit recommends the right one based on what we see inside your business.

Question 4

How many workflows will I have running after a year?

Accepted Answer

Depends on the workflows and the scale you pick. At Targeted Automation, simple workflows might cycle through active build in 3-4 weeks; complex ones in 2-3 months. Across a year most teams on Targeted Automation end up with 6-12 stable workflows in ongoing care. Connected Pipelines usually lands at 12-24, Custom Infrastructure at 18-36 plus the underlying infrastructure layer. We'd rather ship six workflows that actually work than twelve that ship half-baked.

Question 5

Is the team dedicated to us full-time?

Accepted Answer

On Targeted Automation and Connected Pipelines, forward-deployed engineers work across a small portfolio of clients, but the same named people stay on your account for the duration of the engagement, so nobody re-learns your business each month. On Custom Infrastructure, you get a full forward-deployed engineering squad (3+ engineers) embedded with your team — always available, with a one-hour response time during your business hours. That continuity is what makes the Audit / Automate / Deploy & Watch cycle work.

Question 6

What counts as one workflow?

Accepted Answer

A manual workflow your team is currently doing by hand, automated and live in your business, used by your team. Examples include a customer support drafting copilot inside your help desk, a quote generator that drafts from email threads, an internal search across your shared drive, or a sales follow-up bot. Each one targets two weeks from entering the active-build slot to a usable first live version. From there it stays in active build until it's stable. Bigger ones (full multi-system integrations, voice agents) take both slots on Connected Pipelines for a stretch — we tell you up front when that's the case.

Question 7

What is AI Care and when does it fit?

Accepted Answer

AI Care is a separate $5,000/month flat package that keeps the workflows Uplift previously built for you monitored, tuned, and running — without paying for new builds you don't need this quarter. Eligibility is restricted to workflows Uplift originally built, deployed, and currently operates; we don't take over workflows built by others. Includes continuous monitoring, vendor change handling, prompt regression testing on every major model release, a monthly health report, 4-hour business-hours response on breakage, and up to 5 hours/month of minor tuning. New workflow builds, material feature scaling, and after-hours on-call require moving up to a build tier. Most teams land on AI Care after their backlog is caught up, then move back up to a build tier when a new workflow comes in.

Question 8

Why is the model built around workflows from our team instead of a strategy roadmap?

Accepted Answer

Because the people doing the work know which manual workflows are eating their hours, and leadership-driven AI roadmaps usually pick the wrong things to automate. We set up a workflow-intake channel that your team can submit to in under a minute. Forward-deployed engineers supplement that with shadowing (sitting on calls, watching support tickets, riding along on sales follow-ups). Each month we score the workflows with you and you pick which one gets automated next.

Question 9

How does the Workflow Audit work and what does it cost?

Accepted Answer

$10,000 fixed fee, 3 weeks. Forward-deployed engineers sit with your team, map the manual workflows costing the most hours, and hand you a ranked list of what to automate first — with cost, time, and hours-back estimates for each. If you hire us after, the $10K becomes a $1,667/month discount on your first 6 months at any tier. If you don't, you keep the deliverable and the working workflow-intake channel.

Question 10

What stops scope creep without a fixed-fee SOW?

Accepted Answer

Two things: scale and active-build caps. Each tier is scoped to a specific scale of execution — Targeted Automation touches 1-2 apps, Connected Pipelines bridges 3-5, Custom Infrastructure goes full database and file deep-sync. Inside that scope, each tier caps how many workflows are in active build at the same time: 1, 2, or 3. We don't open a new active-build slot until a previous one stabilizes and moves to ongoing care. Big workflows (multi-system integrations, voice agents) can take both slots on Connected Pipelines for a stretch — we tell you up front when that's the case. The next workflow to enter an open slot is picked at the monthly scoring meeting. Ongoing care on previously-stabilized workflows runs in parallel and does not count against the active-build cap.

Question 11

What if an automated workflow doesn't get used?

Accepted Answer

We pull it back. Every workflow has a 30-day adoption check. If active usage is low by day 30, the automation gets replaced rather than maintained. We'd rather kill a workflow and automate a better one next month than have a polite, unused tool cluttering your stack.

Question 12

What's the exit process?

Accepted Answer

30-day exit notice at any monthly review point after the first 3 months, no termination fees. Every workflow lives in your tools from day one (your CRM, your email, your shared drive), so there's nothing to transfer. We hand over monitoring, document the runbooks for every workflow we automated, and stay available for a short hypercare period if you need it.

Question 13

Is there a minimum engagement size?

Accepted Answer

There's no required minimum on build tiers — but there is a real incentive to commit. The standard rates ($22,500 / $40,000 / $72,500 per month) are available month-to-month with no commitment. Commit to 3 months at signing and the rate drops 20% to $18,000 / $32,000 / $58,000 (saving $4,500 / $8,000 / $14,500 per month). If you begin month-to-month and commit within 45 days of your first month, we credit the first-month premium back to your retainer, so try-then-commit costs the same total as committing on day one. If you came through the $10K Workflow Audit, the $1,667/month credit applies for the first 6 months on any build tier. AI Care is a separate flat $5,000/month with no commitment minimum, but only available for workflows we previously built.

Question 14

Do you charge anything for seats, prompts, tokens, or users?

Accepted Answer

No. The retainer covers our work. AI model costs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) and any infrastructure costs flow through under your vendor accounts, typically a few hundred dollars a month per tier depending on usage.

Feature	Targeted Automation	Connected Pipelines	Custom Infrastructure
Dedicated resources	1 Forward-Deployed Engineer	2 Embedded Forward-Deployed Engineers	Full Engineering Squad (3+ Forward-Deployed Engineers)
Scope of work	1 specific process	Full department workflow	Company-wide infrastructure
System complexity	Interacts with 1–2 apps	Interacts with 3–5 apps	Full database & file deep-sync
Primary business value	Buys back hours for individuals	Eliminates department bottlenecks	Unlocks institutional scale & speed
Committed rate	$18,000 / month	$32,000 / month	$58,000 / month

Workflow	What changes	Why it matters
Customer support	Tickets resolved without escalation, faster first response, CSAT trend	Labor saved, fewer escalations, faster cycle time
Sales follow-up	Meetings booked from inbound, lead-to-call response time, follow-up coverage	Pipeline created from leads that would have gone cold
Operations & invoicing	Invoices processed without manual touch, exceptions resolved per day, error rate	Hours saved, exception cost avoided, throughput unlocked
Knowledge & onboarding	Time-to-answer for internal questions, ramp time for new hires, repeat-question rate	Hours returned to senior staff, faster new-hire productivity
Quote & proposal generation	Quotes generated per day, time from request to send, win rate on faster quotes	Revenue from quotes that would have been delayed or skipped

We build permanent solutions for your biggest business bottlenecks.

$22,500 / month

$40,000 / month

$72,500 / month

Not sure which scale fits? Run the Workflow Audit first.

Three scales. Pick the one that matches your bottleneck.

Targeted Automation

Connected Pipelines

Custom Infrastructure

How the three scales line up.

AI Care. Keep what we built running, without paying for new builds.

AI Care

How we measure whether a workflow earned its keep

When this model fits

Common questions, in plain English.

Pick a scale. Or start with the Workflow Audit.

We build permanent solutions for your biggest business bottlenecks.

$22,500 / month

$40,000 / month

$72,500 / month

Not sure which scale fits? Run the Workflow Audit first.

Three scales. Pick the one that matches your bottleneck.

Targeted Automation

Connected Pipelines

Custom Infrastructure

How the three scales line up.

AI Care. Keep what we built running, without paying for new builds.

AI Care

How we measure whether a workflow earned its keep

When this model fits

Common questions, in plain English.

Why does this work when most AI pilots don't?

How are the tiers priced?

How do I know which tier fits?

How is this different from staff aug?

What counts as one workflow?

What's AI Care and when does it fit?

What if my team doesn't generate enough ideas?

What if a workflow doesn't get used?

Doesn't a continuous retainer become a permanent dependency?

How does the 30-day exit work?

Do you charge for seats, tokens, or users?

Pick a scale. Or start with the Workflow Audit.