AI strategy · development · implementation
Make work better. Use AI where it helps.
We help you work out where AI can make a difference, build the right solutions, and make them part of everyday work.
From a clear plan to everyday use.
Strategy, development and implementation work best together. We help you decide what to do, build it, and make sure it works for the people using it.
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Decide
Understand where your time goes and what could work better. We assess where AI would help, weigh up the costs and risks, and agree a practical plan with clear priorities and ownership.
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Build
Build the simplest reliable solution to the problem: better access to knowledge, less repetitive admin, or tools that connect your existing systems. We test early ideas with your team before developing them for everyday use.
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Embed
Help people use the solution with confidence. We adapt workflows, establish ownership and safeguards, and support your team as they get started. Then we measure what improves and what still needs work.
A practical starting point
Know what is
worth doing next.
AI Opportunity Review
For organisations with an interest in AI, but no clear place to start. We focus on one team, function or process and find out where a change would make a useful difference.
2–3 weeks Fixed fee, agreed before we begin
From the work
to a recommendation.
Understand what happens today
Talk with the people doing the work, follow the workflow and identify where time, information or effort gets lost.
Test the opportunities
Assess likely value, feasibility, data access and risks. Compare AI with simpler options and check the assumptions with your team.
Agree the next step
Review a shortlist together. You receive a written recommendation with indicative cost and effort, dependencies and a sensible route forward.
What you leave with
A prioritised opportunity map. Two or three candidates worth considering. An explicit list of what to leave alone, and why. Enough detail to decide what happens next.
The review stands on its own. There is no commitment to a build.
Ask about a reviewThe problem shapes the solution.
How we approach common problems: understand what needs to change, choose a proportionate solution, and agree how people will oversee it and measure the result.
Our approach
Make the answers easier to find.
What we would change
Search that finds relevant answers in your existing documents and links back to the source, so staff can check the detail.
- Human oversight
- Document owners keep guidance current. Staff can check every answer against its source; unclear or sensitive questions go to the policy owner.
- How we would measure it
- Time to find a correct answer, source accuracy and questions still needing help, compared with the current process.
Our approach
Automate the assembly. Keep the judgement.
What we would change
An automated process that gathers the figures and prepares a draft, ready for someone to check and approve. Structured inputs may need conventional automation rather than AI.
- Human oversight
- A named manager checks the figures and approves publication. Missing inputs and unusual values are flagged for review rather than silently filled in.
- How we would measure it
- Preparation time, corrections before publication and missed reporting deadlines, measured against a baseline before the trial.
Our approach
Give the team a useful first draft.
What we would change
An assistant that draws on approved information to prepare replies, with links to the relevant guidance. Start with common enquiries and route exceptions to the right person.
- Human oversight
- Staff check each draft before sending it. Sensitive requests and decisions about individual customers stay with the responsible team.
- How we would measure it
- Response time, accuracy, the amount of editing needed and whether customers get their question resolved.
Our approach
Make the tools useful in the work people do.
What we would change
Work with a team to find where the existing tools help, adapt the workflow and provide practical support. Address access, trust and data concerns before extending the rollout.
- Human oversight
- A named owner agrees appropriate uses and checks the quality of work. Staff have clear guidance on what to check and when to ask for help.
- How we would measure it
- Time and quality on the chosen tasks, confidence using the tools and sustained use where it improves the work.
Our approach
Start with the work, not the technology.
What we would change
A review of how work happens today, a shortlist of useful opportunities, and a practical plan for the ones worth pursuing.
- Human oversight
- Process owners test the assumptions. Leadership chooses what to fund, with costs, risks and responsibilities made explicit.
- How we would measure it
- Whether the first agreed use case improves the outcome it was chosen for. Activity and AI usage alone do not count as success.
How we work with you.
We start with what you need and build on what you already have. You can join us at any stage, from exploring an idea to improving a system already in use.
Discover
Understand your goals, your people and how work happens today.
Design
Agree the priorities, the approach and what success looks like.
Build
Develop and test the solution with the people who will use it.
Embed
Put it into practice with clear ownership and support for your team.
Improve
Measure the results and keep improving what matters.
Already have a clear problem or a system in use? We can scope a focused build, implementation or improvement engagement.
Talk it throughIndependent.
From the outset.
Dovecote is an independent AI strategy, development and implementation practice based in Cheshire.
We work from your organisation's priorities, rather than a platform we need to sell. That gives us room to recommend buying, integrating or building — and to say when a simpler change would do.
Our role is to connect the decisions with the delivery: understand the problem, make something useful, and help the people responsible for it put it to work.
The name comes from a shared home for independent birds. A useful structure, with room for many parts to work together.
Start with the problem.
Email a few lines about your organisation, the work you want to improve and what prompted you to look at it now. If you have already tried something, tell us what happened. You do not need a specification.
An initial conversation carries no commitment.