The build guarantee
Passes its evals by week 8
Each workflow passes the acceptance evals we agree at kickoff by week 8. If one does not, I keep working at no extra cost until it passes, or I refund the second 50%.
Home / Services / Scoped AI Build
The build.Priced per workflow.
The Scoped AI Build ships the first lines of your plan into the stack your team already runs. No migrations. You pay for workflows shipped, not hours, and the price is fixed in writing at the readout before any work starts.
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Every build starts from the plan. No plan yet? Start with the diagnostic.
- PriceFrom $7,500Per workflow shipped
- Minimum2 workflowsBuilds start at $15,000
- Term60 to 90 daysThe minimum runs about 8 weeks
- Credit$2,500 offDiagnostic fee, within 30 days
01 · What ships
Workflows inproduction.
The plan already says which workflows go first, who owns each one, what it takes today, and whether it needs plain code, an agent, or human review. The build ships those lines. What you get:
- The workflows, running in your stack. Your repo, your cloud, your accounts. Plain code wherever a rule does the job, and an agent only where the work takes judgment.
- Acceptance evals agreed at kickoff. A set of real examples and a pass bar for each workflow, written down before the build starts. That is what the guarantee checks.
- A before and after number. Every build is measured against the baseline in the plan: hours, days, or dollars. Your CFO sees what it returned.
- Agents that earn their autonomy. An agent starts by recommending and a named person approves. It gets more room only when the evals prove it can take it.
- A runbook and an eval suite your team owns. Failure modes, retries, escalation paths, and regression tests on the prompts that matter, all in your repo. Plus a recorded handoff session so the next hire onboards from the tape.
02 · How it is priced
Per workflow.Not per hour.
$7,500From, per workflow
2Workflow minimum
$15,000Where builds start
50 / 50Signing, then acceptance
A workflow is one piece of work from the moment it starts to the moment it is done, with one owner. Invoice arrives to invoice approved. New client signs to kickoff booked. The plan names each one on its own line, so you can count them. The number for each depends on the build type and the systems it touches. You see it in writing at the readout, before you sign anything, and it does not move once it is written.
You pay 50% at signing and 50% on acceptance, when the workflows pass their evals. If you sign within 30 days of the diagnostic readout, the full $2,500 diagnostic fee comes off the first invoice.
I do not bill hourly and I do not take vendor referral fees, so there is no reason for the build to get bigger than the plan.
03 · How it runs
Eight weeksfor the first two.
The two-workflow minimum runs about 8 weeks. Larger builds run 60 to 90 days. Daily Slack, two working sessions a week, and one person from your team riding along as the future owner.
Kickoff, weeks 1 to 2
We lock each workflow to the line in the plan, collect real examples, and agree the acceptance evals. The baseline from the plan gets confirmed so the after number means something.
Build, weeks 3 to 6
Plain code first. Agents only where the plan called for judgment, starting in recommend mode with a person approving. Integrations wired to the tools your team already uses.
Acceptance, weeks 7 to 8
Each workflow runs against its evals. When it passes, we measure it against the baseline and the second invoice goes out. Your owner runs the handoff session with me.
04 · The guarantee
It passes by week 8.Or I keep going.
What it assumes
Your inputs land on time
The guarantee holds when the inputs we list at kickoff arrive on the dates we agree: access, example data, and time with the workflow owner.
05 · Who it is for
You have the plan.Now ship it.
The build is step 2. It fits when the diagnostic is done, the first lines of the plan are clear, and you want them running instead of sitting in a document. Companies of roughly 20 to 200 people, where you own the AI decision and nobody else is running the program.
Workflows that fit well: document intake that turns PDFs, emails, and images into typed data, copilots inside the CRM or ticketing tool your team already uses, assistants that read from the layer your team and your AI both read from, and back-office matching and exception handling. If your workflow is not on that list, the plan will say whether it belongs in a build.
06 · FAQ
Questions.
What does a Scoped AI Build cost?
It is priced per workflow shipped, not per hour. From $7,500 a workflow, with a two-workflow minimum, so builds start at $15,000. The price is fixed in writing at the diagnostic readout, before any work starts. You pay 50% at signing and 50% on acceptance, and the $2,500 diagnostic fee comes off if you sign within 30 days of the readout.
What counts as one workflow?
One piece of work from the moment it starts to the moment it is done, with one owner. Invoice arrives to invoice approved is one. New client signs to kickoff booked is another. The plan gives each its own line, so you can count what you want built. The quick win in the plan does not count: it is sized so your team can ship it without me.
How does the $2,500 credit work with per-workflow pricing?
The credit comes off the build once, not off each workflow. Two workflows is $15,000, minus the $2,500 credit, so you pay $12,500 for the build and $15,000 in total including the plan. The plan cost you nothing. The credit comes off the first payment: $5,000 at signing instead of $7,500, then $7,500 on acceptance.
What is the guarantee?
Each workflow passes the acceptance evals we agree at kickoff by week 8, provided your inputs landed on time. If one does not, I keep working at no extra cost until it passes, or I refund the second 50%.
Can we start with a build and skip the diagnostic?
No. Every build starts from the plan, because the plan is where the baseline, the owner, and the build type come from. Without a baseline there is nothing to measure the build against. The diagnostic is $2,500 and it comes off the build if you sign within 30 days.
Do you build with our existing stack and AI vendor?
Yes. The build ships into the stack your team already runs, with no migrations. I work model-agnostic by default: Anthropic, OpenAI, Python, TypeScript, Postgres, and whatever your team already uses. The eval discipline and the observability patterns travel.
We have no AI engineer in-house. Can you still do this?
Yes. The build works best when one person from your team rides along as the future owner, not as the builder. If nobody fits yet, we name the owner in the plan and I train them during the build.
What happens after the build ships?
Your team runs it, with the runbook and the eval suite in your repo. If you want me to stay, there are two monthly options: AI System Continuity keeps what shipped running, and the Fractional retainer owns the program and the next builds.
GAT.
Pick the lines. I'll ship them. Measured against the baseline.
Tell me what the plan says, or what you think it will say. If the build fits, I will scope it in writing.
Book 30 minutes with EdwinNo plan yet? Start with the AI Program Diagnostic. $2,500, credited in full if you build within 30 days.