FAQs
Questions About Working With ELab
Answers on where to start, what it costs, how the work runs and how your information is handled.
Getting Started
Getting Started
What the first few weeks involve, how the fee works and how to take a first step on your own.
How do we get started?
Book a 30-minute call about how your business runs and where your team's time goes. No preparation or project brief needed. If there's a fit, we follow up with a proposal setting out the scope, deliverables and timing.
What is AI Foundations?
It's where new clients start. Over 3 to 4 weeks we map how your business runs into a roadmap, set up an AI platform with your company's context, write an AI usage policy and get your first workflows in use. It includes a workshop for your leadership team and the wider team. Read more about AI Foundations.
How long does it take?
AI Foundations runs 3 to 4 weeks, with your first workflows in use by the end. After that, implementation sprints usually run 3 to 6 weeks each, one area of the business at a time. Each sprint is scoped and agreed on its own.
What does it cost?
AI Foundations and each implementation sprint have a fixed fee, agreed before work starts. The fee depends on the workflows, the systems involved and the support you want after delivery. Our AI consulting cost guide sets out what AI consulting costs in Australia and New Zealand, based on published prices.
Do we need our own technical team?
No. Most of our clients aren't technical. We build the workflows and the company context and connect the AI to your systems, so your team doesn't have to become AI builders. Each workflow has an owner on your side before it goes live.
What is the AI readiness assessment?
A free self-check: 12 questions on your people, processes, technology and knowledge and data. You get a score and a suggested next step in a few minutes, with no email needed. It's a starting point; a roadmap comes from AI Foundations. Take the assessment.
Who do you work with?
Most of our clients are established businesses in professional and business services and industrial operations, from owner-operators to about 200 staff. What they have in common is a team at capacity. We also work with investment managers, served from Hong Kong and Singapore, and with agencies.
Where are you based?
We're based in Auckland and work with businesses across New Zealand, including Wellington, and in Australia, in person and remotely. Investment management clients are served from Hong Kong and Singapore.
How We Work
How an Engagement Runs
People and process first, technology last. See how we work in more detail.
What is AI enablement?
It's advisory and implementation together. Advisory maps how your business runs and where AI fits. Implementation builds AI into the work across the business, so your team has more capacity for client work. Read our guide to AI enablement.
How is that different from AI consulting?
An AI consultant works out where AI should go first in a business and plans the change. We do that and then build it, with the same people from the first meeting to go-live. If all you need is a roadmap, an architecture and governance review or a second opinion on what a vendor proposes, we do that too.
Who does the work?
The people in your first meeting. They're operators who've run businesses and delivery themselves, and they learn your business from the inside by mapping the processes and working with your people. Meet the team.
What happens during an engagement?
Week one is discovery and scope: we map how the work is done and confirm the workflows. We fix the process before any AI goes in, using Lean Six Sigma where it helps. Then we build the workflows and company context, connect the AI to your systems and test with the people who'll use it until it works on their real work. Each workflow goes live with an owner on your side.
What are implementation sprints?
After AI Foundations, sprints build AI into one area of the business at a time, following the roadmap. Each runs 3 to 6 weeks, has a fixed fee and is named for the outcome you want, such as quoting, client notes or reporting.
What happens after delivery?
Ongoing support and managed AI services are optional. Support helps new workflows bed in. Managed AI services maintain and extend your workflows and company context as your business and the AI tools change. Read about managed AI services.
What will AI do for our team?
It takes on the routine work around client work, such as first drafts of proposals, reports and meeting notes, so your team has more capacity for clients. Your people stay in charge: a person reviews each output that matters, and every workflow has an owner.
What results can we expect?
It depends on the work. Before each build we agree what the workflow should change and how it'll be measured, then review the results against the scope at close-out. Most clients go on to a second engagement. Read the case studies.
Tools and Data
Tools, Data and Security
We build on the tools you already use. AI Foundations includes a usage policy and data handling rules, and every workflow has an owner and a review point.
Which AI tools do you work with?
Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, whichever fits your environment. The tools change fast, so we set up your company context and workflows to work across whichever tools your team uses. Compare the main platforms.
Can AI work with our existing systems?
Yes. We connect the AI to the systems your business already runs on, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and build integrations where a workflow needs them.
Where does our information sit?
In your own tools and accounts. Your company context sits in your own systems, such as SharePoint or Google Drive, and the workflows run inside the AI platform your team uses.
How do you keep our data safe?
We agree how information is handled before your team relies on AI. AI Foundations includes an AI usage policy and data handling rules, written to fit your existing security arrangements, and the AI platform is set up in your own accounts. Read our approach to security.
Who checks what the AI produces?
Your team does. Each workflow has an owner on your side, quality checks and a point where a person reviews the output before it's used.
What is shadow AI and why does it matter?
Shadow AI is people using their own AI tools at work without shared rules. Client information can end up in personal accounts, and nobody can see what goes where or check the output. One shared setup with a usage policy gives your team a safer way to work. Read the shadow AI playbook.
A Good Place to Start
Bring the Work You Want to Improve
Thirty minutes on how your business runs and what you'd like to improve. No preparation or project brief needed.
Book a Call hello@elab.co.nz