Most AI projects stall between the demo and production.
That gap is architecture, not the model. I'm Nic Chin, an independent AI consultant and fractional CTO, and I design and build the systems that close it - for teams across the UK, US, and Europe. A two-week discovery sprint, then a first production build in four to six weeks.
Or describe your project in the chat, or email nic.chin@nicchin.com
· engagements
What you can buy
Each one is fixed in scope and price before work starts. No hourly billing.
| If this is you | Engagement | What you get | Takes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your app works. Is it safe to launch? | AI-Built App Review (opens in a new tab) | Data access, secrets, auth, payments and any AI feature checked by an architect, with a fix order and a walkthrough. | 5 working days | From £1,000 / $1,300 |
| Users see each other’s data, or results differ between users. | Supabase Architecture Review (opens in a new tab) | RLS policies, storage rules, auth flows and multi-user behaviour reviewed, with a fix order. | Agreed before work starts | From £1,000 / $1,300 |
| An enterprise security review, a pilot or a scale-up is coming. | AI Security & Architecture Review (opens in a new tab) | Six check areas, every finding with its evidence, a fix order and a walkthrough. An architect’s review, not a pentest. | 1-4 weeks | From £2,000 |
| One hard decision: build or buy, which architecture, is this design safe? | Architecture Decision Day (opens in a new tab) | A pre-read, a working day on your system, and a written decision record within 48 hours. Credited in full against a security review. | 1 day | £600 |
| Is this worth building, and what will it cost? | Two-Week Discovery Sprint (opens in a new tab) | A working prototype on your real data, an architecture document, an evaluation set and a fixed build estimate. | 2 weeks | From £2,450 |
| Nobody senior owns the AI roadmap. | Fractional AI CTO (opens in a new tab) | Architecture decisions, code review and accountability for what ships, usually one or two days a week, up to three around a launch. | Monthly | From £1,000 / $1,350 a month (half a day a week) |
Your app works. Is it safe to launch?
AI-Built App Review (opens in a new tab)Data access, secrets, auth, payments and any AI feature checked by an architect, with a fix order and a walkthrough.
5 working daysFrom £1,000 / $1,300
Users see each other’s data, or results differ between users.
Supabase Architecture Review (opens in a new tab)RLS policies, storage rules, auth flows and multi-user behaviour reviewed, with a fix order.
Agreed before work startsFrom £1,000 / $1,300
An enterprise security review, a pilot or a scale-up is coming.
AI Security & Architecture Review (opens in a new tab)Six check areas, every finding with its evidence, a fix order and a walkthrough. An architect’s review, not a pentest.
1-4 weeksFrom £2,000
One hard decision: build or buy, which architecture, is this design safe?
Architecture Decision Day (opens in a new tab)A pre-read, a working day on your system, and a written decision record within 48 hours. Credited in full against a security review.
1 day£600
Is this worth building, and what will it cost?
Two-Week Discovery Sprint (opens in a new tab)A working prototype on your real data, an architecture document, an evaluation set and a fixed build estimate.
2 weeksFrom £2,450
Nobody senior owns the AI roadmap.
Fractional AI CTO (opens in a new tab)Architecture decisions, code review and accountability for what ships, usually one or two days a week, up to three around a launch.
MonthlyFrom £1,000 / $1,350 a month (half a day a week)
Not sure which fits? A 45-minute call settles it.
Bring the system and the decision in front of you. You leave knowing which engagement fits, or with a plain answer that you need none of them. The price is fixed in writing before any work starts.
call at no charge · paid, fixed-price work from £600
Senior AI leadership, without the hire
fractional AI CTO
Part-time senior AI leadership - strategic roadmaps, team mentorship, architecture oversight, and hands-on engineering without the cost of a full-time executive hire.
Work that runs itself, with a person in control
multi-agent systems
Production-grade systems where multiple AI agents collaborate - from 4-agent development pipelines to 20-agent trading ensembles with consensus validation.
Answers from your own documents, with sources
enterprise RAG
Enterprise document intelligence with hybrid search, a 94% retrieval hit-rate across six benchmark suites, a citation check that blocks any answer citing a source it did not retrieve (0 in 297 published test cases), and source attribution.
The repetitive admin, off your team's desk
AI automation
Business process automation using AI agents, n8n workflows, and custom integrations - from document processing to lead qualification and compliance checking.
Proof it works before the full build
AI MVP sprint
A two-week discovery sprint, then a four-to-six-week first build with measurable milestones and clear handover documentation.
Know which AI is actually worth building
strategy & roadmap
Evaluating your business for AI opportunities, building implementation roadmaps, and providing vendor-agnostic technology guidance.
How engagements start
There are two ways in. If you already have an AI system or an AI-built app, start with a review from the table above: it says what to fix first, at a fixed price. If you are deciding what to build, start with a two-week discovery sprint that scopes one workflow, then a first build of four to six weeks targeting it. If that build does not prove measurable value, you stop there - before committing to anything larger.
Discovery sprints start at £2,450. Beyond that, scope drives price, so the build is quoted after discovery rather than guessed before it.
Background reading, if you want it first: what AI implementation actually costs, how to vet an AI consultant, and what a fractional AI CTO does.
AI Consulting Services: What I Deliver
I provide enterprise AI consulting with a focus on production-grade systems that deliver measurable business value. My current and prior track record includes:
- Shipping SureCiteAI as sole architect - a live multi-tenant document intelligence SaaS with an 8-stage RAG pipeline, 147ms average response, a 94% retrieval hit-rate across six benchmark suites, and 4-layer tenant isolation (sureciteai.com)
- Shipping SystemAudit as sole architect - a live codebase intelligence SaaS that turns any GitHub repo into a full architecture, security, and AI-readiness report in under 3 minutes (systemaudit.dev)
- Architecting an AI legal document analysis platform that cut manual LPA review time by 70%+, from 4-6 hours per document to minutes
- Building a 20-agent LLM ensemble that scored 38,319 agent predictions against market outcomes, with a public gate that refuses to claim skill it cannot prove
- Previously co-founding SculptAI and leading its 4-person AI team; SculptAI raised $350K in seed funding and shipped a 4-agent game development pipeline reducing development time by 70%
- Creating AI-powered marketing automation with 5 specialised AI tools for solopreneurs
Custom AI Platform Development
Beyond consulting, Nic Chin builds custom AI systems end-to-end - from architecture design to production deployment. This is not prototype work. These are production systems with monitoring, error handling, and enterprise-grade reliability.
What gets built:
- Custom AI platforms - tailored to your business workflows, data, and integration requirements
- Enterprise RAG systems - document intelligence with a 94% retrieval hit-rate across six benchmark suites, source attribution, and a citation check that blocks any answer citing a source it did not retrieve (0 in 297 published test cases)
- Multi-agent AI systems - from 4-agent content pipelines to 20-agent trading ensembles
- AI chatbots - RAG-powered, document-aware, with full source attribution (not template FAQ bots)
- AI document processing - contract analysis, compliance checking, automated extraction
The delivery model is structured sprints with weekly demos. A typical engagement starts with a two-week discovery sprint, followed by a four-to-six-week MVP build targeting your highest-value use case. If the MVP does not deliver measurable value, you stop before committing to full build - minimising risk.
For UK and US businesses, see the dedicated pages: Custom AI Development UK and Custom AI Development US.
For a productized, done-for-you option, see AI Automation With Human Approval, a managed monthly service where AI does the repetitive work and a human approves every output before it goes out.
If the work is document-heavy - answering questions across contracts, policies, claims files or filings, with every answer citing its source - see RAG implementation services, covering hybrid retrieval, verified citations, and access control enforced at retrieval time.
If the work needs a system that decides its own next step rather than following a fixed process, see AI agent development services - autonomy boundaries, scoped tool permissions, observability, and a shadow-mode rollout.
Where this works best
High-volume knowledge work, document processing, or repetitive decision-making:
- Financial services and fintech - fraud detection, automated compliance, algorithmic trading, regulatory reporting
- Legal and professional services - contract analysis, due diligence, document intelligence, compliance checking
- Pharmaceutical and regulated platforms - tenant isolation, audit trails and guardrails an enterprise pilot will check (a worked example)
- Enterprise SaaS - AI feature integration, intelligent automation, data pipeline architecture
My Approach to AI Consulting
- Discovery - I identify your highest-ROI AI opportunity through a focused assessment of your workflows, data, and business goals
- Architecture - I design a production-grade solution using proven patterns from RAG systems and multi-agent architectures
- Pilot - after the two-week discovery sprint, I build and deploy a first production system in four to six weeks targeting your specific workflow
- Measure - I track time saved, accuracy improvements, and cost reduction against clear KPIs
- Scale - I expand to adjacent workflows once the first pilot proves value
Bring the workflow that costs you the most time
In 45 minutes you will get a straight answer on whether your problem is worth solving with AI, and what it would take to solve it.
Book a 45-minute call(opens the booking calendar in a new tab)Or describe your project in the chat, or email nic.chin@nicchin.com