AI consulting UK
AI consulting for small businesses in the UK
Clever Merchants is an AI consultancy based in Dublin, Ireland, founded by Ger Devereux, who also runs Shamrock Electrical, an electrical wholesaler in Rathcoole. We work remotely with owner-managed businesses in the UK with 5 to 50 staff: trades, professional services, retail, distribution and agencies.
We find the two or three AI workflows that save the most hours in your business, build them into the tools you already use, and keep them running. The starting point is the free AI Readiness Review: 6 questions, about 3 minutes, an instant industry-specific report, then a personal follow-up from Ger within 24 hours.
3 minutes
Free AI Readiness Review, 6 questions, instant report
0 hours
Time difference between Dublin and London, all year
72 hours
Shamrock Electrical, in Ireland, cited by ChatGPT after our own work went live
What we do
What does an AI consultant do for a small business in the UK?
An AI consultant finds the repetitive admin in your business, chooses the tools that remove it, builds the workflow and measures the result.
In practice that means looking at how your business actually runs: who answers the phone, how a quote gets written, who chases the invoices, how you find out whether last month made money. Owner-managed businesses tend to share the same four or five bottlenecks, and they are admin that follows the same pattern every time. That is the work AI handles well.
The part many consultancies skip is the build. A slide deck does not answer the phone. We implement the workflow inside the systems you already run, test it against real jobs, and maintain it afterwards. The full list of what an engagement can include is on the AI consulting services page, and how the build itself works is on AI implementation services.
The first step is the free AI Readiness Review. Six questions about your business, not about AI, and the report names the two or three workflows most likely to pay back first in your industry.
The requests
What do UK small businesses ask an AI consultant for?
Mostly the same seven things: answer the phone, reply to enquiries, quote faster, get paid, see job profit, stop chasing paperwork, and report weekly.
| What a UK small business asks for | What it involves | First step |
|---|---|---|
| Stop missing calls while we are out on a job | An AI receptionist that answers, qualifies the caller and passes the details on | Count the calls that go to voicemail in a normal week |
| Reply to web enquiries before a competitor does | Automated lead follow-up that responds straight away and books the next step | Note how long your last ten enquiries waited for a reply |
| Get quotes out the same day | AI-assisted quoting that drafts from your own price list and past jobs | Gather five recent quotes and the price list behind them |
| Get paid without awkward phone calls | Invoice chasing that sends reminders on a schedule from your accounting software | List the invoices that are more than 30 days overdue today |
| Know which jobs actually made money | Job profitability reporting that pulls costs and hours into one view | Pick three finished jobs and find where their costs are recorded |
| Stop chasing paperwork | Document collection and processing for certificates, receipts and supplier invoices | Write down the documents you chase most often |
| A weekly report without losing Friday afternoon | Weekly management reporting built from the systems you already run | List the five numbers you check before making a decision |
Across a business of this shape the AI Review report estimates a combined range of 8 to 15 hours per week. That is the report's estimate for the workflows it selects, not a guarantee, and your own report shows how the range breaks down for you.
Consultancy or agency
Do you need an AI consultancy or an AI automation agency in the UK?
A consultancy decides what is worth building before anything is built. An AI automation agency usually starts from a tool you have already chosen.
Both are legitimate. If you already know which process to automate and which platform it will run on, an AI automation agency in the UK will get you there quickly. If you have fifteen small annoyances and no idea which one is costing you money, choosing is the whole job, and choosing wrong is how businesses end up with a working system nobody uses.
Clever Merchants does both halves, always in that order. If you mainly want the build, the AI automation agency page sets out which processes are usually worth automating first.
How remote works
How does a Dublin AI consultancy work with businesses in the UK?
Entirely remotely: the review is online, calls happen by video, and the workflows are built inside the tools your business already uses.
The work is done from Dublin. You take the AI Readiness Review online, get the report instantly, and Ger follows up within 24 hours. From there, scoping and progress calls happen by video, and the build happens inside your existing phone system, inbox, accounting software or job management tool, using access you control and can withdraw.
There is no time difference to manage. Ireland and the UK both run on UTC+1 until the clocks go back on 25 October 2026, then both return to UTC+0 on the same night, so a 9am call in Manchester is a 9am call in Dublin all year round. The engagement is designed to run without anyone needing to travel.
London
Do you offer AI consultancy for London businesses?
Yes, remotely. A London business gets the same review, the same video calls and the same implementation as a business anywhere else in the UK.
Clever Merchants has no London office, and I would rather say that plainly than dress it up. What a London firm gets instead is an AI consultant working the same hours, an online review that takes about 3 minutes, and workflows built into the tools the business already pays for.
The fit is the same as everywhere else: owner-managed businesses of roughly 5 to 50 staff with repetitive admin. A London trades firm losing calls while its engineers are on site, or a professional services practice retyping client documents, has the same shape of problem as a firm in Dublin or Bristol.
If having an AI consultant in London who can sit in your office matters to you, a London-based firm is the better choice. Our guide to the best AI consultants in the UK compares the alternatives so you can decide.
Free help in the UK
What free help is there for adopting AI in the UK?
Skills England publishes a free AI skills tools package on GOV.UK, including an employer AI adoption checklist. It is guidance for planning, not a grant.
The AI skills tools package applies to England and was last updated on 4 November 2025. It has three parts: an AI skills framework, an adoption pathway model that sets out nine stages of adoption, and an employer AI adoption checklist for spotting gaps before you start. It is written for organisations of any size, including SMEs.
The checklist is strongest on the people side of AI: who in the business needs which skills. The AI Readiness Review covers the other side, which workflows are worth building first, so the two work well together.
Grants and subsidised programmes for small businesses differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and change often, so confirm the current terms on the official source before you budget around one. Clever Merchants does not process grant applications.
First-hand, not second-hand
Why an Irish electrical wholesaler is the proof
I own Shamrock Electrical in Rathcoole, County Dublin. It has been trading for over a decade, it runs a real Shopify store with real margin pressure, and every recommendation Clever Merchants makes gets tested there first. I am not a consultant who read about small business. I run one.
When we put structured data and question-answering content live on the Shamrock site, ChatGPT named the business 72 hours later, saying in its own words that Shamrock is the obvious one. Perplexity and Gemini followed.
That is an Irish result for an Irish business, not a UK one, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It is the standard we hold ourselves to: a result you can screenshot, not a promise.
Read the Shamrock Electrical case study
Cost
How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?
The AI Readiness Review is free. GEO programmes cost €6,500 or €7,500 fixed. Implementation is scoped after the review, so there is no single figure.
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Why there is no single figure
An AI receptionist for a three-van plumbing firm and job profitability reporting for a 40-person contractor are different jobs. Price depends on which workflows you need, which tools you already run, how clean your data is, and what has to be integrated.
02
What you get free first
The review, the instant report naming your two or three highest-impact workflows, and a follow-up conversation with Ger within 24 hours. You know what would be built and why before any money changes hands.
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Who it is for
Owner-managed businesses in the UK with 5 to 50 staff, repetitive admin, and real revenue. If the owner is still doing the quoting, the chasing and the reporting, the numbers usually work.
The full breakdown of what is free, what is fixed and how implementation is scoped is on the pricing page. For what other consultants in the market charge, read how much an AI consultant costs.
Questions UK business owners ask us
Do you work with businesses anywhere in the UK, or only London?
Anywhere in the UK. The work is remote, so a roofing firm in Leeds or an accountancy practice in Glasgow gets the same review and the same implementation as a London business.
Is the AI Readiness Review free for businesses in the UK?
Yes, it is free, with no card and no obligation. It is 6 questions, takes about 3 minutes, produces an instant report, and Ger follows up personally within 24 hours.
How is AI consulting priced for businesses in the UK?
The review is free and the GEO programmes have fixed public prices of €6,500 and €7,500. AI implementation is scoped after the review, because the price depends on which workflows you need and which systems they have to connect to.
Is there a time difference between Dublin and businesses in the UK?
No. Dublin and London keep the same clock all year, so calls and support happen during your normal working day.
Which industries do you work with in the UK?
Construction and trades, professional services such as accounting, legal and recruitment, ecommerce and retail, manufacturing and distribution, and marketing agencies. Not tech companies and not enterprises.
Find out where AI saves your business the most time
Six questions, about three minutes, an instant report for your industry, and a personal follow-up from Ger within 24 hours. Free, no card, no obligation.
Take the free AI Readiness Review