Common Questions
Answers to the questions we hear most often from prospective clients. If yours is not here, contact us directly.
What is AI-first consulting?
AI-first consulting means building strategy, operations, and products with AI as a foundational capability – not adding AI as an afterthought to existing processes. At DREO, we help organisations design their business model, operating model, and technology architecture with AI embedded from the start. This is a fundamentally different approach from traditional consulting firms that layer AI recommendations onto pre-existing frameworks. The result is transformation that creates durable competitive advantage rather than incremental improvement.
How do you identify AI opportunities within a business?
We start with business outcomes, not technology. Our AI Readiness Assessment examines your processes, data quality, and organisational capability to identify where AI creates genuine value – not just where it is technically possible. We look for processes that are high volume, rule-based, and data-rich, as these deliver the fastest and most reliable AI returns. We then build a prioritised use case map ranked by business impact and implementation feasibility, giving you a clear picture of where to invest and in what sequence.
What industries do you support?
DREO has deepest expertise in financial services, healthcare and life sciences, retail and consumer goods, and public sector. We have also delivered engagements across technology, media, and professional services. Our approach is industry-informed but not industry-limited – the consulting disciplines we apply (AI strategy, product management, programme management) are transferable, and we bring sector context through our consultant team. We are transparent about where we have direct experience and where we would bring in sector-specialist partners.
How long do projects typically take?
Duration depends significantly on scope and complexity. Our AI Readiness Assessments typically run three to four weeks. Strategy engagements producing a full AI roadmap take six to eight weeks. Programme management engagements are ongoing by nature, with our involvement typically spanning three to twelve months. Application development projects range from eight weeks for an MVP to twelve months for a full enterprise platform build. We define timelines with clients at the engagement outset and hold ourselves accountable to them – with transparent reporting if circumstances require a change.
Do you provide ongoing support after the initial engagement?
Yes. Many clients engage DREO for an initial defined scope and then extend into ongoing advisory, programme oversight, or coaching arrangements. We also offer structured handover programmes designed to transfer capability from DREO consultants to your internal team – we measure success partly by how little you need us over time. For technology deployments, we provide a standard 30-day post-launch support period included in all development engagements, with extended support arrangements available.
How is DREO different from other consulting firms?
Three things differentiate DREO consistently. First, AI is genuinely central to our practice – not a service line added to a traditional consulting offering. Our consultants have built and deployed AI systems, not just advised on them. Second, we are outcome-accountable. We define measurable outcomes at the start of every engagement and report transparently against them. Third, we prioritise capability transfer. Our engagements are designed to build your team’s capability alongside delivering outcomes – so the organisation is stronger when we leave than when we arrived. We take on fewer engagements than we could in order to maintain senior consultant involvement on every piece of client work.
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