Don't waste money on AI.
Instruction helps professional services firms that need to know what's worth building, what isn't, and what to protect.
25 years
Inside professional services, not selling to it
3 years
Head of AI at a national property consultancy
1 team
Discovery, build and long-term support
Your best people spend too much time on work that doesn't need them. Copilot's on every desk, the licence renews monthly, and the reports take as long as they did two years ago.
Read more about the shift →One firm paid £5,000 a month for a publishing tool producing a handful of posts. Nobody owned the work the licence was meant to change.
A demo that wows a partner and dies in a folder is the most common AI outcome in professional services.
You're not as far behind as it feels. The firms ahead of you picked better and finished what they started.
Four things to demand from anyone selling you AI.
We've lived it.
Over 40 years across professional services and technology. We've watched good people lose half their week to work a tool could have handled, and it bothers us. We've wasted our own money on AI, which is why you won't.
Realists, not sellers.
We start with the problem and how the work gets done. We'll tell you what AI should never touch. "Don't build" is a real answer, in writing.
We stay until it lands.
Every output gets a named owner and a sign-off inside your firm. We come back at three, six and twelve months to check it landed.
We keep building.
Once we know how your firm works, the next project is faster and sharper. One engagement becomes a partnership, by design.
Sometimes the answer is no.
True stories from our work, anonymised. Where AI earned its place, where automation was enough, and where the honest answer was not yet.
A client wanted a fully automated reporting product. The data couldn't carry it yet, so we advised pausing, and walked away from our own paid work.
A law firm's fastest AI wins were already paid for: an AI module never enabled, agents its own people had built. We activated them. No new spend.
A marketing team wanted AI pointed at their case-study problem. The blockage was upstream, so we fixed the pipe first. Then AI had something to work with.
A firm mid-CRM decision heard what no CRM seller would say: don't buy yet. Data discipline first, then the system, then the AI on top.
We only build the AI
you'll actually use.
Four stages.
You only explain your firm once. The team that scopes the work delivers it.
Spark
Where your time goes, and where AI might be worth it. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.
Studio
Structured discovery, ending in a clear plan with a build-or-don't verdict on every item.
Build
We build what earned its place, with an owner and sign-off on every output. Delivered week by week, handed over so it keeps working.
Grow
Each project after the first is faster and sharper, built on context that's already there.
The questions you should ask anyone selling you AI.
"Sounds like everyone else selling AI."
Most people selling AI know the technology and not your world. We've spent decades inside professional services firms, and wasted our own money on AI. We know your sector first, the technology second.
"Isn't this risky?"
That's exactly why we exist. We only recommend what's safe and gets used. Humans stay in the loop, and the build is led by a career engineer. We take risk out of the decision.
"Is AI even worth it for a firm our size?"
Often it isn't, and we'll tell you. Sometimes the answer is a simple automation, sometimes nothing yet. That honesty is why you can trust the times we say yes.
"What about our junior people?"
A fair worry: if AI does the groundwork, where does the next generation learn? AI takes the part of the job that stops your people doing the job. Juniors reach judgement work sooner, with seniors reviewing AI output the way they once reviewed a trainee's.
"What does it cost?"
Spark is free. Studio is a fixed fee agreed up front. Build is quoted line by line from the Studio plan, so you only pay to build the work that earned its place. You can stop at any stage and keep everything you've paid for.
Two operators. Not theorists.
Ben Lee
25 years in professional services, the last three leading AI strategy inside a national property consultancy. He's been sold every AI product on the market, which is why you won't be.
Tom Barrow
10+ years across technology, startups and real estate, including Savills and LandTech. Runs Instruction's delivery, growth and operations, and keeps every recommendation grounded in evidence from your firm.
Behind us, an engineering team shipping production AI from our hub in Colombo, years before the current wave.
More about the team →Spend thirty minutes with us before you spend anything else.
A Spark call is free, and there's nothing to prepare.
Book a Spark call →