AI consulting and AI strategy
AI consulting for mid-sized companies: where AI pays off first in your processes
CIRO EFFORT advises mid-sized companies on using AI. It starts with an analysis of your workflows, and we guide you and your team through it: where is work still done by hand, what data is available, where would AI save the most time? From this we draw conclusions and show where AI pays off first, with what effort and in what order. First results are ready after two to three weeks. If you wish, we handle the implementation ourselves. You pay a fixed price per project phase, and GDPR and the EU AI Act are considered from the start.
Across Germany for startups and mid-sized companies, with team members in Munich and Dortmund. Updated:
- from analysis to first results
- 2–3 weeks
- per phase, including the analysis
- Fixed price
- classification at project start, documented in writing
- EU AI Act
Where does AI pay off fastest in mid-sized companies?
The best first use cases are recurring, text-heavy and manual today. Examples by department:
01
Sales
Qualifying enquiries, drafting quotes from templates and product data, moving call notes into the CRM.
02
Customer service
Suggesting answers from your manuals and tickets, sorting requests and routing them to the right place.
03
Accounting and purchasing
Reading receipts and invoices, matching them with orders, flagging deviations for review.
04
Knowledge management
An assistant that answers questions from your own documents, with sources instead of general knowledge.
05
Marketing and content
Copy, product descriptions and translations in your tone, checked and approved by your team.
06
Production and engineering
Summarising inspection reports, analysing fault reports, keeping documentation current.
Our approach: analyse first, then apply AI where it counts
Each phase ends with an outcome you can check and has its own fixed price:
- 01Week 1
Analyse
We guide you through an analysis of your workflows, in a workshop and with the people who do the work every day.
- 02Weeks 1–2
Evaluate
We draw conclusions from the analysis and set them out in a roadmap, with effort estimates and an order of priority.
- 03Weeks 2–9
Pilot
We try out the most important use case with your real data and evaluate it against your quality standards.
- 04Weeks 10–12
Roll out
Go-live, training for your team, measurement. Then the next steps on the roadmap.
The AI advantage
AI consulting: two to three times as fast as the traditional way
2–3×
less effort and time than traditional development
For AI consulting this means: first results based on your real data after two to three weeks. We know the way there from automating our own operations.
Effort for a new feature
For example invoicing or time tracking in existing software. Index, traditional agency = 100.
- In-house team
- 120
- Traditional agency
- 100
- Offshore development
- 75
- CIRO EFFORT
- 35
What you have after the analysis
The analysis ends with recommendations you can base your decision on:
- The use cases where AI saves you the most time, prioritised by impact and feasibility
- An assessment of your data
- The EU AI Act classification and the data protection requirements
- A roadmap with effort estimates and the fixed price for the first step
- The cases where AI does not pay off
Why consulting and delivery belong in one team
Many AI projects get stuck in the pilot because the consulting stops before implementation. At CIRO EFFORT, all disciplines work in one team:
- Consulting
- We analyse where AI could help, prioritise the options and work out the business case. We also name the cases where AI does not pay off.
- UX and design
- People use AI when it is easy to work with: when it is clear what it can do, its answers can be traced and mistakes are easy to correct.
- Development
- If you decide to implement, we build the solution ourselves, fitted to your systems.
- Analytics
- We measure time saved, usage and answer quality, so you can see the effect in numbers.
- AI
- Model selection, data preparation, prompting and evaluation. We work AI-First ourselves, every day.
What AI automation delivers: figures from our own operations
We run an AI-powered platform for private landlords ourselves. There, 98 percent of all bookings run automatically: payments are matched, receipts found, deadlines monitored. Three days of work on a service-charge statement become 30 minutes, and people step in only where a decision is needed.
We take the same approach with clients: understand the workflows first, then automate the routine, then measure how much time is actually freed up.
Which EU AI Act obligations apply from when?
The EU AI Act applies in stages. For companies using AI, these dates matter:
| Obligation | Applies since / from | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| AI literacy of staff | 2 February 2025 | Anyone working with AI must understand how to use it; a documented briefing is usually enough |
| Ban on certain practices | 2 February 2025 | Such as manipulative systems or social scoring; office assistants are not affected |
| Transparency obligations | 2 August 2026 | People must be able to tell that they are talking to an AI |
| High-risk systems under Annex III | 2 December 2027 | Postponed by the Digital Omnibus; assistants and automations are generally not high-risk systems |
| AI in regulated products under Annex I | 2 August 2028 | Also postponed; concerns e.g. medical devices or machinery |
Based on Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 as amended by the Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744). As of October 2026, not legal advice.
GDPR and the EU AI Act: what applies to you
We work GDPR-compliant with a data processing agreement and host in the EU on request. Your data is not used to train AI models; we exclude that contractually with the providers. Before the start we define together which data a model may see at all. Security includes protection against attacks and bots via Cloudflare, protection against prompt injection, rate limiting and our own security agents that review the code. With that in place, your data protection officer and IT department have what they need to approve the project.
At project start we classify your application into a risk category (assistants and automations like the ones we build are generally not high-risk systems) and record in writing which obligations follow. This is not legal advice. It gives you a written list of obligations you can work through and check. As of October 2026.
When does AI not pay off?
In these cases we advise against an AI project or suggest another route:
- The task occurs less than once a week
- A simple rule or a form would already solve the problem
- The required data does not exist or may not be used
- Errors would be expensive and nobody can check the result
- The real problem is a process that should be abolished first
AI consulting FAQ
What companies most often ask before their first AI project:
We work with fixed prices per project phase. The first phase covers a workshop, an opportunity assessment and a prioritised roadmap with effort estimates; after that you know what implementing the first use case costs, before you commission it. In operation, AI model costs are added and billed by usage; we estimate them for your volume in the concept. We name concrete figures in the initial call. Small companies in Bavaria can often have the costs funded through the Digitalbonus Bayern.
No, that is normal. You bring your expertise and workflows, we bring the AI experience. In the first workshop we show, using your own examples, what works reliably today and what does not. Training your team is part of the delivery, which also covers the AI literacy obligation under the EU AI Act.
First results based on your real data are ready after two to three weeks. Production use typically follows after two to three months.
The model that fits your case best: large language models from established providers, via EU data centres on request, or open models running in your own environment. We build so that switching to another model later is a configuration change.
It cannot be prevented entirely, but it can be controlled. The AI answers from your documents and names its sources, we test it on a set of real cases before launch, and where a mistake would be costly, a person approves the result. In operation we measure answer quality continuously.
Yes. With a data processing agreement, EU hosting on request and a contractual exclusion of your data from model training. Before the start we define which data a model may see; personal data can often be removed or replaced beforehand.
For most applications in mid-sized companies, a few obligations. The obligation to ensure AI literacy has applied since 2 February 2025: anyone letting employees work with AI has to make sure they understand how to handle it. For this, a documented briefing of the team is usually enough, not a certified course. Certain practices have been prohibited since the same date. The transparency obligations have applied since 2 August 2026: people must be able to tell that they are talking to an AI. The obligations for high-risk systems were postponed by the EU with the Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744): to 2 December 2027 for stand-alone high-risk systems under Annex III and to 2 August 2028 for AI in regulated products under Annex I. Assistants and automations of the kind we build are generally not high-risk systems. We carry out the classification at the start of the project and document it so that it is verifiable. The basis is Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 as amended by the Digital Omnibus, and in case of doubt the text of the regulation governs. This is not legal advice, but it gives you a basis for seeking it. As of October 2026.
Yes. We work across Germany, with team members in Munich and Dortmund, and prefer to run workshops on site with you. For companies elsewhere the workshop also works remotely.
Let's talk about your project.
We take care of strategy, design, development and data. Your intro call is directly with the founders: 45 minutes, no obligation.
Or directly: 089 24 88 31 22
