When the client causes the delay
Chasing is a process, not a favour, and the record is the point.
The overrun that started at scoping
Most fixed fee losses are written into the job before any work begins.
The bill nobody can raise
Lock-up is a process defect, not a discipline problem.
The reports nobody reads
Before you automate a report, check whether anyone still needs it.
When growth adds admin, not margin
Admin scales faster than fee income, and the link can be broken.
The client AI questionnaire
Answering procurement due diligence about AI from what the firm actually does.
Faster is not always better service
Speed helps clients in some places and chills the relationship in others.
One process before any programme
Why broad rollouts stall and a single rebuilt process does not.
Spotting drift six months on
Automated work rarely breaks loudly. It drifts, and the signs are easy to miss.
Training juniors when AI drafts first
Reviewing a good draft is not the same as writing a bad one.
The cost of a fragmented day
Expert work needs continuous attention. Most firms have organised the day against it.
Calling time on a stalled project
The signals a project is finished, and how to end it without losing the ground you gained.
When the constraint moves
Re-planning teams and pipelines once a process stops eating the week.
Where AI helps you win work
AI can shorten everything around the pitch. It cannot make the pitch.
The partner who says no
The sceptic's objections are usually design requirements in disguise.
The turnaround squeeze
Shorter deadlines are won in the gaps between steps, not by working later.
Picking the person who owns AI
Partner, operations lead or IT: the role needs authority, not enthusiasm.
The trouble with quick wins
Scattered small savings feel productive and never reach the accounts.
The AI note taker in the room
Consent, confidentiality and retention before you let a bot join the call.
Reading the AI vendor contract
The clauses that matter are rarely the ones in the demonstration.
The six numbers worth a monthly look
A short set of operational measures that show where the week actually goes.
The job security question
The fear is reasonable, it arrives early, and blanket reassurance makes it worse.
Questions for your IT provider
What an outsourced IT provider can answer about AI, and what it cannot.
Where size stops mattering
Speed and polish are winnable. Bench depth and balance sheet are not.
The cost of rework
Documents get redone all week, and nothing in the system records it.
Mentioning AI in a pitch
What buyers are really asking, and how to answer it without overclaiming.
The cost of a late report
Lateness is priced in by the client long before anyone complains.
The work that stays human
Judgement, sign-off and bad news stay with people. Most of what surrounds them does not.
Getting the partners to agree
Why AI decisions stall in partner meetings, and how to frame one that can be voted on.
AI and your PI insurer
What renewal questions about AI are really asking, and how to be ready to answer them.
The billable hour after AI
The case for and against hourly billing, and what to do before the argument reaches you.
Utilisation targets after the admin goes
What happens to utilisation and realisation when the unbillable hours shrink.
Pricing work that AI makes faster
Clients will expect a discount. Why that logic is usually wrong, and when it is right.
When knowledge leaves
Handover notes written in a notice period never capture what a leaver knows.
Telling clients you use AI
Tell clients before they ask, and put it in the engagement letter.
Shadow AI
Staff already use consumer AI on client work, and a ban rarely holds.
Fixed fee or day rates
Day rates reward time spent. Fixed fees reward the finished result.
The work done twice
Fee earners write up meetings they already sat through. Faster typing is not the fix.
What changes for junior staff
AI removes the drafting work that trained juniors. The first years need rethinking.
The risk in copy and edit
What starting from the last document quietly carries across.
Why templates rot
Fixes never flow back to the master, and a template review does not cure it.
What Copilot is good for
Where Copilot genuinely helps, where it stops, and why a licence is not enough.
The partner bottleneck
Telling partners to delegate rarely works. What to change instead.
Insights
Short arguments about AI and the way professional services firms work: where senior time goes, why documents drift, what reuse hides and how people learn. Each piece takes a clear position, so a partner can test their own firm against it. The newest pieces are at the top.
Questions people ask
How are insights different from the guides?
The guides are practical and step by step: how to choose a process, write a policy or measure a return. Insights are arguments. Each one takes a view on a problem firms tend to accept as normal, and links to the relevant guide when you are ready to act on it.
Who are these written for?
Partners, directors and operations leads at UK professional services firms of 20 to 200 people. The examples are general on purpose, drawn from the way fee earners in law, accountancy, engineering, surveying and similar firms actually spend their week.
Where should I start if I want a number for my own firm?
Take the audit. It asks ten questions, takes about three minutes and estimates the unbillable hours your fee earners lose each week, with every assumption shown.
Which job is costing your firm the most?
Ten questions, about three minutes. You see the hours and the cost before you speak to anyone.