The world of AI consultancy, need not be the Wild West

A prospect asked me a very direct, legitimate and welcome question recently, shortly before pointing me in the direction of their supplier onboarding form. The question was, in essence, "what qualifies you to do the job?"

Great question, and not just for the obvious reason that they have to check because there's a formal process.

The thing is, the AI and automation business seems kind of new to a lot of people (many of the tools are new, but the concepts and processes are as old as Lotus Notes* :) There's certainly a buzz about it, both positive and negative.

The positive vibes are coming from those who are evidently excited about the abundant opportunities to accelerate growth, realise cost savings and somehow do way more than seemed previously possible, pre 'AI boom'.

The negative appears to be manifesting in the form of metaphorical and literal eye-rolling by the gatekeepers and 'LinkedIn Police'. "Not another prompt-engineer <rolls eyes>", or "so everyone's an AI consultant now?"

Some of them, to be fair, have a point.

All of which, made me realise that in the busy-ness of launching a new business, I neglected to actually state my case. It is indeed possible to evidence one's suitability, experience and credentials as an AI and automation consultant. Arguably, twenty-plus years developing workflow solutions and delivering digital transformation projects for clients should constitute a decent foundation, but in case that's not enough, here's some indication of mastery of tools, technology and concepts.

______________________________

Make.com Advanced Level

You may be wondering how we do what we do. What platforms we use to help build automations, integrations, interact with endpoints (if you're technically minded) and achieve meaningful business outcomes. Make.com, as well as N8N, Lindy and others is a critical part of our toolset.

Our Chief AI & Automation Officer, Adrian, has been all the way through the Make Academy, emerging with the Advanced level certification. Intense, but worth it. Worth mentioning also, that anything we can do on Make, we can also do on N8N if that's your organisation's preferred platform.

https://www.credly.com/badges/916f2287-722e-4e59-a940-1de638099f8d/public_url

Google AI Essentials

Given the 'essentials' moniker, you could be forgiven for being dismissive. However, this course is an absolute gem. An understanding of the fundamentals - of what works, what doesn't and why - is key in getting the kind of transformative results that clients expect, without superfluous trial, error or reliance on chance.

https://www.credly.com/badges/e0f51a46-8db9-42ed-b536-9cc654a4e057/public_url

Google CyberSecurity Professional Certificate

We're big advocates of taking care of the boring stuff (in an upcoming post I'll explain why although you can bash out solutions very quickly, it doesn't mean you should - being production ready involves a lot of peripheral but essential considerations including security, ethics, guardrails, testing, compliance, explainability etc)

This certification was a major undertaking, but worth it. And, if it helps us to be proactive and pre-emptive, that's a whole lot more comfortable than having to be reactive (ask M&S).

https://www.credly.com/badges/9f557ac0-b669-4e0f-955d-d327dc984982/public_url

Generative AI for Leaders

Vanderbilt University

A surprising one, this one. Particularly as the syllabus explored much of the human side of AI, such as the impact on staff (positive or otherwise); things we can help our clients to consider within the scope of a project.

https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/verify/H1ZYZMD4IX1R

Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals

University of Virginia

Completing this course left me with the feeling of really levelling up my consultancy game. It's easy to engage with a project and build exactly what the client wants. But it's critical to help them think through the question of 'is what we're building, what the business (or market) really needs?'

https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/verify/EXUPV35AD649

Of course, there's far more to what we do, than this list of certs. We have much more knowledge than can be evidenced in this way, and none of the above are a match for decades of digital transformation experience. It also doesn't tell you how many hours have been poured into understanding things like the nuances of machine learning, or browsing the joys of Hugging Face. However, it all adds up to something verifiable, useful and reassuring. Hopefully, it gives the sense that we're not on the AI bandwagon or treating it as the next WFH hustle.

* Let's not go there.