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Steve Hooper AI
Steve Hooper AI · Practical AI consultancy

Practical AI that moves the needle, not the conversation.

I help SME leaders cut through the AI noise and ship automations that save real time and real money. No jargon. No six-month roadmaps. Just measurable outcomes, delivered by someone who still writes the code.

Book a strategy callSee case studies

Available now · 4 engagements per quarter

001 · Signal from noise

Most AI ideas are noise. A few are signal. Knowing which is which is the job.

Every audit ends with the same three-column decision: what to build now, what to revisit later, and what to leave alone. Boring, uncomfortable, useful.

Cohort ADo now
  • SHIP_THIS_QUARTER

    Sales inbox first-response drafting

  • SHIP_THIS_QUARTER

    Proposal pull from CRM history

Cohort BNot yet
  • REVISIT_6_MONTHS

    Voice-to-CRM meeting notes

  • REVISIT_6_MONTHS

    Support tone auto-QA

Cohort CLeave alone
  • WRONG_TIME

    Fully autonomous outbound

  • WRONG_TOOL

    AI-written thought leadership

Audit output · illustrativeSee how this plays out →
002 · What I do

Most AI projects fail. Not because the tech doesn't work. It does.

They fail because teams pick tools before they understand the problem, then spend months automating the wrong thing. I turn vague boardroom discussion into practical, costed actions your team can actually deliver.

That usually means fewer tools, tighter scope, and a working automation shipped in weeks rather than a slide deck delivered in months.

003 · How I work

Audit, prioritise, build, hand over. In that order. Every time.

  1. Step 01

    Audit

    Two weeks with your team. Map the real workflow, not the org chart. Cost the friction.

  2. Step 02

    Prioritise

    Score every idea on impact, effort and risk. One page. Do now, not yet, leave alone.

  3. Step 03

    Build

    Ship the smallest useful automation first. Tested, integrated, documented.

  4. Step 04

    Hand over

    Your team owns it. Playbook, training, 30 days of support. No dependency built in.

004 · Recent work

Two engagements. Anonymised. Boring in the best possible way.

All case studies
Case 01
Professional services · 60+ staff

48h → under 2h. Response time cut, without adding headcount.

Lead qualification, built into the workflow

A 60-person consultancy receiving 200+ enquiries a month. Junior staff were triaging by hand and leads were going cold. We built AI pre-qualification directly inside their CRM.

The team reclaimed 15 hours a week and sales booked 25% more qualified meetings — same headcount, same tools, tighter loop.

Read the full case
Response time
48h → <2h
Team hours saved
15 / week
Qualified meetings
+25%
Case 02
B2B SaaS · Series B

£150K programme signed off by the board in one meeting.

Readiness audit, roadmap and governance

A Series-B SaaS business with no shared view of where AI belonged. Three weeks of structured interviews and process mapping produced 12 viable use cases and four quick wins.

Governance, cost model and a board-ready roadmap — approved in a single meeting, because every recommendation was already costed.

Read the full case
Programme approved
£150K
Viable use cases
12
Quick wins
4
Meetings to sign-off
1
005 · Work together

Four ways in. All start with a paid strategy call.

All services
01

AI Readiness Audit

Two weeks. Opportunity map, quick wins, business cases and a board-ready roadmap.

Fit · You need a costed plan, not more opinions.

2 weeks
From £6,500
Details →
02

Automation & Implementation

Build the automation. Tested, integrated, documented and handed over to your team.

Fit · You know the problem. You want it shipped.

4–12 weeks
From £12,000
Details →
03

Fractional AI Leadership

One to two days a week. Strategy, vendor calls, board reporting, real oversight.

Fit · You need senior AI cover without hiring one.

3-month min · 1–2 d/wk
From £4,000 / month
Details →
04

Training & Enablement

Half or full-day workshops with your team's real data, playbook and office hours.

Fit · Your people need practical AI skill, not theory.

Half / full day
From £2,500 / workshop
Details →
006 · AI Without the Waffle

A short podcast about AI that actually ships. In production.

Conversations with people running AI inside real UK businesses — buyers and builders, not vendors. No release date yet; when episodes are ready they'll live here.

More on the podcast

007 · Who I help

UK SMEs typically 10–200 staff. Serious about doing this well.

Fit
  • UK SMEs with 10–200 staff and a real operational problem to solve.
  • Leadership prepared to make calls and free up a small internal team.
  • Budget for one meaningful build, not a full transformation programme.
  • Preference for measurable outcomes over vendor demos.
Not the right fit
  • Looking for a slide deck to raise funding on. Talk to a strategy house.
  • Wanting to bolt AI onto a product to look modern. Talk to your engineering team.
  • Expecting a fixed-price 'transformation' inside six months. Nobody sensible sells that.
  • Under 10 staff or pre-revenue. Off-the-shelf tools will serve you better.
008 · Start here

Sixty minutes. One clear answer.

Book a paid 60-minute strategy call. I'll review your context in advance, give you a specific recommendation, an honest ballpark cost, and — if we're not a fit — tell you who to talk to instead. From £450.

Book a strategy callNot sure where to start

Talk to someone who still writes the code.

No sales team. No account manager. You email, Steve replies.

Book a strategy callOr send a message