01
What can AI really do for us?
We separate what works today from what is still a research demo. You get an honest view of the uses that fit your data, your product and your team.
AI consultancy in Cambridge, London and Paris
Navigate
modern AI.
AI seems important. But what can it really do, and what value can it add to your business? Can you stay competitive without it?
We have worked on these questions since 1996, in research labs, startups and global manufacturers. We give you straight answers, a plan you can act on, and the experience to see it through. Let's work together.
Experience from
Audio Analytic
acquired by Meta
Music Tribe
Head of AI
Canopy
Ford-backed automotive AI
Nuance
speech recognition
Toshiba Research Europe
speech synthesis
EPFL
PhD
Where we start
Three questions every leadership team asks about AI
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What value will it add?
We put numbers on it: revenue you could win, costs you could cut, risks you take on. Then we rank the options so you spend first where the return is clearest.
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Can we stay competitive without it?
Sometimes the answer is yes. We look at what your customers, competitors and investors expect, and tell you where waiting is safe and where it is not.
Who we help
Four kinds of client, one shared need
Our clients range from small startups to large established companies. Each of them faces a decision about AI that matters to the future of the business.
Startups, scale-ups and SMEs building AI products
Your model works in the lab. We help you turn it into a product customers pay for: architecture, data strategy, team shape and a roadmap investors believe.
Scale-ups that need an AI leader
You need senior AI leadership before a full-time hire makes sense. We act as your Chief AI Officer, part time, set the direction and build the team that takes over.
Investors evaluating AI companies
Before you commit, we test whether the AI is real, defensible and ready to scale. You get a clear written assessment of technology, team, IP and risk.
Established companies adopting AI
Your teams hear about AI every day and need to know where it fits. We train your leaders, pick the first projects and set up a route from pilot to production.
Services
Five ways to work with us
Each engagement has a clear scope and a written outcome. Most clients start with a Strategy Day or a Workshop and build from there.
AI Strategy Day
A focused day with your leadership team. We map where AI can create value in your business, test each idea against your data and skills, and agree priorities.
Short interviews with key people beforehand
Opportunities ranked by value and feasibility
A written 90-day action plan
AI Due Diligence
An independent technical assessment of an AI company before you invest. We look under the hood at models, data, team, IP and the path to scale.
Product maturity and technology readiness
Team, IP and defensibility
Ethical and regulatory risk
A written report with clear red flags
Fractional Chief AI Officer
Senior AI leadership a few days a month. We own your AI strategy, guide your engineers, speak to your board and investors, and hire the team that will run it.
AI strategy and roadmap
A research-to-product process for R&D
Hiring and team building
IP and AI ethics governance
AI Product Review
A close review of an AI product or feature, in development or already shipped. We find what holds back accuracy, cost and time to market, and tell you what to fix first.
Architecture and model review
Data and evaluation check
Recommendations in priority order
Executive AI Workshop
A practical session for executives and boards: what modern AI can and cannot do, how to judge proposals and vendors, and how to lead teams that use it.
Built around your sector and your questions
Real examples from shipped products
Run in English or French
How we work
Evidence first, then business sense
Sacha spent two decades taking AI from research papers to shipped products. We bring the same discipline to your decisions.
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Listen
We start with your business, not the technology. What you sell, what your data looks like, and what your team can do today.
02
Test
We check every idea against evidence: published results, quick prototypes and our own experience of what breaks in production.
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Deliver
You get a plan with owners, costs and milestones. If you want, we stay on to lead the work and hand over to your team.
Dr Sacha Krstulović
Managing Director and lead consultant
Lead consultant
Thirty years of turning AI research into products
Sacha holds a PhD from EPFL and started work on speech recognition in 1996, long before AI reached the boardroom. He has worked at both ends of the field: research at IDIAP, IRISA, DFKI and Toshiba, and product leadership in startups and global companies.
At Audio Analytic he grew the R&D team from zero to fifteen, helped raise more than $25M and led the IP strategy behind technology now in millions of devices. Meta acquired the company in 2022. He went on to lead AI at Music Tribe and Canopy, and founded Green Light Audio, which brings AI to live music equipment.
PhD, EPFL
IEEE Senior Member
19 patents
57 publications
Cambridge Judge Business School
French, English, Spanish
2024–now
Managing Director, Understand-AI.today
Strategy, due diligence and executive training for AI companies, adopters and investors.
2023–2024
Director of AI Engineering, Canopy
Led a nine-person team on low-power radar, vision and sound AI for a Ford-backed vehicle security startup. Ford took the technology into its trucks.
2022–2023
Head of AI, Music Tribe
Doubled the AI and DSP team to fourteen engineers and shipped three AI features in commercial products within a year.
2012–2021
Director of Innovation, Audio Analytic
Pioneered computer hearing for smart devices. Fifteen patents, more than $25M raised, acquired by Meta.
1996–2012
Speech and audio AI research
IDIAP, IRISA, DFKI, Toshiba Research Europe and Nuance.
Getting started
Start with a free discovery call
A free 30-minute discovery call is the quickest way to find out what AI could do for your business. Tell Sacha about your business and the decision in front of you, and he will suggest the right next steps, whether that is an AI Strategy Day, a workshop or something else. There is no cost and no obligation.
Where we work
Cambridge, London and Paris
Cambridge
Our home, in one of Europe's strongest clusters for AI and deep tech.
London
For investors in the City and for the UK's scale-ups.
Paris
For French and European clients. We work in French as easily as in English.
Contact
Tell us about your AI question
Book a free 30-minute discovery call, or send a few lines by email about your business and the AI decisions in front of you. Sacha replies personally and will suggest the right next steps for your business.
Free discovery call
Book a free 30' discovery call
Offices
Cambridge, London and Paris