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Buying guides.

These guides cover the two decisions that come before any AI build: whether a custom commission is the right buying motion at all, and how to tell a working implementation partner from a polished pitch. Each one is written for an owner or operator of an $8M to $50M company, and each is free to read in full with no signup. ColabContent LLC publishes this page: a boutique AI consulting house in Boston that builds commissioned AI systems on a fixed fee of $45,000 to $180,000, one time, with the code owned by the client at handoff and no per-seat licence. The 45-minute diagnosis is free and is booked at cal.com/colabcontent/45mins.

The two decisions ColabContent's buying guides cover before any AI build: whether a custom commission is the right buying motion at all, and how to tell a working implementation partner from a polished pitch
Two decisions before any build: the buying motion, then the partner.

Eighteen guides. Two plain-language definitions, six buyer guides for vetting a consultant, five on what actually automates in accounting, insurance, manufacturing and law, and five written for a single decision already sitting on a managing partner's or operating partner's desk.

Guides18
FormatMemo-style
AudienceOwners and operators
CostFree

Start with the definitions if the category is new to you. "Custom AI" and "AI commissioning" get used loosely enough that two people can agree to a project and mean different things by it. The first two guides fix the vocabulary before any money is discussed.

Then read the buyer guide for your vertical. The evaluation dimensions are the same across industries, but the signals that separate a real practitioner from a good deck are not: a consultant who knows what a trust-accounting reconciliation involves is demonstrating something different from one who knows a plant scheduling constraint. The vertical guides are written to make that difference legible.

If you would rather talk it through, the 45-minute diagnosis call is free and ends with a written map you keep. You can also see what a commission costs, read how the work runs, compare tools on the comparisons page, or browse the essays and frameworks.

I What Is Custom AI? AI built on your data, in your stack, for your workflow. What separates it from off-the-shelf SaaS and from a roadmap deck, why the calibration target matters more than the technology, and the operator profile it actually fits. DefinitionGuide II What Is AI Commissioning? Fixed-fee custom builds with a prototype before payment and the code owned at handoff. What the term means, how a commission runs, the economic logic, and the five buying motions set side by side. DefinitionGuide III How to Choose an AI Implementation Partner The six paths open to you, the nine questions to ask before signing, how to scope a pilot that produces a decision instead of a demo, who owns the code at handoff, and when not to hire at all. Buyer guideGuide IV How to Choose an AI Consultant for a CPA Firm Six dimensions mid-market CPA firms actually evaluate on, the vertical-specific signals worth looking for, what separates a working consultant from a polished pitch, and a two-week scoping sequence. CPAGuide V How to Choose an AI Consultant for a Law Firm The same six dimensions read for mid-market firms: which signals matter in a legal stack, the red flags, and a Managing Partner two-week evaluation sequence. LawGuide VI How to Choose an AI Consultant for an Insurance Agency Written for regional P&C agencies. The six evaluation dimensions, the agency-specific signals, and an Agency Principal scoping sequence for the first two weeks. InsuranceGuide VII How to Choose an AI Consultant for a Home Services Platform Written for PE-backed platforms. The six dimensions, the roll-up-specific signals, and a Platform CEO scoping sequence that survives diligence. Home servicesGuide VIII How to Choose an AI Consultant for a Specialty Manufacturer The six dimensions read for a plant, the signals that separate a working consultant from a polished pitch, and an Owner-CEO two-week scoping sequence. ManufacturingGuide IX CPA Automation Consultant: What One Actually Does What a 20 to 150 person firm can genuinely automate, the sequence that decides the outcome, what it costs, and how to vet whoever is selling it to you. CPAGuide X Automation Consulting for Insurance Agencies Seven workflows that actually automate, how they land in EZLynx, Applied Epic, HawkSoft and AMS360, where a product ends and a build starts, and the order to do this in. InsuranceGuide XI Manufacturing Automation Consulting: Where the AI Layer Fits The control layer an integrator builds and the AI decision layer above it. Five decisions worth automating in a plant, how the layer attaches, and where it must stop. ManufacturingGuide XII AI Production Planning and Scheduling on an Existing ERP What AI genuinely fixes in scheduling and capacity at a $15M to $150M plant, what is marketing, how it wires into the ERP or MES you already run, and how to scope a pilot. ManufacturingGuide XIII Law Firm Automation Consultant: What One Actually Does What a 20 to 150 attorney firm can genuinely automate, the sequence that decides the outcome, whether the answer is to hire someone or buy better software, what it costs, and how to vet whoever is selling it. LawGuide XIV Law Firm Intake and Conflicts Automation New-matter intake is two bottlenecks, not one. What an answering service genuinely fixes, why conflicts clearance is the part no subscription covers, the six steps between a call and a matter number, and what to buy versus build. LawGuide XV Law Firm Succession Planning and Knowledge Capture Succession plans cover the buyout and the client transition. They rarely cover the matter history and the playbooks a retiring partner takes with them. What a departing partner actually knows, and the calendar constraint on capturing it. LawGuide XVI Law Firm AI Governance: Bar Rules and the Malpractice Carrier What ABA Opinion 512 requires, what a malpractice carrier actually asks at renewal against what is only rumored, and the architecture that makes a firm's answer documented rather than asserted. LawGuide XVII Answering Client AI Questions in Outside Counsel RFPs The four clusters general counsel are now being told to ask about, the four-block answer template and what belongs in each block, and why a firm running no AI has the worse answer. LawGuide XVIII Which Field Service System Should a PE Platform Standardize On? ServiceTitan, FieldEdge, Housecall Pro and Workiz across a multi-brand platform: what each system is actually for, the separate decision with the better payback, and when the honest answer is to standardize on none of them. Home servicesGuide
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