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AI consulting for SMEs and mid-sized businesses

We show mid-sized companies where AI genuinely creates value – with an honest assessment, clear priorities and a roadmap your team can execute. No AI expertise required, GDPR-compliant.

Consulting at eye level

AI for the mid-market: pragmatic, not hype

For us, AI consulting for SMEs means no enterprise slide decks, but solutions that match your resources. Mid-sized companies rarely have their own AI team – what they do have are grown systems, well-rehearsed workflows and little time for experiments. That is exactly where we start.

In compact workshops with leadership and staff we find the use cases that actually pay off for your business and rank them by value, effort and risk. The result is an AI strategy with an actionable roadmap – and if you want, we implement it right away with AI agents and run them for you.

In mid-sized companies, AI rarely fails on the technology. It fails because nobody has time to look after a pilot, because ownership stays vague, or because once the project ends there is no one left to maintain the solution. That is why we plan operations and ownership in from the start, not at the end.

We advise from Vienna for the entire DACH region, on site or remote. Get in touch for a free, no-obligation intro call.

Bernhard Hauser leading an AI training
Why Waterglass

Consulting that leads to implementation

Assessment & use cases

We review processes, data and tools and tell you honestly where AI creates value today – and where it does not (yet). Ranked by benefit, not by fashion.

Workshops & enablement

Your leadership and your teams are involved from day one. After the workshops, your company can judge and own AI decisions itself.

GDPR & European infrastructure

We plan data protection in from the start: European infrastructure, European-hosted or open-source models on request, clear rules for sensitive data.

Implementation, not slides

Your roadmap does not end as a PDF: on request we build and run the prioritised solutions with AI agents ourselves.

How it runs

Four steps to the first result

A sequence that works alongside day-to-day business: few meetings, clear interim results and a decision after every step.

  1. Intro call

    Thirty minutes in which you describe your starting point. We tell you plainly whether we see potential and at what size an entry point would make sense. Free and without obligation.

  2. Assessment

    We review processes, systems and data and talk to the business units. The result is a sober picture of where AI holds up today and where the foundations are still missing.

  3. Workshop and prioritisation

    One workshop with leadership and team puts the use cases in order by value, effort and risk. Afterwards it is clear what to start with and who owns it internally.

  4. Pilot and operations

    The first use case goes into production, with real data and a measurable result. On request we then take on running it, so the solution does not fail for lack of staff.

Selected references

Successful client projects

Read case studies
HR

€25M+Annual turnover

Media

€2M+Annual turnover

Logistics

€1.7BAnnual turnover (Group)

Silia Traub
AI agents are a transformative technology that unlocks efficiencies across a wide range of businesses.
Silia Traub
Director AI & Strategy at willhaben
Oliver Lukesch
We are using AI agents to radically improve our business efficiency and quality of service for our customers.
Oliver Lukesch
CTO at StartMatch

We integrate seamlessly into your infrastructure

Slack Microsoft Teams Outlook Gmail Notion Google Drive Salesforce Slack Microsoft Teams Outlook Gmail Notion Google Drive Salesforce
HubSpot OpenAI Anthropic Datadog Jira Zapier Stripe HubSpot OpenAI Anthropic Datadog Jira Zapier Stripe
GitHub Linear QuickBooks Zendesk Asana Intercom Google Calendar GitHub Linear QuickBooks Zendesk Asana Intercom Google Calendar
FAQ

Common questions about AI consulting for SMEs

Who is the AI consulting for?
For small and mid-sized companies in the DACH region that want to use AI deliberately instead of trying isolated tools. You need neither an AI team nor prior experience – just the willingness to involve leadership and staff in the workshops.
How much does AI consulting for SMEs cost?
Considerably less than an enterprise project: the scope depends on company size and question, from a compact assessment to a full strategy with workshops. After a short intro call you get a fixed, no-obligation offer – scope, process and costs included.
Do we already need data or AI tools?
No. We work with what is there: your existing systems, your workflows, your data. The assessment shows what can be done with them today and which foundations can be built with little effort.
How long does the consulting take?
A compact assessment delivers clear first recommendations within a few weeks. A full strategy with workshops and roadmap typically takes four to eight weeks depending on company size – alongside your team's day-to-day business.
What is the concrete result?
A prioritised list of AI use cases, ranked by value, effort and risk, and a roadmap with a clear sequence, responsibilities and guardrails for safe AI use. In short: a basis for decisions your team can work with immediately.
Do you also support the implementation?
Yes, if you want us to. We implement the prioritised use cases with custom AI agents and run them permanently – or we act as a sparring partner for your team if you prefer to implement in-house.
How small can a company be for this to pay off?
There is no minimum size, but there is a sensible precondition: there has to be a task that occurs often enough for automation to be worth it. That can be as true in a ten-person business as in one with two hundred. In the intro call it usually takes a few minutes to judge.
What happens to our staff when tasks get automated?
In our projects, what tends to disappear is the work nobody enjoys anyway: copying data across, answering standard enquiries, reconciling lists. We recommend communicating that openly and involving the affected teams early. Projects planned around the people who do the work fail reliably.
Our systems are older and partly self-built. Is that a problem?
Usually not. What matters is whether data can be pulled out of the system and results written back, via exports or a database connection if need be. Where an interface is missing, we say so in the assessment rather than adding it later as extra cost.
Who looks after the solution once the project is over?
We do, if you want. Ongoing operations is a separate, clearly priced part of the offer: monitoring, updates and adjustments when your workflows change. If you want to run it in-house, we document accordingly and hand over.

Let's talk about AI in your business

Tell us where your company stands. We'll show you where AI has the biggest leverage and prepare a free, no-obligation offer for your consulting engagement.

How can we help?

Book a short intro call. We'll answer your questions and give you an honest first take on where AI creates value in your business.