Illustrative example · fictional business

This is what you would receive

A complete AI Opportunity Audit, walked end to end for three made-up firms. None are real clients. Pick the one closest to yours. Every number is built from a business's own figures and shows its working.

The full audit, walked through for a made-up firm: Kestrel Trade Supplies, an independent building & plumbing merchant we invented for this page (trade counter, phone and email orders). It's not a real client. Every number is built from a business's own figures and shows its working.

Executive summary

The prize, in four numbers

Kestrel's team is quick and knowledgeable, but half the day goes on re-typing orders, pricing quotes by hand, and chasing deliveries. That manual load is a large, measurable time cost, and it's squarely in AI's wheelhouse.

~£42 to 62kProven Wave-1 floor, per year
~£18kTo build Wave 1
~4 moPayback on the floor alone
~£90k+Identified across the roadmap

Two kinds of number, kept apart. The HARD floor is time saved, from Kestrel's own order, quote and pricing volumes (46 working weeks, conservative coverage). You can bank it, and it pays for the build in aboutfour months on its own. The growth upside (more quotes won on speed) is shown per opportunity and proven in the pilot, never bundled into the headline. Provenance on every figure: D your data · M measured from your systems · B benchmark · A assumption (flagged, pilot-proven).

What we found

Four themes, in their own words

From a short operations review and a look at the order log, quote history and supplier price files, each grounded in a real number and a real quote.

Orders arrive as messages, not data

~300 orders a week come in by phone, email and WhatsApp, each re-keyed into the trade system by hand. It is the single biggest drain on the office.

“Half the day is just typing orders in from emails and voicemails.” (Sales office)

Slow quotes lose the job

~120 quotes a week, ~20 minutes each to price up from the book. Trade buyers ring three merchants and buy from whoever quotes first.

“By the time we've priced it up, they've ordered elsewhere.” (Branch manager)

Weekly repricing is a manual grind

Supplier price files land most weeks; thousands of lines are updated by hand, and pricing errors slip through to quotes.

“Every Monday is copying supplier prices into the system.” (Owner)

“Where's my delivery?” owns the phones

Variable lead times and pallet networks generate a constant stream of chasing calls, all landing on the trade-counter line.

“The counter phone never stops with delivery chasing.” (Office)

Your business, as we understand it

Where your information lives today

The work is excellent; the constraint is that every order, quote and price update runs through people, because the systems don't talk to each other.

Four disconnected islands: people are the integration. It is the single biggest limiter on cheap automation, and it shapes the sequencing below.

The good news: the two highest-value wins don't need these joined up first. They run from an order export and the price book. That's why we lead with them.

The opportunity landscape

Every opportunity, ranked

Seven opportunities scored on impact (what it's worth) against feasibility (how quickly and cheaply we can ship it). Bubble size shows annual value, and the leaders are the ones that hand your team its day back.

EASY FILLERS★ QUICK WINSLOW PRIORITYBIG BETSIMPACT →FEASIBILITY →Order deskPrice-listDeliveryFinderStatementsReorderForecast
Fig 1: Impact × Feasibility. Bubble area ≈ annual value.
#OpportunityWhat the AI doesValue / yrWhen
1Order & quote desk assistantReads emailed/messaged orders & quote requests, drafts them into the trade system for a person to approve£22 to 32k hard · win-rate upsideWave 1
2Supplier price-list ingestionTurns weekly supplier price files into a validated, ready-to-import update~£12 to 18k hardWave 1
3Delivery-status & chasing deflectionAnswers “where's my order” from courier + system data, on phone and email~£8 to 12k hardWave 1
4Trade-counter product & substitute finderHelps staff find the right part or an in-stock substitute in seconds~£6 to 10k hard · margin upsideWave 2
5Statement & overdue-account chasingDrafts statements and runs polite, staged dunning on trade accounts~£7 to 11k hardWave 2
6Back-in-stock & reorder promptsTells customers when a line returns; nudges predictable reorders~£8 to 16k upsideWave 2
7Demand & stock forecastingPredicts fast movers and reorder points from sales historystrategicWave 3

Opportunity deep-dive · 1 of 2 shown

★ Order & quote desk assistant

Turn every emailed order and phoned-in quote request into a drafted, priced entry your team just checks and sends, in minutes, not half a day.

EffortSmall to Medium · ~4 weeks
Value / year (conservative)£22 to 32k hard · win-rate upside
Data neededOrder export + price book

How it works

Order / quote arrives (email, WhatsApp, note)
Assistant reads it & drafts the lines
Prices from your book, flags stock
Your team checks & sends
Before

~300 orders + 120 quotes a week re-keyed and priced by hand; ~60 office hours a week on typing, and quotes that land a day late lose to faster merchants.

After

Orders and quotes arrive pre-drafted and priced; the team checks and sends; most quotes go out same-hour.

How we reached these numbers: hard vs upside

HARD (proven): your logs show ~300 orders + 120 quotes a week entered by hand, about 60 office hours (M). Drafting 45 to 65% of that automatically frees ~27 to 39 hours a week; at £18/hr over 46 weeks that is ~£22,000 to £32,000/yr you can bank. That is the floor, and it pays back the build in ~4 months on its own.

Hard: ~27 to 39 hrs/wk × £18 × 46 ≈ £22 to 32k (M) · Upside: faster quotes → higher win-rate (A, pilot-proven)

UPSIDE (to prove): same-hour quoting wins jobs that slow quotes lose today. On ~120 quotes/week even a few points of win-rate is real revenue, but win-rate is an assumption (A) until measured, so the pilot proves it on your own quotes before you count it.

Opportunity deep-dive · 2 of 2 shown

Supplier price-list ingestion

Every supplier price file turned into a checked, ready-to-import update, so Monday stops being repricing day, and quotes stop going out on stale prices.

EffortSmall · ~3 weeks
Value / year (conservative)~£12 to 18k hard
Data neededA few recent price files

How it works

Supplier price file lands
Assistant maps & validates the lines
Flags big moves & gaps for a human
Ready-to-import update
Before

Thousands of lines updated by hand each week; hours gone, and pricing errors that quietly cost margin on quotes.

After

The file is mapped, validated and checked in minutes; margin-critical moves are flagged; prices are current.

This one is pure HARD: time saved plus fewer pricing errors, all from your own files (M). No growth assumption; it simply gives the week back. The delivered report details every Wave-1 opportunity to this depth; this sample shows two.

The numbers

Shown as ranges, not single figures

The bars show the proven hard floor: the time saved you can bank. Growth upside is shown per opportunity and proven in the pilot, not rolled up here. The tick is our central, conservative estimate; the band is the plausible range.

£0k£19k£38k£56k£75kWave 1~£42 to 62k floorWave 2~£15 to 22k floorWave 3strategic, to be scoped
Fig 2: Net annual value by wave (conservative central estimate + plausible range).
£40k£20k£0k-£20kM0M6M12Payback ~4 mo
Fig 3: Wave 1 cumulative net position.
WaveNet / yrBuildPayback
W1 quick wins~£42 to 62k floor~£18k~4 mo
W2 scale~£15 to 22k floor~£12k~7 mo
W3 strategicTBDTBDTBD
Total identified~£57 to 84k floor + upside to proven/an/a

These bars show the PROVEN hard floor: time saved, fromKestrel's own volumes (46 working weeks, conservative coverage per opportunity). Growth upside (quotes won on speed, reorder revenue) is shown per opportunity above and proven in the pilot, not rolled up here. Every figure is source-tagged (D/M/B/A). Running AI costs are billed to Kestrel directly.

Technical & data readiness

What to tidy first, so the plan holds up

The trade system has an API that is switched off, and price data is inconsistent. That shapes the sequencing: the Wave-1 wins are chosen because they need only a data export to begin.

Data · 3Systems · 2.5Governance · 2.5Process · 3.5Team · 3.5
Fig 4: Readiness across five dimensions (/5).
3/ 5Developing

Strengths: an experienced counter team and a real order history. Gaps: a trade system whose API is switched off, and inconsistent price data.

Fix first

  • Get a simple <strong>order &amp; quote export</strong> (CSV). It unlocks the lead win with no integration.
  • Turn on the <strong>trade-system API</strong> (read-only) so drafts can write back in Wave 2.
  • Gather a handful of recent <strong>supplier price files</strong>, the grounding for the ingestion tool.

The roadmap

Sequenced, not dumped

Wave 1 starts immediately and needs only an export; the system integration runs underneath to unlock the later waves.

Security & governance

What each tool is allowed to touch

In plain English, not a compliance certificate. Nothing gets a staff login; each automation gets a narrow key you create and can switch off in seconds.

  • The lead win needs no access to your trade system to start: it drafts from an order export and your price book, so there is nothing to break.
  • Your data is not used to train AI. Models run on no-training terms; only the fields an automation needs ever leave your systems.
  • Running costs sit on your own accounts. The AI and API usage are billed to you directly, no lock-in, no markup.
  • A person approves every order and quote before it is sent. The AI drafts and prices; someone signs off. Every action is logged.

A live demo of the biggest quick win

Watch the order & quote desk at work

Not a slideshow: this is the assistantturning a real order or quote request into a drafted, line-by-line entry for your team to approve. Pick a scenario and watch it play out, including when it's unsure and hands off to a person.

Order & quote desk · Kestrel Trade SuppliesLive demo
Incoming
Emailj.marsh@marshplumbing.co.uk

Morning, can you price up 20× 110mm soil pipe (3m), 4× single branch and 10 brackets for collection Thursday? Cheers, Jonno

Draft order
QuoteQ-4821
Sent · Q-4821
Play a scenario

A staged walk-through for this page: the real build reads from yourfull price book and account rules. Seeing it handle your own orders is what turns 'sounds good' into a decision.

This sample clears the 5× findings guarantee many times over, which is the point. We only take on work where the numbers are there.

See what your own numbers look like

Answer a few questions about how your business runs. We'll tell you honestly whether there's enough here to be worth doing.