> Site index: [llms.txt](https://ortelian.com/llms.txt) with all pages and descriptions. # Ortelian vs AI consultancies: which fits your company? Source: https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-ai-consultancies/ Markdown: https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-ai-consultancies.md Large consultancies plan AI transformation across the company. Ortelian is a platform plus an on-site team that redesigns specific work and keeps it running. Large consultancies and systems integrators help companies decide where AI should go, plan the change and roll out platforms across many teams. Ortelian is a platform for running AI agents on a maintained world model of your company, deployed by our team on site. We work on site not because our product needs it, but because your company does. The team and the platform come together, and the platform keeps running after the build. Choose a large consultancy for a company-wide AI strategy, a transformation programme across many functions or a large platform rollout. Choose Ortelian when you want specific, context-heavy work redesigned and running on agents, built in two-week cycles. After launch, your team runs it or we keep running it for you. [Talk to us](https://ortelian.com/contact/) [How we work](https://ortelian.com/how-we-work/) At a glance ## A programme, or a platform with a team. This page compares Ortelian with large consultancies and systems integrators that sell AI transformation as a category, not with any single firm. Offers differ from firm to firm, and some also build and run systems, so check what a specific firm proposes. Access to the Ortelian platform is part of an engagement, and there is no self-serve product. Option Large AI consultancies Ortelian What it is Firms that advise on AI strategy and run transformation programmes, often alongside rolling out platforms from other vendors. A platform for running AI agents on a maintained world model of your company, deployed by our team on site. How you start Usually a scoping or strategy phase that sets the roadmap and the business case. A call, then an audit of about two weeks on site. What you get A plan for where AI fits, and often a project delivered to a specification. Redesigned work, with agents doing it inside your tools, on a platform that stays with you. How it is built Often as one project across many teams and systems. In two-week cycles, tested on real examples against a standard agreed before the build. After launch The day-to-day running often moves to your IT team or another provider. Your team runs it or we keep running it for you. Either way, we host and operate the platform, and your own agents can work with it headless through scoped tools. Best for Company-wide AI strategy, change across many functions and large platform rollouts. Getting the most out of AI in specific, context-heavy work, and keeping it at the standard after launch. When to choose a consultancy ## When the question is where AI should go across the company. Choose a large consultancy when you need a company-wide AI strategy: which functions to start with, the business case, the operating model and the governance around it. Strategy consultancies are good at deciding where AI should go and what the roadmap is, and large firms can staff change programmes that span many countries, functions and teams at once. It also fits when the main job is rolling out a large platform and connecting it to many systems. Systems integrators are good at that, and they are built for programmes where one firm has to answer for the whole rollout. When to choose Ortelian ## When a specific piece of work has to change, and keep running. Choose Ortelian when you want AI to change how a specific piece of work runs, such as a planning round, a back-office check or a sales process with many people and sources, and that work depends on context no single system holds. Most AI projects stall in the gap between a plan and a working system. One party writes down how the work should change, another builds something, and a third is left to run it. An [AI-native deployment partner](https://ortelian.com/ai-deployment-partner/) closes that gap by owning all three. We work on site not because our product needs it, but because your company does. An audit of about two weeks on site finds where the work is held up. Then we [redesign the work](https://ortelian.com/notes/redesign-the-work-before-you-automate-it/) with your team, agree the standard on real examples and build in two-week cycles until the work meets it. The steps are on [how we work](https://ortelian.com/how-we-work/), and the full method is in our guide on [how to deploy AI agents in an enterprise](https://ortelian.com/notes/how-to-deploy-ai-agents-in-an-enterprise/). What stays with you after the build is the [platform](https://ortelian.com/platform/). Agents work from a [world model for knowledge work](https://ortelian.com/notes/what-is-a-world-model-for-knowledge-work/): your systems of record joined with outside sources, organised by an ontology we define with you, with every fact keeping its source. After launch, your team runs it or we keep running it for you. Either way, we host and operate the platform, and the evaluations keep running on the work in use. Your own agents and AI tools can work with it headless, through the scoped tools we set up with you. It is hosted in the EU, and agents use models with zero data retention. *Diagram: A code box holding a file tree. Everything the work needs is inside it.* Can you use both? ## Yes. They work at different levels. A consultancy can set the company-wide AI strategy and the governance around it, and Ortelian can take specific pieces of work inside that plan and get them running. The audit gives a map of the work, a baseline and the standard each build must meet, which fits into the reporting of a wider programme. Agents work inside the systems you already use, so a platform rolled out by an integrator becomes one more system they can work in once it is live. We agree in the audit which systems and sources the agents use. If you are also weighing a company-wide assistant, see [Ortelian vs Glean](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-glean/). Other comparisons: [Ortelian vs Glean](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-glean/), [Ortelian vs building in-house](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-building-in-house/), [Ortelian vs Microsoft Copilot](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-microsoft-copilot/), [Ortelian vs ChatGPT Enterprise](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-chatgpt-enterprise/) and [Ortelian vs Sierra](https://ortelian.com/ortelian-vs-sierra/). Questions ## Questions buyers ask when comparing. **Is Ortelian an AI consultancy?** No. Ortelian is a platform plus a team that works on site. We redesign the work with your people, build the agents on our platform and stay responsible for them meeting the standard. After launch, your team runs it or we keep running it for you. Either way, we host and operate the platform. **How is Ortelian different from a large consultancy’s AI practice?** We start from one piece of work rather than a company-wide roadmap, and build in two-week cycles, tested on real examples against a standard agreed before the build. The agents run on a platform with a maintained world model of your company, so the context they work from stays current after launch. The connections, evaluations and world model carry into the next piece of work. **What do we keep at the end?** The redesigned work, the agents doing it and the platform they run on, which we host and operate. You own your data and world model and can export both, along with the full history of how your agents were set up. Your own agents and AI tools can work with the platform headless, through scoped tools set up as part of the engagement. There is no self-serve product. **How long until the first agent is in use?** The audit takes about two weeks on site. The first build then runs in two-week cycles and goes live when it passes the evaluations we agreed. How many cycles that takes depends on the work and the sources it needs. **How is Ortelian priced?** Ortelian comes as an engagement. The audit is a fixed fee, credited against the first build if you go ahead. Each build is a fixed fee agreed at the end of the audit. The platform is a monthly fee sized to your usage, with unlimited users and no annual commitment. We agree the scope, expected usage, support and fees with you before work begins. --- ## Let’s work out the fit. Bring the work that is held up and any AI plans you already have. We’ll tell you whether it is a job for us, or whether a wider programme is the better place to start. [Talk to us](https://ortelian.com/contact/) [Or email Laurens](mailto:laurens@ortelian.com)