01
AI Readiness Assessment
We audit your data, tooling, team, and workflows - then surface the highest-ROI AI opportunities with a scored feasibility matrix.
DiscoveryData auditOpportunity map
Duration
2–3 wks
Investment
$12,500
Arktika Applied AI · Strategy and delivery · Americas
Most AI initiatives fail. Ours don't.
Arktika Applied AI runs a structured 5-phase transformation - readiness assessment, roadmap, nearshore implementation squads, adoption, and ongoing optimisation. Strategy and LATAM delivery from one founder-led team.
Your squad
Nearshore · AmericasYour squad, assembled in 2 weeks.
Senior nearshore practitioners across the Americas - strategist, ML engineer, data architect and adoption lead. Same timezone, assembled in two weeks.
- ASAI Strategist / Assessment LeadBuenos Aires or BogotáRoadmap, prioritisation, ROI modelling
- MLML / Applied AI EngineerMid to SeniorFine-tuning, RAG, agents, evals, production deploy
- DAData ArchitectSeniorPipelines, retrieval, vector stores, governance
- ADApplied AI DeveloperMidProduct integration, APIs, ships into your existing stack
- AEAdoption & Enablement LeadJoins Week 4 (Growth) or Week 6 (Scale)Training, playbooks, change management
JO
Joshua O'Grady · Co-Founder
On every strategic engagement. No hand-offs to juniors.
70%
AI initiatives that stall
5x
Faster delivery vs offshore
40–60%
Cost vs North American teams
2 wks
From kickoff to shipping
Squad compositions by engagement
Right-sized squads for every stage.
Three engagement shapes, one nearshore network. Assessment through Scale, each squad is assembled within 2 weeks of contract signing.
2 people2 to 3 weeks
Assessment Squad
Lean by design. A conversation, not an invasion. Two senior people, one clear output.
Book a Readiness Assessment- AI Strategist / Assessment Lead1
- Data and Infrastructure Auditor1
Why Arktika
The only firm that runs your AI transformation and staffs your LATAM squad from the same network.
Boutique AI consultants sell strategy with no delivery team. BairesDev and Globant sell engineers with no adoption phase. Arktika runs Readiness, Roadmap, Build, Adopt and Optimise under one founder, with senior nearshore squads across the Americas.
Fixed fees publishedPhase 4 adoption built inJosh on every strategic engagement
The problem
Your AI initiative probably isn't working.
Pilots that never ship. Tool sprawl without a strategy. Big bets with no measurable return. The gap isn't ambition - it's applied execution.
70%
Never reach production
Most enterprise AI pilots stall before deployment - stuck between prototype and product.
14
Tools in the average stack
Fragmented tooling, no shared data layer, no clear owner of outcomes.
80%
Report no measurable ROI
Investment is up. Impact isn't. Without adoption, models don't move the P&L.
The 5 phases
A transformation system, not a project.
Five phases, one operating rhythm. Start with an assessment, end with a system your team owns.
02
AI Roadmap
A board-ready 6 to 12 month implementation plan: prioritised use cases with ROI per initiative, recommended technology stack, squad composition and timeline, cost-per-use-case breakdowns, and an executive slide deck you can put in front of investors.
Prioritised use case backlog with feasibility scoresROI model per initiative (hours saved, revenue, payback)Technology stack recommendationsSquad composition and hiring planSequenced 6–12 month delivery timelineExecutive readout deck (board and investor ready)Board-ready deck
Most vendors skip straight from assessment to build. The roadmap is what separates a consultant from a vendor. Yours is yours to keep.
Duration
1–2 wks
Investment
$20,000 standalone
Credited toward Growth or Scale Transformation
The roadmap is the deliverable most clients say changed how they think about their entire technology strategy. It stands alone.
03
Nearshore AI Implementation
Timezone-aligned nearshore squads deliver production systems - engineers, architects, and applied AI developers on your stack, not a demo.
LATAM squad40–60% savingsShip in weeks
Growth squad: 3 to 4 · Scale squad: 5 to 7 · Assembled within 2 weeks of contract signing
Duration
4–16 wks
04
★ Most criticalAdoption & Enablement
This is why 80% of AI initiatives fail. We do not skip it.
The phase most vendors skip - and the reason 80% of AI initiatives fail. Enablement, training, and playbooks so your team actually uses what we built.
Change mgmtTrainingPlaybooks
Duration
Ongoing
05
AI Optimisation
Once live, we tune. Evals, model updates, cost optimisation, and the next roadmap wave - a compounding partnership, not a one-off build.
EvalsModel tuningContinuous improvement
Duration
Ongoing
Investment
From $8,500/mo
Stack
Production systems, not slide decks.
We match the stack to your environment. Typical deployments include:
Models
Claude (Anthropic)GPT-4o (OpenAI)Open-weight where appropriate
Orchestration
LangGraphCustom agent frameworks
Retrieval
pgvectorPineconeWeaviate
Cloud
AWSGCPAzure
Languages
PythonTypeScript
Integration
RESTWebhooksSalesforceHubSpotNetSuite
Arktika builds on Claude for internal AI tooling. Anthropic Partner Network application in progress.
Why Arktika
Strategy and delivery, from one team.
Applied not theoretical. Nearshore Americas. Co-Founder-led. Adoption obsessed. See how we stack up against traditional agencies and in-house builds.
| Capability | Arktika Applied AI | Traditional Agency | In-house Build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy + delivery from one team | |||
| Nearshore Americas timezone | Sometimes | ||
| 40–60% cost vs North America | |||
| Ships in weeks, not quarters | Sometimes | ||
| Adoption & enablement built-in | Sometimes | ||
| Founder-led engagement |
Proof
Applied execution, measured in weeks.
Series B Fintech · LATAM operationsPhase 3 implementation
68% reduction in manual reconciliation time
Series B Fintech · Confidential
Arktika deployed a nearshore Applied AI squad in 8 weeks: assessment, roadmap, RAG-based reconciliation agent, and adoption training for 12 finance users. Production in Week 7. Client retained on Optimisation Essential retainer.
Assessment: 2 wksBuild: 5 wksAdopt: 2 wks
"We had three AI vendors and zero production systems. Arktika shipped one in seven weeks."
More case studies publishing Q3 2026. Book an Assessment to see relevant examples for your industry.
Related reading: AI transformation vs AI washing
Landscape
Who we compete with, and why growth-stage teams choose Arktika.
Enterprise generalists
BairesDev, Globant, Encora
They sell engineer hours at $80 to $200/hr with 5+ person minimums and no adoption phase. Built for Fortune 500 procurement cycles.
Arktika difference
Fixed fees. 2-person assessment entry. Adoption is Phase 4, not an upsell.
Independent AI consultants
Boutique advisors and strategy shops
They sell $2K to $8K assessments and strategy decks with no LATAM delivery bench.
Arktika difference
Same assessment rigor, plus a squad that ships production systems in your timezone.
In-house build
Hire, onboard, ship yourself
6 to 12 months to hire, onboard, and ship. Tool sprawl. No change management.
Arktika difference
Squad assembled in 2 weeks. Co-Founder accountable. You own the IP at handover.
Start here
AI Readiness Assessment.
$12,500· 2–3 weeks · fixed fee
A structured audit of your data, tooling, and team - with a scored opportunity map and a clear next step. Credited toward Full Transformation if you proceed.
Book your Assessment6 deliverables
- Data & infrastructure audit
- AI opportunity map with scored feasibility
- Tooling & vendor stack review
- Team capability assessment
- Prioritised 6–12 month roadmap outline
- Executive readout & recommendations
Trust
Built for buyers with a legal and security team.
IP ownership
All code, models, prompts, and documentation built during your engagement transfer fully to you at handover. No licensing traps.
Data handling
Assessment data is never stored beyond the engagement or used for model training. NDAs signed before any data access.
Infrastructure
SOC 2-aligned cloud infrastructure. Secrets managed per client environment. Your data stays in your VPC or approved region.
Enterprise security review available on request for Scale Transformation engagements.
Investment
Fixed-fee programs, published.
The cost of waiting
$340K
Average annual cost of a 15-person team spending 20% of time on manual processes AI should handle
Based on $113K avg US knowledge worker salary
14 months
Average time lost when an AI initiative fails and has to restart from scratch
Based on 2025 enterprise AI study data
10:1
Typical ROI ratio our clients see on AI transformation investment by month 18
Arktika Applied AI client benchmark
A $95,000 Growth Transformation against $340,000 in annual productivity losses is a 3.5x return before a single new product feature ships.
Start here
AI Readiness Assessment
Audit, opportunity map, and roadmap outline. Fee credited in full toward Growth or Scale Transformation when you proceed within 90 days.
$95,000
6 to 10 weeks
Growth Transformation
Series A · 20 to 80 person companySquad · 3 to 4 person nearshore team
Delivers · 1 to 2 production AI use cases shipped into client stack
- Roadmap and prioritisation
- LATAM implementation squad (3 to 4)
- 1 to 2 production AI use cases
- Adoption and enablement included
- Founder-led delivery
Assessment fee ($12,500) credited in full when you proceed within 90 days.
Scope Growth build Compare Growth Transformation on Pricing$150,000
10 to 16 weeks
Scale Transformation
Series B+ · 80 to 500 person companySquad · 5 to 7 person nearshore team
Delivers · 3 to 5 parallel production use cases across departments
- Multi-workstream roadmap
- LATAM implementation squad (5 to 7)
- 3 to 5 parallel production use cases
- Dept-by-dept adoption and enablement
- Dedicated PM plus founder oversight
- Quarterly board readout
Assessment fee ($12,500) credited in full when you proceed within 90 days.
Scope Scale build Compare Scale Transformation on PricingFor clients who want skin in the game
Performance Partner option
On qualifying Growth or Scale engagements, Arktika can structure a component tied to documented ROI at the 6-month mark. Reduced fixed fee plus shared upside. Available on discovery call only.
Example: $70K fixed fee plus 15% of documented savings at the 6-month mark. Available on qualifying Growth or Scale engagements.
Ask about Performance Pricing on your discovery callAfter launch
AI Optimisation retainers.
Optimisation Essential
$8,500
/mo
Ongoing · month-to-month
- Evals & model performance monitoring
- Cost optimisation reviews
- 1 new use case per quarter
- Monthly executive summary
Recommended for Scale
Optimisation Partner
$15,000
/mo
Ongoing · strategic partnership
- Everything in Essential
- Dedicated ML engineer on-call
- Continuous roadmap (next 90 days always planned)
- Quarterly board readout deck
- New agent development (1 per quarter)
- Priority response SLA
All prices USD. Payment: 50% at kickoff, 50% at milestone delivery for fixed-fee programs.
ROI Estimate
What is manual work costing you?
Rough estimate only. Your Assessment produces exact numbers.
Estimated annual cost of manual process
$937, 500
Typical Growth Transformation payback: 4 to 8 months
Assessment cost: $12,500 · credited toward transformation
Common questions
Applied AI vs the alternatives.
How is this different from BairesDev or staff augmentation?+
Staff aug firms sell hours: they hand you engineers and leave scoping, prioritisation, and adoption to your team. Arktika Applied AI is a full 5-phase transformation - Readiness, Roadmap, Build, Adopt, Optimise - led by a founder and delivered by a senior nearshore squad. You get a shipped, adopted system, not headcount.
What if we already have an internal AI team?+
Great. Our squads augment and accelerate in-house teams. Common patterns: we run the Assessment and Roadmap while your engineers keep shipping, or we drop in specialists (ML engineers, data architects, adoption leads) alongside your team for a specific transformation. You keep IP and institutional knowledge; we bring senior nearshore capacity and adoption discipline.
Who owns the IP and models after delivery?+
You do. All code, models, weights, prompts, evals, playbooks, and documentation are yours - transferred at delivery with no ongoing licence. Our contracts are work-for-hire with full IP assignment. We only retain the right to reference the engagement anonymously.
What does the $12,500 Assessment include?+
A 2 to 3 week engagement led by a Arktika AI Strategist: stakeholder interviews, data and infrastructure audit, opportunity map scored by ROI and feasibility, and a roadmap outline with recommended phasing. You leave with a document you can act on with or without us. The fee is credited in full toward Growth or Scale Transformation if you proceed within 90 days.
Can the Assessment fee credit toward Growth or Scale?+
Yes. The full $12,500 credits toward a Growth ($95K) or Scale ($150K) Transformation when you proceed within 90 days of Assessment delivery. Effectively, Growth becomes $82,500 and Scale becomes $137,500 for clients who move forward.
More in our full FAQ · Read: AI transformation vs AI washing
Stop guessing where AI fits. Start with a scored roadmap.
A 2 to 3 week Readiness Assessment tells you exactly where AI moves the needle - and where it doesn't.
Clients re-engage at 94% · Squad assembled in 2 weeks