AI Systems Partnership
AI systems for professional services firms.
We work with owners who know AI belongs in their business but do not have the time or the technical expertise to figure out where. Each month, we advise on strategy, build the systems, and keep them running.
What's included
What the Partnership looks like.
We stay involved every month. You get direct access to two seasoned technology partners for less than the cost of a single senior in-house hire.
Two working sessions a month
Not status updates. We dig into what is happening in your business, where you are losing time, and what to move on next. Every session ends with a clear next step.
A systems roadmap built around you
We maintain a running list of your opportunities, priorities, and technology decisions. You always know where you stand and what is coming next.
AI updates that matter to your business
When something changes in AI, we translate it for you. Does this apply to your business? What should you do? What should you ignore? Not headlines. Actual guidance.
Hands-on implementation
When something needs to be built, fixed, or configured, we do it. Up to three hours of real technical work in your systems every month. Included.
How we work
Diagnose. Build. Maintain.
Every partnership follows the same three-part rhythm. It gives you a clear picture of where you stand, working systems to close the highest-value gaps, and someone to run them alongside you once they are live.
01
Diagnose
Every partnership starts with a systems audit. We map how your business runs today, where time and money leak, and where AI actually belongs. You end up with a prioritized roadmap in the first month.
02
Build
We build the systems the roadmap calls for. Client communication, scheduling, follow-up, custom AI agents, internal tools. Documented and handed off, but not walked away from.
03
Maintain
Once built, we run the systems alongside you. We watch what breaks, tune what needs tuning, and layer in new AI capabilities as they become useful. Most of the long-term value shows up here.
About
About the firm.
Lead Engine is Hannah Ford and Alex Mitchell. Between us, more than twenty years inside operations, enterprise product, and software. We started the firm because the technology that used to require a corporate IT budget no longer does, and most owners of good businesses have no way to see that clearly.
Every partnership is run by one of us, not handed to an account manager or junior. Our clients get two partners with real operator experience and a small book of business by design. We take on a maximum of twelve partnership clients at a time.
Hannah spent over a decade running client-facing operations at high-growth technology companies. Operations leadership is a diagnostic discipline: you have to see how a business actually works underneath the way people describe it, name what is quietly broken, and know which fixes will hold and which will not. Her home services company in Portland now runs entirely on AI systems she designed and built herself, from client communication and scheduling to AI agents that handle follow-up and payments. She is strategic, decisive, and reads a business quickly. She listens before she prescribes, and tells you which decisions will actually shape the next year of your operation.
Alex's background is in enterprise software product management and development. Product management is a listening discipline: you sit between business and technology, ask the right questions, and translate what people actually need into something that works. He has spent years doing that at scale for large organizations. He is direct, detail-oriented, and knows how to cut through complexity and tell you exactly what is worth your attention and what is not.
The AI Systems Partnership gives you the working experience of a senior technical team without adding to your payroll. Two experienced operators inside your business every month, focused on the specific problems your company is trying to solve.
Why this matters
The businesses that put AI to work over the next two years will spend less time and money on the work that used to require full-time staff.
This is already happening. Most owners we speak with know it. The harder question is what to actually do about it inside a business that is already running at capacity.
You don't know what applies to you
There's a lot of AI noise. Most of it doesn't apply to a service business with a team of ten. Knowing what to ignore is half the work.
AI has changed what your systems can do
Enterprise software works for what it was designed for. But AI has created a new category of tools that didn't exist five years ago. Purpose-built, faster to deploy, and accessible at a fraction of the cost.
You don't have time to figure it out
You're running a business. You don't have 40 hours to research AI tools and build a strategy. That's exactly what we're here for.
Capabilities
Where we work.
Three practice areas where AI and modern tooling make a real difference for small and mid-sized businesses. Most engagements pull from more than one.
AI Systems
Purpose-built AI agents that live inside your business. Customer service email drafting, inbound lead triage, appointment scheduling, review requests, follow-up. We use the model that fits the job, not a single platform bet.
Operations Automation
The recurring work that drains a small business. Reminders, confirmations, payment collection, payroll prep, weekly recaps. Automated end to end, running on the systems you already use.
Custom Systems
When an off-the-shelf tool almost fits but not quite, we build the piece that closes the gap. Intake forms tied to your workflow. Dashboards you actually check. Client portals that match your brand.
Working with us
Start with a call. We'll take it from there.
The AI Systems Partnership is our core offer. The audit and custom build are for clients with a specific project or question in mind.
AI Systems Partnership
Core OfferFrom $1,500/mo
Three-month minimum.
We become your ongoing AI and systems team. Two working sessions a month, a continuously maintained systems roadmap, curated AI updates specific to your business, and up to three hours of hands-on implementation every month. Not a subscription to advice. A working relationship that moves your business forward.
Discovery Call
Free
30-45 minutes.
We talk through your business and tell you exactly where we'd start. No obligation, no pitch. You'll walk away knowing what AI can actually do for your operation.
AI Systems Audit
$750
Credits toward a build or the partnership.
We map your current systems, identify where AI would make the biggest difference, and give you a prioritized action plan. A clear picture of where to start.
Custom Build
From $2,500
Scoped per project.
One system, built around your business. We build it, hand it off with documentation, and make sure you know how it works. The audit tells us exactly what gets built.
Why Lead Engine
Why clients hire us.
Partner-led, always.
Every engagement is run by Hannah or Alex. No handoffs, no delivery teams, no junior work billed as senior time.
Operator judgment, not vendor judgment.
We have run a business on the systems we recommend. We know which decisions matter, which ones are reversible, and which pieces of software are quietly wasting your money.
Practice discipline.
We work with a small number of clients at a time. That is how the quality of the thinking stays where it needs to be.
Client intelligence
A weekly read of what changed in AI, and what it means for you.
Every partnership client receives The Standing Brief. It is a short, written note from us, delivered weekly. It covers what moved in AI and adjacent tooling over the past seven days, and, more importantly, which of it is relevant to your business and which is noise.
We read the releases, the model cards, the pricing changes, and the new feature launches so you do not have to. Then we tell you the three things that matter for your operation this week, in language that assumes you have a business to run and a limited number of hours to spend thinking about software.
Each client's brief is tailored to their industry and the specific questions their business is trying to answer. A professional services firm gets a different brief than a home services company. Same reading of the week's news, different implications for what to do about it.
The Standing Brief is delivered only to clients. If you want to see a recent issue, request an introduction and we will send one over.
Recent topics from the brief
- Claude 4.6 vs. GPT-5 for customer service email drafting
- HubSpot's new AI workflow builder: usable or still a demo?
- Two Google Workspace changes worth acting on this week
- Anthropic prompt caching for cost-sensitive applications
- Agentic AI for back-office document review
- When to route inbound leads to SMS instead of chat
Not sure where to start?
That's what the discovery call is for. 30 minutes, no pitch. You'll know exactly where your business stands.
Works with your existing systems