AI Strategy Consultant in Newcastle
YJ Strategy is a Newcastle-headquartered AI strategy consultancy helping UK owner-operated professional services firms find where AI saves time and money — then building the systems to capture it.
Founder-led. Fixed-fee engagements. UK-wide delivery from a Newcastle base. No vendor kickbacks, no slide decks. A plan your leadership team can act on, backed by implementation when you want it.
Summary
- Who we are: Newcastle-based, founder-led AI strategy consultancy.
- Who we serve: UK owner-operated professional services firms, 5-50 employees.
- What we do: AI diagnostic audits, 12-month adoption roadmaps, agentic process redesign.
- How we work: Fixed-fee per engagement. No day rates, no open-ended scopes.
- Where we work: Newcastle and across the UK. Remote and on-site delivery.
Who This Is For
- Owner-operated firms where the founder is the bottleneck
- Professional services: legal, accountancy, healthcare, recruitment, agencies
- 5-50 employees, £500K-£5M revenue
- Based anywhere in the UK — Newcastle base, remote-first delivery
- Ready to move from "AI curious" to measurable implementation
- Enterprise organisations needing a full-service consultancy
- Firms wanting a slide deck rather than operational change
- Businesses expecting AI to replace strategy instead of executing it
- Buyers optimising for the cheapest day rate
- Hospitality, retail, or estate-agency work (handled by partners)
How We Compare
Four routes to AI capability for a UK SME, what each looks like, and when each one makes sense.
| Factor | YJ Strategy | Big-4 firm | In-house hire | Vendor-led build |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to value | 1-4 weeks | 3-6 months | 3-6 months (hire + onboard) | 2-4 months (scope + build) |
| Commercial shape | Fixed fee per engagement | Six figures minimum | Salary + overhead | Licence + services |
| Breadth of context | Multiple industries, multiple implementations | Deep methodology, generalist execution | Your business only | Their product surface area |
| Independence | Tool-agnostic, no kickbacks | Tool-agnostic (at a premium) | Tied to internal politics | Sells their platform |
| Right for | UK SMEs 5-50 employees | Enterprise & regulated | Continuous full-time AI load | Narrow, well-defined automation |
What Changes the Price
Every engagement is scoped and priced individually. Quotes depend on five factors more than anything else. When you book a call, these are the things we ask about.
Scope
One department vs. the whole business. A focused audit covering a single revenue-touching workflow sits at the low end; a full-operations diagnostic with roadmap sits higher.
Depth
Diagnostic-only vs. roadmap vs. build. Strategy work is the entry point. Implementation and agentic process redesign are priced separately.
Data readiness
Clean systems accelerate work. Fragmented tools, paper records, or unintegrated platforms require triage time before AI opportunities are visible.
Implementation scope
Advisory-only recommendations are cheaper to produce. Hands-on build, integration, and change management cost more because they deliver more.
Retainer depth
Ad-hoc advisory vs. fractional AI leadership. Retainers scale with the hours per month and whether the work is reactive or programme-managed.
Sector specifics
Regulated sectors (legal, healthcare) add compliance and data-handling requirements. These are absorbed into the scope; they are not hidden line items.
Published pricing. We do not publish fixed numbers on this page. SME AI work varies too widely by scope for a number to be meaningful in isolation. On a 20-minute discovery call, you will walk away with a realistic range for your situation.
Our Framework: Readiness → Roadmap → Redesign
A three-stage sequence. Most clients start at Readiness. Some already have the diagnostic and need a roadmap. A few know exactly where the opportunity sits and come straight to Redesign.
1 · Readiness
A one-week diagnostic. Data maturity, tech stack audit, team AI literacy. Output: a prioritised opportunity list with estimated ROI and implementation effort.
Service details →2 · Roadmap
A 12-month AI adoption plan sequenced by ROI. What to build, what to buy, what to leave alone — with phase gates and measurement.
Service details →3 · Redesign
Agentic process redesign. Where the plan touches revenue or operations, we rebuild the workflow with AI at the core. Integrated, measured, and handed over.
Service details →What the Numbers Say
UK SME AI adoption in 2025, up from 7% in 2022.
Source: British Chambers of Commerce Digital Revolution report
of small and mid-sized businesses using AI report revenue increases.
Source: SMB Group 2024 SMB AI Research
average payback period for UK SMEs investing £50K-£150K in AI.
Source: Goldman Sachs UK SME Productivity Report
return per £1 spent on AI across SME industries.
Source: IDC Global AI Value Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you based in Newcastle?
Yes. YJ Strategy is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne. The founder, Yuvraj Chauhan, was born in the North East and studied at Newcastle University. The business operates across the UK — Newcastle is the origin, not the boundary.
Do you only work with Newcastle clients?
No. Our client base is UK-wide. We currently serve businesses in the North East and across England in professional services, healthcare, and manufacturing. Remote engagements are standard for most of the work.
What industries do you work with?
Owner-operated professional services firms are the primary focus — legal practices, accountancy firms, healthcare IT, recruitment, and independent consultancies. Typical client size is 5 to 50 employees with revenue between £500K and £5M.
How is this different from hiring an internal AI lead?
An internal hire takes three to six months to recruit, costs £55,000 to £90,000 plus overhead, and gives you depth in one context. A consultant delivers repeatable frameworks across multiple client engagements with no hiring risk. Most SMEs start with consulting and only hire internally once AI work becomes continuous and full-time.
Do you sell AI tools or implement them?
Neither exclusively. We are tool-agnostic — no vendor kickbacks, no platform lock-in. We recommend what fits the business, then build or integrate what works. If an off-the-shelf tool solves the problem, that is what we recommend. If the right answer is a custom agent, that is what we build.
What does a typical first engagement look like?
A diagnostic audit, usually one to four weeks depending on business size. We map operations, assess data maturity, and produce a prioritised list of AI opportunities ranked by ROI and implementation effort. The output is a document your leadership team can act on, not a slide deck.