One Use Case at a Time: How to Build Your Firm’s AI Skill

AI is reshaping professional services faster than anyone expected. The biggest consulting firms are using it to rethink how they develop strategy for clients. They’re changing their business models, restructuring how they deliver work, and planning for a very different future.

The larger firms know this matters and they’re investing heavily, which suggests we should follow suit.

The advantage we have as boutique firms is speed, flexibility, and proximity to clients. You can adopt and experiment in ways the big firms can’t.

As you’ve probably experienced yourself, a big question commonly asked is, “where do I start?” Here’s a few ways we think about it. The human work AI elevates, assistants that help you think faster, and agents that run processes on your behalf.

The Work AI Elevates

AI clears the noise so you can focus on the work that actually builds your firm. The work that requires a human.

You set the vision for where the business is going and why it matters. You build trust with clients and prospects through real, in person relationships. You navigate the difficult conversations that shape your business. You develop your team, set the standard for culture, and hold people accountable. You make the hard decisions when the path forward isn’t clear.

AI can help you execute against all of these. It can analyze data, surface patterns, and generate recommendations. What it can’t do is decide what your firm stands for. It can’t build the relationship that wins a client’s trust. It can’t make the hard call when the answer isn’t obvious.

The whole point of AI is to protect this high-value work and give you more time for it.

Assistants: Start Here

Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are widely available. If you haven’t started using one regularly, that’s step one.

An assistant is your AI thought partner. You bring the context and direction. It helps you think faster and work through problems you’d normally grind on alone.

I have hundreds of conversations a year with founders and executives. Each person has a unique situation, different challenges, and different goals. Keeping all of that in your head across hundreds of relationships is impossible. Details slip. Patterns get missed.

AI has better memory than we do. I give my assistant context about a member’s business, past conversations, and current challenges. It builds account plans, surfaces gaps I might’ve overlooked, and recommends next steps. It catches things that stay hidden when I’m moving fast.

We’re also using it to collaborate on operations, analyze financial patterns, and think through strategy. The shift is simple: we’re becoming editors instead of creators. AI generates the first pass. We refine, verify, and add what only a human can.

Agents: When You’re Ready for More

Agents go a step further than assistants. An assistant helps when you ask. An agent runs a process, reviews the output, and comes back with recommendations. In other words, AI executes 80% of the work.

We’re building our Agents using different tools like OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude Code, n8n, Supabase, and Vercel. The names don’t matter as much as what they enable. Here are three use cases where agents create real leverage.

First, deal review and coaching. An agent records our sales calls, transcribes them, and reviews the conversation against our methodology. It identifies gaps in the buyer’s readiness. Then it recommends next steps, suggests questions for the follow up, and updates our CRM. The rep runs the conversation (the high value work). The agent handles the analysis and admin.

Second, lead scoring and outbound prioritization. An agent monitors signals from our target accounts: hiring status, publications, leadership shifts. It scores those leads and generates personalized outreach for us to review before sending. The goal is to reach the right people at the right time with the right message.

Third, client health monitoring. An agent reviews engagement patterns and communication frequency across our accounts. It flags at risk clients, then it recommends actions like scheduling a check in or specific ways to provide value.

How to Think About It

You don’t have to boil the ocean all at once. Start with one simple use case. A use case is just a simple problem you’re having that AI can help solve.

Maybe you’re managing too many relationships to keep track of details. Maybe you’re writing proposals from scratch every time. Maybe you’re reviewing deals without a system. Pick one, figure it out, then move to the next.

It doesn’t even have to be a business use case to start as you’re getting familiar with the tools and learning the capabilities.

To illustrate an example, I gave Lovable, an AI app builder, one prompt. It built me an app that organizes everything I learn. 

 I called it Second Brain.

Nothing fancy, but all it took was one prompt, one simple use case. You just have to come up with your own and start.

The Takeaway

This is a skill we all have to grow and develop, and it starts one use case at a time. At Collective 54, we believe firms that don’t build this skill risk becoming obsolete.

Let AI protect your highest value work by clearing everything else off your plate. Start with assistants to think faster. Build toward agents that surface insights on your behalf.

We’re learning as we go. If you’re building with a different stack or have recommendations, I’d love to hear about it as well.

Interested in what we’re building at Collective 54?

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