The Math

What "we'll build it ourselves" actually costs.

Typical U.S. market figures for a minimum credible internal AI capability, before the first working system ships.

The Internal Build

Statement of cost
Senior AI lead — salary + benefits$250K–$400K / yr
Two engineers — salary + benefits$360K–$500K / yr
Recruiting fees (20–25% of comp)$120K–$220K
Tooling, compute & vendor contracts$50K–$150K / yr
Time to first production system12–18 months
Failed pilots along the wayYours to fund
First-year commitment$800K+ before results
Illustrative · typical market ranges · most internal AI pilots never reach production

A ClearWatch Brain

Statement of cost
Flat monthly retainer or fixed-scope buildKnown in advance
Recruiting, hiring, retention riskNone
Tool selectionIndependent — we buy, not sell
Time to first working systemWeeks
Trial and errorAlready done — on our time
Knowledge transferIncluded — your team trained
If it isn't workingEnd it with notice — Brain stays
CostA fraction of one senior hire
Principal-led · Every engagement

The market offers strategy houses that don't build, dev shops that don't advise, and internal teams that cost seven figures to learn on the job. A Brain, built by the people who've already made the mistakes, is the fourth option — priced like a decision instead of a department.

The Method

We start in your building — and we leave your people running it.

A Brain has to know how the work actually moves. And it only becomes yours when your own team can operate it.

STEP 01

The Walkthrough

Week 0

We come to the operation — the plant floor, the office, the department — and watch how the work actually moves. Where the hours go, where the errors live, where the money leaks.

STEP 02

The Map

Weeks 1–2

The blueprint for your Brain: what it should know, watch, and draft — and which tools it should be built on. Reasoning shown, in plain language.

STEP 03

The Build

Weeks 2–6

The Brain delivered in working form, demonstrated live on your data, wired into the software you already run. Not a roadmap to a roadmap.

STEP 04

The Handoff

In Parallel

We train and teach your team — hands-on, in plain language — to run the Brain, extend it, and own it. The capability stays in your building.

STEP 05

The Watch

Optional · Ongoing

For those who want us to stay: the retainer keeps the Brain sharp as tools change monthly, its scope growing, and one accountable person answering for it.

The Entry Point

The First Watch — your first working system, in weeks.

One walkthrough. One map. One system built, deployed in your environment, and demonstrated live on your data — before you commit to anything larger. The fastest honest answer to "what would AI actually do for us?"

Book the First Watch
The Build Sheet

What we've built. What your Brain could do.

Drawn from systems designed and delivered across government, capital-markets, and logistics engagements. Every one of these is on the menu.

B-01

Morning briefing engines

Everything that moved overnight — typed and by voice — with decisions queued, not raw data.

B-02

Around-the-clock watchtowers

Market tape, public filings, dockets, and news monitored continuously against your positions and cases.

B-03

Escalation ladders

Push, SMS, then voice calls that repeat until a human acknowledges. Nothing critical dies in an inbox.

B-04

Statutory deadline systems

Compliance tracking architected for hard legal deadlines — discovery obligations, filings, response windows.

B-05

Regulatory filings, pre-drafted

Disclosure and notice documents generated from live position and event data, staged for counsel sign-off.

B-06

Cross-source pattern analysis

Signals linked across agencies, systems, and data sets that never talked to each other before.

B-07

AI governance & policy

Acceptable-use and governance frameworks rigorous enough for a county prosecutor's office.

B-08

Systems integration & reconciliation

Wired into the software you already run: overnight matching, exception handling, one source of truth by morning.

B-09

Dispatch & utilization boards

Live operational pictures — people, assets, conflicts — rebuilt automatically for the morning window.

B-10

Cost recovery & leak detection

Duplicate invoices held pre-payment; detention, demurrage, and price variances disputed with evidence attached.

B-11

Enforcement & dispute drafting

Default notices, demand letters, and dispute packets drafted the moment the trigger fires.

B-12

Deal-flow scoring & origination

Inbound opportunities scored against your criteria; the market scanned for the ones that fit.

B-13

Board & funding materials

Budget books, briefing memos, and decks — board-ready, same-day, in your organization's voice.

B-14

Managed deployment & security

Hardened rollout in your environment, with security management for systems that can't fail quietly.

B-15

Team training & handoff

Your people taught to run, extend, and own the Brain — the capability stays when we step back.