What is the difference between Workshop & Advisory and Discovery → Build?

WiscAI offers two parallel engagement tracks. Discovery → Build (Track A) is for organizations that want AI delivered as a working system - a 3-week opportunity scoping followed by a scoped, fixed-fee build engagement. Workshop & Advisory (Track B) is for organizations that want to up-skill internal teams to use AI on their own work - typically a 1-week diagnostic, a 2-4 week pilot working alongside the team, and an optional monthly advisory retainer. Clients can engage on either alone, or both at once.

What is the two-lane scoping that WiscAI uses?

Every AI opportunity falls into one of two lanes. Lane 1 - internal/operational - covers workflows where staff spend time drafting, retrieving, summarizing, reconciling, or analyzing. These move fast because human-in-the-loop is the default and the risk surface is internal. Lane 2 - customer-facing or regulated - covers workflows that touch members, customers, patients, athletes, or regulated records. These require explicit compliance posture, evaluation criteria that match the regulator's expectation, and a deliberate escalation path. Scoping both lanes up front means leadership sees the full opportunity landscape, not just the lane they already know.

How long is a Discovery engagement?

Three weeks, fixed scope, fixed fee. We interview the people doing the work, score every candidate workflow on six criteria, and deliver a scored two-lane opportunity map with a build proposal for the top opportunity. There is no commitment to continue past Discovery itself.

Do I have to engage WiscAI for the Build phase after Discovery?

No. Discovery is a standalone deliverable. Clients own the opportunity map and the build plan, and are free to execute internally, with another vendor, or in staged phases. Most clients continue with WiscAI because the team that scoped the opportunity is the team best positioned to ship it - but that is a commercial choice, not a condition of the engagement.

What does a Build engagement look like?

Build is scoped implementation of a specific opportunity. Fixed-scope, fixed-fee. WiscAI works in five recurring patterns: domain-knowledge coaching and SME augmentation, document and workflow automation, marketing and brand-voice content, member or customer-facing AI (voice, chat, guided flows), and compliance-aware deployment for regulated environments. Engagements range from roughly 25K to 150K+ and run from a few weeks to several months, depending on scope. The team that runs Discovery also runs Build - there is no handoff.

What are the six criteria WiscAI uses to score AI opportunities?

Staff-time impact (how much human time the workflow consumes today), data readiness (whether the inputs exist and are accessible), technical feasibility (whether current AI models can do the work reliably), risk and compliance (what happens when the AI is wrong), change-management load (how disruptive the rollout will be for the team), and measurability (whether outcomes can be tracked). Each opportunity gets a score per criterion; leadership sees a prioritized list rather than a generic pitch.

Can WiscAI skip Discovery and go straight to Build?

Sometimes. When a client already knows the target workflow and has done the internal scoping, WiscAI can engage directly in Build. When leadership is still deciding where AI creates the most leverage - or when compliance posture needs to be scoped up front - Discovery is the right starting point. A short intro call clarifies which is which.

How WiscAI Works: Two Tracks, Two Lanes

Two Engagement Tracks

Pick what fits. Or run both.

Discovery → Build delivers AI as a working system. Workshop & Advisory enables your team to use AI on their own work. The two tracks are different products that solve different problems.

Track A

Discovery → Build

For organizations that want AI delivered as a working system. We scope the highest-ROI opportunity in three weeks, then build it. The team that scoped it ships it - no handoff.

3-week AI opportunity assessment - a scored, two-lane opportunity map
Scoped Build - fixed-scope, fixed-fee implementation
Same team scopes and ships - no re-briefing

Discovery → Build details ↓

Track B

Workshop & Advisory

For organizations that want to up-skill internal teams to use AI on their own work. The team keeps ownership of the output; we coach the practice and stay alongside as it spreads.

1-week Diagnostic - audit AI opportunities by department
2-4 week Pilot - work alongside the team on real problems
Monthly Advisory - ongoing retainer for sustained capability

See Workshop & Advisory →

Inside Track A - Discovery → Build

Two lanes. One opportunity map.

Every AI opportunity falls into one of two lanes. Scoping both up front means leadership sees the full landscape - not just the lane they already know.

Lane 1

Internal and Operational

Workflows where staff spend time drafting, retrieving, summarizing, reconciling, or analyzing. The risk surface is internal. Human-in-the-loop is the default. These opportunities tend to move fastest because a wrong answer is easy to catch and fix.

Drafting memos, reports, and first-pass analysis
Retrieving information from internal documents and systems
Reconciling data across tools, files, and sources
Staff training, onboarding, and knowledge transfer
Internal dashboards, briefings, and reporting loops

Lane 2

Customer-Facing or Regulated

Workflows that touch members, customers, patients, athletes, or regulated records. Compliance rules are spelled out up front, with deliberate guardrails and a clear escalation path.

Member, customer, or patient communication
Underwriting, claims, fraud, and compliance review
Regulated retrieval - BSA, AML, NCAA, ERISA, HIPAA contexts
Voice and chat systems with explicit disclosure
Any workflow where a wrong answer creates regulatory risk

The Engagement Model

Two phases. Fixed scope at each gate.

Discovery stands on its own: you get the map and a build quote, and you can stop there. Most clients continue into Build, but neither phase assumes the next.

The engagement modelFixed fee at each phase

AI Opportunity Discovery

3 Weeks · Fixed Fee · $10K-$25K

A focused, three-week engagement that produces a scored, two-lane opportunity map for your organization, with a build proposal for the top opportunity.

Decision gate No commitment past Discovery itself

AI Build Engagement

Scoped · Fixed Fee · $25K-$150K+

Targeted implementation of the highest-ROI opportunity identified in Discovery. The team that scoped the opportunity also ships it - no handoff, no re-briefing, no lost context. Build engagements are fixed-scope and fixed-fee, sized to the work itself: a contained workflow ships in weeks, and a complex system gets the time it needs.

Inside the Discovery Engagement

Three weeks. Progress every week.

We interview the people doing the work, score every candidate workflow, and hand you a scored opportunity map with a build proposal for the top item. Then you decide.

How We Score

Six criteria. Applied to every candidate.

The scoring framework is explicit. Leadership sees the reasoning, not just the recommendation.

What the map looks likeSix ticks = score out of six

Lane 1 · Internal and Operational

Internal document retrieval Recommended start

Drafting memos and reports

Reconciling data across tools

Lane 2 · Customer-Facing or Regulated

Member and customer communication

Claims and compliance review

One tick per criterion met: staff-time impact, data readiness, technical feasibility, risk and compliance, change-management load, measurability.

Illustrative format: the shape of the Discovery deliverable, not client data.

Build Patterns

Five recurring shapes of Build engagement

Most engagements fall into one of five patterns. Discovery identifies which shape fits; Build ships the system.

Domain-Knowledge Coaching

Expert knowledge captured as systems your team can ask, so it stops living in a few senior heads.

Document and Workflow Automation

Structured and unstructured documents processed at volume: extraction, classification, routing, and approval flows.

Marketing and Brand-Voice Content

Campaign, email, and social drafts generated in your brand voice, with your compliance rules built in.

Member, Customer, or Athlete-Facing AI

Voice, chat, and guided flows for the people your organization serves, with handoff to human staff built in.

Compliance-Aware Deployment

Built for regulated environments: credit unions, insurance, ERISA advisory, NCAA, and clinical settings.

Where This Takes You

See the two lanes in your industry

Each industry and function page uses the same two-lane scoping. Pick the closest match to your situation to see real use cases and engagement shapes - relevant to both engagement tracks.

Workshop & Advisory (Track B) → Financial Services and Credit Unions → Insurance → Collegiate Athletics → Manufacturing → Finance and Accounting → Operations →

Where This Thinking Comes From

Mike co-hosts the AI Leadership Breakfast Forum - a bi-monthly invitation-only conversation among CIOs, CFOs, and VPs at $1B+ Wisconsin organizations across life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, insurance, and retail. Co-hosted with Steve Cretney (EVP, Colony Brands). The room shapes what we ship.

Start with a 30-minute conversation.

We will tell you honestly which track fits - Workshop & Advisory, Discovery → Build, or both.

Book a Call

michael.zhang@wiscai.com See our work → All services →

How We Work: Two Tracks, Two Lanes