AI Consulting — responsibly applied.
We help businesses introduce AI into Finance, Accounting, Payroll, HR and other core business processes — with the controls, documentation and governance a regulator would expect. No hype, no data leaks, no shadow-IT.
Practical AI for Finance, Accounting, Payroll, HR and the processes in between.
AI is genuinely useful in parts of Finance, Accounting, Payroll, HR and operations — and genuinely risky in others. Our job is to tell you the difference and help you get value from the first group without stumbling into the second. We combine chartered-style accounting expertise with a pragmatic, governance-first approach to deploying models and AI agents.
Every engagement is scoped so the business case, the data flows, and the risks are written down before any model or agent is deployed. You get a clear artefact you can show auditors, the ICO, or your board.
Our responsible-AI principles
- Human-in-the-loop by default for any decision that affects a person.
- No client data into public LLMs without a DPA and explicit consent.
- Data minimisation. Only the fields a model actually needs.
- Explainability. If we can't explain why a model said X, we don't ship it.
- UK GDPR & EU AI Act aware. Risk-classified per the Act's categories.
- Exit plan. Every pilot has a clear cost and a clear off-ramp.
AI across Finance, Accounting, Payroll, HR and operations
A shortlist of practical, well-scoped use cases — grouped by the business function they serve. The sort that deliver ROI in weeks, not a 12-month "transformation programme".
Cashflow & forecasting
Short-horizon cash forecasts that learn from your actual receipt and payment patterns. AP prioritisation, working-capital alerts, FX exposure modelling — not just a spreadsheet extrapolation.
Invoice & receipt capture
OCR + classification to push supplier invoices straight into the ledger with the right nominal code and VAT treatment. 80%+ auto-coded typical, with human-in-the-loop review for exceptions.
Anomaly & fraud detection
Flag duplicate payments, unusual expense claims, or out-of-pattern transactions before they reach month-end close. Tuned to your business, not a generic rules engine.
Payroll checks & queries
Pre-run variance checks (new-starter pro-rata, leavers, holiday balances), automatic draft responses to payslip queries from staff, and anomaly alerts before RTI submission.
HR policy & people Q&A
Private Q&A over your own HR policies — hosted inside your tenancy. Staff get fast, consistent answers on leave, expenses, conduct and benefits, without data leaving your boundary.
Recruitment screening
Structured CV parsing, shortlist scoring against the job spec, and first-pass interview-question generation — always with a human gate and documented bias checks.
Contract review assistance
First-pass extraction of key terms (renewal, liability caps, auto-renew) from supplier and customer contracts, for human review. Shaves hours off quarterly contract audits.
Customer comms drafting
Draft responses to routine client queries — always reviewed by a human before sending. Frees senior staff from inbox triage.
Management reporting
AI-generated narrative commentary on monthly management accounts — explain variances, flag risks, suggest follow-up questions for the finance team.
Agents embedded in Hive — or built bespoke for you
An "AI agent" is an autonomous process that can reason over data, call tools, and act — within guard-rails you set. We embed agents in our own Hive platform and help clients build their own.
AI Agents in HiveOrbis ERP
Our cloud ERP ships with optional agents for AP triage, purchase-order matching, inventory reorder suggestions, and month-end close checklists. Every agent action is logged, reversible, and gated by a human approver for anything material.
AI Agents in HivePayroll
Payroll agents handle pre-run variance checks, triage employee queries from a chat front-end, and draft statutory letters (SSP, SMP, P45). RTI submission stays under human control — the agent prepares, a human signs off.
Bespoke AI Agent development
We build custom AI agents for your Finance, Accounting, Payroll, HR or operational workflows — in your tenancy, with your data boundaries. From discovery and evaluation design through deployment, guard-rails and ongoing monitoring.
Agents are only deployed where their error cost is acceptable and their work is auditable. Where either condition fails, we recommend a non-agent workflow instead.
Three engagement models
AI readiness assessment
A structured audit of your data quality, existing systems, team skills and risk appetite. Deliverable: a prioritised use-case backlog with rough ROI estimates and a risk register.
Pilot delivery
Build and run a single, bounded pilot end-to-end — from data prep to deployment to measurement. Includes a DPIA where required.
Governance & training
AI usage policy, vendor DPA reviews, staff training, quarterly audits of live models. For organisations running AI across multiple teams.
We'll also tell you when AI isn't the answer.
Plenty of "AI" problems are better solved by a well-designed spreadsheet, a workflow fix, or a short training session. If that's what you need, we'll say so. Our goal is durable value, not billable months.
Fixed-fee, transparent AI engagements
Three engagement shapes, each scoped and priced in writing before any work starts. Prices exclude VAT and third-party model / cloud costs.
AI readiness assessment
from £3,500
- Data-quality & systems audit
- Team skills & risk-appetite review
- Prioritised use-case backlog
- Rough-order-of-magnitude ROI
- Risk register & UK GDPR view
Pilot delivery
from £15,000
- One bounded use-case, end-to-end
- Data preparation & evaluation
- Human-in-the-loop design
- DPIA where required
- Measured before / after comparison
Governance & training
from £900/day
- AI usage policy & staff guidance
- Vendor DPA reviews
- Audits of live models & agents
- Staff training (remote or on-site)
- EU AI Act change tracker
Some engagements also require licence fees for the underlying models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure, etc.) — we help you choose the most cost-effective option and pass through costs at price.
Common questions about responsible AI
Will my data be sent to a public AI service like ChatGPT?
Only with a signed Data Processing Agreement and your explicit consent — and even then we prefer enterprise tiers (for example, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic's API, Google Vertex) where data isn't used to train the provider's models. For sensitive data we default to models hosted inside your own tenancy.
How do you comply with the EU AI Act and UK GDPR?
Every engagement starts with a risk classification per the EU AI Act's categories (minimal / limited / high / unacceptable). For high-risk uses we produce a full DPIA under UK GDPR Article 35. We maintain an "AI change tracker" that flags regulatory changes and their impact on live systems.
What if AI isn't actually the right answer?
We'll say so. Plenty of "AI" problems are better solved by a well-designed spreadsheet, a workflow fix, or a short training session. Our goal is durable value — not billable months.
Do you build bespoke models or use off-the-shelf?
We strongly prefer off-the-shelf models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, open-source) combined with good data pipelines and prompting. Building custom models is rarely cost-effective for SMEs. Where we do fine-tune, it's for narrow, well-defined tasks with enough training data.
How do you measure whether an AI pilot is working?
Every pilot has a before/after measurement plan agreed up front — accuracy, cost saved, time saved, error rate reduced, etc. If the numbers don't stack up at the review gate, we kill or rework the pilot rather than let it drift.
Who owns the IP produced in an AI engagement?
You do — including prompts, fine-tuning datasets, any generated assets, and any bespoke AI agents we build for you. We retain our own pre-existing methodology and tools. This is written into every engagement letter.
What is an "AI agent" and how is it different from a chatbot?
A chatbot generates a response to a single prompt. An AI agent can plan a multi-step task, call tools (APIs, databases, your ERP), inspect the result, and continue reasoning — all within guard-rails you set. For example, a payroll agent can pull timesheet data, run variance checks, draft the query for HR, and stop for human approval before anything is filed.
How are AI agents controlled? What stops one going rogue?
Four mechanisms. Scoped tools: an agent can only call the APIs you grant. Human gates: anything material (payments, filings, customer comms) requires a named human to approve. Action logs: every step is recorded and reversible where feasible. Kill switch: every agent has a single control you can flip to halt it immediately. We document all four before any agent is deployed.
Thinking about your first AI pilot?
Let's spend 30 minutes separating the genuinely useful from the dangerously hyped. We'll leave you with a one-page brief either way.
Book an AI discovery call