I build the AI a business runs on.
And I run the business it's built for.
One person, both halves of the job — the engineering, and the P&L it feeds. More about me →
AI systems for UK service businesses
We build the systems that quote in minutes, chase every follow-up and join up your CRM, diary and accounts — then prove, in pounds and hours, what they saved.
A 60-second tour · always on, never off sick · then run your own numbers
or start with the 2-week diagnostic →
Fixed fee. Two weeks. You keep the roadmap either way.
Taking on new work now — built a few days a week, inside a real business we already run.
The interactive bit — this is what we do, in miniature
Meet Harborough Drains — a fictional firm doing about £700k a year. Add the systems I actually build — drag on a desktop, tap on a phone. Watch who does each step, and what the swap costs against what it saves.
Tap a system to install it — or drag it onto the model.
Who does each step?16 of 16 steps done by a person
Signing off the big calls stays with a person — by design. That's the deal.
An illustrative model. The uplifts are banded from one real UK services business — details under NDA. Worked out live on your device; view source.
Why this is different
Handing out licences doesn’t fail loudly — it decays. Built systems quietly pay for themselves.
The usual way
Seats multiply, prompts drift, two bots answer the same question differently — and nobody tested any of it. The spend climbs either way.
What we build
A small number of targeted systems — scoped, tested before they ship, keys locked down. The system does the work; the team gets the results.
The mess is optional. Start with the one system worth building →
An illustration, not a simulation — a composite, not any one company. But this is how it goes.
One person, both halves of the job — the engineering, and the P&L it feeds. More about me →
One real business, daily use. Figures banded for confidentiality.
Security & data handling
Certification-ready, not certified — stated plainly. Every system is built to the control principles behind SOC 2 and ISO 27001, so the posture exists before the paperwork does.
API keys scoped to the minimum they need. Capability tokens, not shared logins.
Credentials never sit in source, chat or tickets. Private source control, every change reversible.
System actions are logged and attributable. Audit trails are designed in, not bolted on.
Idempotent webhooks, rate limiting that blocks by default — and nothing ships untested.
Data handling built with retention and subject-access requests in mind from the start.
Major cloud and Stripe underneath hold SOC 2 and ISO 27001; the application layer on top is built to the same controls — ask for the list.
These controls run a live business every day — reviewed at board level, month in, month out.
For founders & operators
We embed a few days a week, find the leak in your numbers, build the fix, and prove the saving.
How it works →
For technical evaluators
Code, evals, architecture — how the systems are built and tested, receipts public.
Read the technical brief →
Hiring for a permanent Head of AI & Operations role? The CV → — it prints properly.
Start here · low risk
We audit your systems and your P&L, and hand you the one system worth building first — written up and costed. Fixed fee, agreed before we start. You keep the roadmap either way.
If it doesn't surface a system worth building, you don't pay.
Book the diagnostic“Charlie built and runs the AI and systems our business depends on: instant quoting, forecasting, and the board reporting they feed. He's the rare person who can ship the engineering and own the number it moves.”
One email. I reply personally within a working day.
or write to charlie@thoughtcoast.com
The 2-week diagnostic · fixed fee · you don't pay if nothing's worth building
Book the diagnostic