The Margin LabsThe Margin Labs
Forward-deployed AI engineering

We don't sell AI advice. We deploy AI that pays for itself.

An embedded engineer takes one costly workflow, builds a production AI agent inside your existing systems, and ships it in six weeks. The fee is capped at 25% of the first-year value we map together. Built for you, or built with your team.

For $7m–$130m turnover operations

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The reframe

Consultants leave you a deck. We leave you a workforce.

Advice doesn't compound. A deck sits in a folder; a deployed agent works every hour of every day. The businesses that will out-margin their competitors in the next five years are the ones running AI agents in production today — not the ones still collecting recommendations. We build those agents. The fee is tied to what they save you.

0%

of organisations see no measurable P&L impact from their generative AI pilots, after roughly $30 to 40 billion of enterprise spend.

MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025 · August 2025

How it works

Three steps. No theatre.

  1. 01

    Scope

    Book a free scoping call. We baseline what the workflow costs you today, map first-year value, and hand you the costed AI Profit Roadmap within seven days.

  2. 02

    Deploy

    The six-week AI Deployment Sprint — built for you by an embedded engineer, or built with your team so the capability stays in-house. Needs under 15 hours of your team's time. Payback guaranteed: if the agent hasn't covered its fee within 90 days of go-live, we keep working at no charge until it has.

    Payback guaranteed — if the agent hasn't covered its fee within 90 days of go-live, we keep working at no charge until it has.

  3. 03

    Compound

    Embedded AI Partner: a fractional forward-deployed engineer and CTO-level direction, running an agent a month, owning your AI roadmap and governance for the long term.

What we do

Services that pay for themselves.

Three ways we work: a one-day working session, a six-week deployment sprint, and an embedded partner who keeps the agents shipping. Every one starts with the problem, not the tool.

AI Deployment Sprint

Flagship

One costly workflow becomes a production AI agent in six weeks.

  • Built for you by an embedded engineer, or built with your team
  • Runs inside the stack you already have — no migrations, no new platforms
  • Under 15 hours of your team's time across the whole engagement
  • Fee capped at 25% of the first-year value mapped in scoping
  • 90-day payback guarantee, written into the engagement agreement

From $32,000(£24,000)

Book my free scoping call

AI Working Session

Start here

A one-day working session that ends with a prototype, not a deck.

  • Map the fully-loaded cost of one workflow with your team in the room
  • Build a working prototype live — not a demo prepared in advance
  • Leave with a costed backlog and a concrete 30-day plan
  • Walk out with a working prototype or pay nothing
  • Fee credited in full against a sprint booked within 30 days

Embedded AI Partner

A fractional forward-deployed engineer who keeps the agents shipping.

  • Target cadence: an agent a month in production
  • CTO-level direction on roadmap, governance and vendor decisions
  • Reporting automation and the fast-turnaround work between sprints
  • Monthly commitment, cancel with 30 days' notice

Scoped per engagement

See the embedded partner →

Track record

The Margin Labs is new. These numbers are not.

See the full portfolio

£0m

B2B distribution business built from zero, in four years.

0 to 5x

Peak support volume absorbed with no extra hires.

0+ yrs

Operations, finance and IT leadership across e-commerce, B2B distribution and SaaS.

0x

Consultancy revenue scaled from a £200k baseline.

£0.00m

Project and services revenue delivered as commercial lead at a B2B systems consultancy.

0.0x

Retail P&L owned as Managing Director — business scaled from £200k to £500k.

Founder-led by Nuno Neto — a COO-level operator who grew a B2B distribution business from zero to £65m annual revenue and now builds AI operating systems inside an 8-figure consumer-goods business. Meet the founder →

The free scoping call

Everything you leave the free scoping call with.

30–45 minutes on a call. Within seven days you receive the AI Profit Roadmap — a costed document that's yours to keep, whether or not you ever work with us.

  • Scoping call with the founder

    You talk, we listen. We map where the hours and the money actually go in your business.

    $240
  • Workflow value baseline

    The fully-loaded cost of one workflow today — the number that drives sprint pricing and the payback guarantee.

    $160
  • Three named quick wins you can start this week

    Concrete moves your team can make without us, starting this week.

    $120
  • The costed AI Profit Roadmap

    Priority-ranked AI opportunities with payback estimates, in the order that pays back fastest.

    $300
  • An honest No-Go List

    The workflows AI is not yet the answer for, and why. Saves you from spending on the wrong things.

    $60
  • Architecture fit note for your stack

    How AI sits on your current stack (Shopify, CRM, ATS and so on), without breaking what works.

    $80
  • AI Governance Starter (acceptable-use policy template)

    What an acceptable-use policy should cover, in plain English, ready to adapt for your firm.

    $40

Total value

$1,000

Yours free.

Every item priced line by line above.

Book my free scoping call No cost. No obligation. You keep the roadmap.

Common questions

Things people ask before booking

  • How does value-tied pricing work?

    On the free scoping call we baseline what the target workflow costs you today — salary, time, error rate, delay — and map the first-year value of automating it. The Sprint fee starts from £24,000 / $32,000 and is always capped at 25% of that mapped value. If we can't find at least 4× the fee in verifiable first-year value, we tell you not to buy.

  • What if the agent doesn't pay for itself?

    We offer a 90-day payback guarantee. If the deployed agent hasn't covered its full fee in measured value within 90 days of go-live, we keep working at no charge until it has. 'Measured value' means the same cost items we baselined in scoping — salary, time, error rate, delay — tracked against the agreed baseline from the go-live date. The terms are written into the engagement letter before work begins.

  • How much of our team's time does this take?

    Under 15 hours across the full six-week Sprint — briefings, a mid-point review, and a handover session. Everything else is on us. You do not need to clear calendars or pull engineers off live work.

  • What's the difference between 'built for you' and 'built with you'?

    'Built for you' means our forward-deployed engineer ships it inside your systems; your team inherits a running agent at handover. 'Built with you' means your people build it alongside us through working sessions and pairing, so the capability stays in-house. Same fee frame, same six-week timeline, same guarantee — you choose the track that fits your goals.

  • Do we need to migrate systems or buy new software?

    No. We build inside the stack you already run — your CRM, ERP, inbox, data warehouse, whatever it is. No migrations, no new platforms, no multi-year transformation projects. If your current systems can't support the agent, we tell you on the scoping call before any money changes hands.

  • What is the AI Working Session and what does it cost?

    It is a one-day practical workshop — remote-first, on-site UK available — for up to ten people. You leave with the P&L of one workflow mapped, a working prototype your team built live in the room, a costed backlog, and a 30-day plan. It is priced at £4,950 / $6,600. If you don't walk out with a working prototype, you pay nothing. Book a Sprint within 30 days and 100% of the fee is credited.

  • What does the free scoping call include?

    A 30–45 minute call where we map your most expensive operational workflows, baseline their fully-loaded cost, and identify where AI pays. Within seven days you receive the free AI Profit Roadmap: costed opportunities, three quick wins you can act on immediately, a no-go list, an architecture note, and a governance starter. You keep it regardless of whether you proceed with us. If we don't surface three quick wins on the call itself, we provide a written referral to someone who can.

  • How big does our business need to be?

    We work with mid-market operations with annual turnover of roughly £5m–£100m (or the USD equivalent). At that scale, one automated workflow typically saves enough to make the Sprint fee a straightforward decision. Smaller businesses usually don't have the workflow volume to hit the 4× value threshold; we'll tell you if that applies on the scoping call.

  • Will you use our data to train AI models?

    No. Your data is used solely to build and operate the agent for your business. We do not train models on client data and we do not share it with third parties. We are happy to sign an NDA on request before any detailed discussions. Any credentials or system access granted during the Sprint are documented, scoped to the minimum required, and handed back or revoked at handover.

  • Do you work in the US?

    Yes. We serve mid-market businesses across the UK and US. Time zones are arranged around your team, not ours.

Stop running AI experiments. Start running AI agents.

Book the free scoping call. Keep the roadmap either way.