Liliana Saplontai · AI Operations Partner for Service Firms

Your people already use AI. Your firm hasn't decided how.

I turn scattered, unofficial AI use into clear, safe workflows your whole firm can trust — designed with the people who'll actually run them.

30 minutes. No pitch. You'll leave with the two places I'd look first.

75%of knowledge workers already use AI at work
78%bring their own AI tools — without guidance or guardrails
21%of organisations have actually redesigned how work gets done

Microsoft & LinkedIn Work Trend Index · McKinsey State of AI

01 · The problem

You bought the AI tools.
Your team stopped using them.

3–4 AI subscriptions. Nobody fully uses any of them.
Someone tried ChatGPT, worried about client data, and quietly stopped.
A partner asks "what are we doing with AI?" — silence.
Every project starts from scratch because nobody can find the last one.
Time recorded Friday afternoon, from memory.
Client intake lives in one person's head — and she's on leave.

None of this is a technology problem. It's an operations problem — which is good news, because operations can be fixed.

02 · The idea

Saving hours is the easy part. The return comes from what your firm does with them.

Some of that time goes back into billable work. The rest is where firms grow: leaders with room to think and strategise, teams learning instead of formatting, better client conversations. The roadmap plans for both — the hours saved, and the hours reinvested.

Not a training courseWebinars don't stick.Making AI part of a busy week does.
Not a software resellerNo vendor commissions.Sometimes the answer is a clearer process, not a new tool.
Not an agencyYou own everything.Built in your environment, documented. It works without me.
What it is: one workflow at a time, redesigned with the people who run it — governed for confidentiality, measured against a baseline.
03 · How it works

A clear process. No jargon.

Week 0 · Align

Agree what success looks like

Sixty minutes on goals and worries — in your words, not mine.

Weeks 1–2 · Listen

I talk to your people

Leadership to front line: where time goes, what they'd never trust a machine with.

Week 3 · Roadmap

A plan you could run yourself

Priorities, owners, costs, measures. Yours to keep, with or without me.

Then · Build

We make it real, together

Built with the people who'll use it — the only version that survives a busy Thursday.

04 · Work with me

Three ways in. Everyone starts with the audit.

Prices are on the page because you shouldn't need a sales call to know if this fits your budget.

01 · Start here

The Practice Audit

$4,500
Fixed · 3 weeks

Know exactly where AI fits your firm — and what to do first.

  • Interviews with the people who do the work
  • A map of how work actually moves
  • A prioritised roadmap with owners and measures
  • Credited in full if we build within 60 days
Start with the audit
Most firms02 · Build

The Sprint

$12–18k
6–8 weeks · Fixed scope

One or two workflows built — and actually used.

  • Built in your own environment
  • Human review points designed in
  • Training plus a written guide
  • 30-day review against your baseline
Talk it through
03 · Ongoing

Practice Partner

Shaped to your firm
Monthly · Scoped at the end of your Sprint

A standing seat in your firm. We agree the scope first — the price follows from it, not the other way round.

  • One defined improvement each month
  • Monitoring, upgrades, quick fixes
  • Training as new people join
  • A monthly report leadership can read
See if it fits

Sprint pricing fixed before work starts · software costs never marked up

05 · Current work

On my desk right now

In deliveryArchitecture · Singapore~40 people

A Singapore architecture practice

Twelve possible AI projects, shortlisted to four. The partners wanted automation; the team wanted their afternoons back. Same problem, it turned out.

  • Smart email assistant with auto-filing
  • Meeting notes assistant with action tracking
  • Timesheets recorded from real activity
  • Project budget control with variance alerts
In deliveryLegal · AustraliaEstate planning & notary

An Australian estate-planning practice

The same client information typed three times, and drafting meant an afternoon of copy-paste. We're rebuilding it from intake onwards.

  • Digital intake and fillable estate forms
  • Estate record & executor guide
  • Online wills application
  • Practice management system design
A note on results

No "saved 400 hours!" claims here. Baselines are being measured now; the before/after numbers get published once they're real. If a consultant quotes results they can't show their working for — ask for the baseline.

06 · About

Systems, training, delivery — the parts of AI that decide whether it works

My background is project management and digital systems: a postgraduate degree in project management, years building websites and operational tools for businesses, and leadership roles in education — including running the academic programme at an international summer camp each year. Today that combination goes into AI operations work for firms in Singapore, Australia and the US.

The through-line: technology fails in firms for human reasons, not technical ones. Delivery discipline gets a system built; training and change work get it used. I do both — and I build alongside my business partner Raghu, who shares the deeper technical work with me. Grew up in Botswana, Romanian parents, educated across five continents — which is why working across cultures and time zones is normal here, not a stretch.

PG Project Management · AustraliaPG Early Childhood EducationGlobal Studies & Spanish · USDirector of Studies · CMT Nike CampThe AI Practical Brief · 17 issues
Before you book

Questions firms actually ask

How do I know if this is for us?

Best fit: a service firm of 10–100 people doing $1M–$10M — professional services, architecture, legal, education, media, agencies — with someone internally who can own what we improve. Not a fit: you want a chatbot by Friday, or AI making decisions with no human in the path. And if the budget isn't there this year, say so — I'll point you to free resources instead.

Do we need to know anything about AI first?

No. You're not behind — only about one in five organisations has actually redesigned how work gets done with AI. We start from where your firm actually is.

What about confidentiality and client data?

It's the first thing we design for. The audit draws the line in writing: what AI may touch, what it never touches, where a human signs off.

We tried AI and it didn't stick. Why would this be different?

The tools were probably never the problem — the rollout was. When the people doing the work help design the workflow, it stops being something done to them.

Can we implement the roadmap ourselves?

Yes — it's designed for exactly that. Some firms run it themselves and come back later for the build. That's a fine outcome.

Not ready to talk? That's fine.

The AI Practical Brief: one practical idea per issue, fortnightly, for people who are done with AI hype. 17 issues in.

Read the Brief

Let's find out where the hours are going

Thirty minutes, free. You'll leave with the two places I'd look first — whether or not we ever work together.

Book your free practice review

Prefer email? hello@lilianaoperations.com — I reply within a day