Book a 30-min call Forward Deployed AI Engineering
Work directly with an AI engineer to understand your workflows, find a worthwhile opportunity, and build a practical solution alongside your team.
Start with a free AI & Automation Review. Book the first 30 minutes of your two-hour meeting allowance per company. We arrange an NDA before confidential discussions; implementation is a separate paid engagement.
WHAT FORWARD DEPLOYED MEANS HERE
I’m Cristiano Aguiar, Ph.D., founder of CSA Intelligence. I work directly with the people who know the process, learn how your systems fit together, and help turn a business problem into something we can build and evaluate.
You don’t need an AI strategy or a technical brief. Bring a recurring task, a slow handoff, or a process that creates too much rework. We’ll start by finding where AI, automation, or a simpler change could help.
The free review gives you practical recommendations. If there is a worthwhile opportunity, a Forward Deployed AI Sprint takes the next step: hands-on implementation around an agreed workflow and outcome.
TWO STARTING POINTS. ONE SHARED ALLOWANCE.
We map repetitive steps, disconnected systems, manual handoffs, and the exceptions that make a workflow difficult. Then we identify a manageable opportunity worth pursuing.
We examine how your team uses its current AI tools against real tasks and outcomes, including inconsistent outputs, underused capabilities, and work that still happens manually.
Discovery and the AI-usage review share the same two-hour meeting allowance. This is a focused review of selected workflows, informed by your team’s walkthroughs and examples.
START WITH THE FREE AI & AUTOMATION REVIEW
We arrange an NDA before discussing confidential processes or materials. Your initial booking only needs a brief, general description of what you want to improve.
Across two hours of free meetings, we explore the steps, tools, handoffs, and exceptions with the people who know the process. If you already use AI, show me a real task and where the results disappoint.
I assess what could be automated or improved, considering your existing tools, information, team practices, and the human judgment involved. We focus on a manageable starting point with a clear purpose.
You receive written findings and prioritized recommendations. Where there is a suitable opportunity, I propose a paid Forward Deployed AI Sprint with an agreed workflow, deliverables, and measures of success. You decide whether to proceed.
WHAT YOU TAKE AWAY
The findings, friction points, and improvement opportunities identified in your selected workflows.
Practical next steps, including improvements to existing AI usage where relevant.
Where there is a suitable opportunity: one agreed workflow, proposed deliverables, dependencies, estimated timeline, and price.
Useful measures such as time per task, turnaround time, manual steps, or rework, with assumptions made explicit.
EXAMPLES TO START THE CONVERSATION
The recommendation follows your team’s needs, existing systems, and constraints.
Extract information from documents and prepare it for a person to check.
Categorize incoming requests and route them to the right person.
Assemble information from several systems with less manual copying.
Draft messages for a team member to review and approve.
Find and summarize information from your documentation.
Improve reusable instructions and reduce corrections after AI produces an output.
BUILD TOGETHER · SEPARATE PAID ENGAGEMENT
One workflow. An agreed outcome. Hands-on engineering alongside your team.
I work with your process owners and technical colleagues to design, build, and test the agreed solution in the context of your existing tools. Depending on the opportunity, that could be a custom AI agent, a connected automation, or improvements to the AI setup you already use.
We agree how to check the result against the current workflow: time spent, output quality, manual corrections, or another useful measure. The handover covers what was built, how to use it, and where human review is needed.
The proposal specifies whether we are delivering a prototype, a pilot, or a production deployment, along with access requirements, deliverables, price, timeline, and support arrangements. Implementation begins after agreement; ongoing support is scoped separately. If the review finds no worthwhile opportunity, I explain why.
COMMON QUESTIONS
It means an engineer works directly with the people doing the work: understanding the problem, designing a solution around their systems, and building and testing it alongside them. At CSA Intelligence, the free review establishes the opportunity; a separately paid sprint covers the agreed implementation and handover.
Yes. You work directly with Cristiano Aguiar, Ph.D., founder of CSA Intelligence, through discovery and any agreed implementation. We agree on collaboration, access to systems, team availability, and any on-site needs in the proposal. The service does not assume a full-time placement.
Yes. It includes two hours of meeting time in total per company, shared between process discovery and a focused review of existing AI usage. The written findings, recommendations, and proposal preparation, where appropriate, are also free and take place outside those meeting hours. There is no obligation to buy implementation services.
It is the first conversation about your team’s work and what you want to improve. You do not need to book the full two-hour allowance at once. We can divide the meeting time across sessions with the relevant people from your company.
Yes. We can review tool fit, instructions and context, underused features, manual steps around AI, and how your team checks outputs. The goal is to improve the value of the tools you already have.
The tools and workflows we select together for the two-hour review, based on your team’s walkthroughs and examples. A comprehensive technical, security, or compliance audit would be a separately scoped engagement.
Bring one or two examples of recurring work, the tools involved, and where time is lost. If you use AI, note typical instructions, outputs, and frustrations. Start with someone who performs or owns the process; a team lead or technical colleague can join where useful. No formal presentation is needed.
Yes. We arrange an NDA before confidential discussions and agree on any materials needed. Please do not send confidential documents or sensitive information with your initial booking.
Not necessarily. I first consider what your existing tools can support. The best next step may be better prompts, shared templates, team guidance, simpler automation, a process change, or preparation before implementation. If there is no worthwhile opportunity yet, I explain why.
The free offer covers discovery, the focused review, and follow-up recommendations and a proposal where appropriate. Building, testing, deploying, training delivery, and ongoing support are covered by a separate paid engagement, with scope, price, and timeline agreed first. You can decline, defer, or discuss adjustments.
YOUR TEAM’S WORK IS THE STARTING POINT
Start with a free 30-minute call. Two hours of discovery meetings in total per company, under NDA, with no obligation to proceed.