Data & Analytics
Applied AI
Practical AI, from people who use it every day.
AI is moving faster than most businesses can keep up with. There is real value in it and a great deal of noise, and it is hard to tell which is which when every product now claims to be AI-powered.
We use AI across our own business every day, in how we run Circyl and how we deliver for clients. That gives us a grounded view of what works, what does not yet and what it takes to use it safely. We help you find the places where AI will make a genuine difference, then put it to work on your own systems and data.
How we use AI ourselves
We do not believe one AI tool does everything, so we use different tools for different jobs.
Microsoft Copilot
For transcribing Teams calls and answering questions from our own email, documents and SharePoint, where its direct access to Microsoft 365 makes it the right tool.
Claude
For design, prototyping, documentation and development, including Claude Code, with our own standards written into shared skills the whole team uses.
Both, against our own data
Nominated members of our team use Claude and Copilot against Circyl's Power BI model to see where we are winning, where margin is slipping and what needs attention, governed by the same security as our reports.
AI also accelerates our delivery. It speeds up engineering, documentation and testing, with our consultants directing the tools and accountable for every output. Discovery and adoption stay human-led throughout, and the biggest change has been in discovery itself, where clients now see a working prototype of their application, typically within one to five days.
Where AI earns its place
We help clients apply AI in the areas where we see it delivering real value today.
Copilot adoption
Getting Copilot for Microsoft 365 working well, starting with the content and permissions it relies on.
Conversational intelligence
A digital version of your business you can interrogate in context, serving up insight and actions rather than raw data.
AI agents and knowledge bases
Assistants that answer from your own policies, procedures and documents, and can take simple actions in your systems.
AI in your processes
Classification, extraction and decision support built into workflows, added only where it genuinely improves the process.
Forecasting and prediction
Models that use your history to show what is likely to happen next.
The tools are the easy part
AI can only work with what it is given. If data is scattered across spreadsheets, re-keyed between systems or locked in a platform that does not connect, AI will produce confident answers from unreliable information.
That is why most AI projects that disappoint have a data problem underneath them, not an AI problem. We look at the foundations first and tell you honestly whether they are ready, what it would take if they are not and where you could start in the meantime.
Safe, governed and accountable
AI should make your business stronger without creating new risks. Every AI solution we deliver is built on a few principles.
Your data stays under your control
Accessed through your own Microsoft security and identity rather than copied somewhere else.
Existing permissions are respected
AI only sees what the person asking is allowed to see.
Answers are traceable
Showing where information came from so people can check it.
People stay accountable
AI supports decisions rather than making them unsupervised.
Usage is transparent
You always know where AI is being used and what it is doing.
Never used to train AI models
We only use business AI subscriptions whose terms exclude your data from training, and that commitment is written into our contracts.
Not sure where to start?
Most businesses we speak to know AI matters but are not sure where it would make the biggest difference. Our Data & AI Boot Camp is designed for exactly that point.
In a single day on site, a senior advisor works with your leadership team and the people use your systems every day. Within a week you have a clear picture of where you are, what is worth doing and the best place to start, for a fixed £3,500, credited against the build if discovery starts within 60 days.
The stack behind it
Advanced reasoning for technical, analytical and document-heavy work, under business terms that exclude your data from model training AI assistance across email, meetings, documents and Teams Secure hosting for the AI services we build into your applications Natural language questions and summaries over your reporting Your existing identity and security, applied to every AI interaction An open standard that connects AI tools securely to your systems and data The trusted business definitions AI answers from
Claude
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Copilot in Power BI
Microsoft Entra ID
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Semantic Models
Sound familiar?
We tend to be the right call when:
Not sure where to start
AI clearly matters, but it is hard to see where it would make the biggest difference.
Licences, not results
Copilot licences are in place but day-to-day work has barely changed.
Answers take days
Getting a straight answer from your data means waiting for someone to build a report.
Worried about risk
You are uneasy about what happens to your data once AI is involved.
Some of these have names. If one is hitting home, this is where it leads:
Excel Hell
Business-critical work is trapped in spreadsheets that long ago outgrew the job.
See the pain →Swivel Chair Syndrome
People re-key the same data between systems that will not talk to each other.
See the pain →Platform Pain
A platform is already in place, but it fights your team instead of helping them.
See the pain →What it unlocks
Get the foundations right and this is what becomes possible:
Conversational Intelligence
See where margin is slipping and who you are at risk of losing, with the context to act on it.
See the gain →Autonomous Operations
Routine work that runs itself, with AI where it earns it.
See the gain →Business Foresight
See what is coming early enough to act on it.
See the gain →It rarely stops at AI
A real solution usually pulls in more than one of our skills. We will not steer you towards one product over another, we build what the process needs.
Read the latest thoughts from our team
Start with a conversation
Tell us the question you cannot answer, the task you would stop doing by hand or the decision you would like to see coming. We will give you an honest view of whether AI is the answer and what it would take.
Book a Call
Or call 03333 209 969 · enquiries@circyl.co.uk