Practical AI, built on good data
AI implementation and data platforms
AI implementation doesn't start with a model. It starts with two questions: which work should get better or faster, and is your data ready for it? Chief helps with both. We put AI to practical use in your processes and existing software, and we build the foundation it needs: data platforms, dashboards and automated reporting. You don't need a data department of your own: we build the foundation and teach your team to work with it.
Data first
Data platform development as the foundation for AI
AI is only as good as the data it works with. If your figures are scattered across tills, ERP, accounting and loose spreadsheets, AI will give you answers you can't build on. So we start with the foundation: bringing data together automatically, calculating figures the same way everywhere and automating reports. Here is what we build:
- Data platforms. Orders, returns, stock, purchasing and other data from several systems in one place, with fixed rules for how every figure is calculated.
- Automated reports. Reports that go out by themselves at set times, per department, location or sales channel. Where needed we make a separate version for external partners that leaves out sensitive figures such as purchase prices and margins.
- Dashboards. Revenue, margins or delivery reliability next to your budget and last year, fed from the systems you already use, such as your ERP, tills or Twinfield accounting. Staff then look up the figures themselves.
- Forecasts. Near real-time insight, enriched with data such as the weather and public holidays, so you can see busy periods coming and buy and roster more precisely.
Once that foundation is in place, AI has something sensible to work with. Think of an AI assistant that answers questions about your figures in plain language and builds charts and dashboards itself. See our cases for examples.
From good data to useful AI
Where does AI add value?
Together we look at your processes and find the places where AI saves time or improves the work. Sometimes the best answer isn't AI at all, but an integration, an automated report or a good dashboard. If so, we'll tell you. We start with a single process, so you can see quickly whether it works before going further.
Getting your data in order
We bring together data from systems such as your ERP, tills, accounting or telephony, while those systems carry on working as they do. We record how every figure is calculated, so everyone works from the same numbers and any AI application runs on a reliable source. We keep the history too, so you can follow trends over time.
AI where the work happens
We build AI into the places where your people already work: your existing application, your portal or your internal process. With clear boundaries: what AI may and may not do, which data it uses and where a person has the final say. Security and privacy are part of it from the start: an AI application only gets the data it really needs.
Your team can carry on
We transfer knowledge so your team can use and extend the solution themselves. In a training session your team learns to build its own analyses and dashboards, and we also coach colleagues without a developer background in an AI-supported way of working. That keeps the solution reliable and maintainable in the long run.
From good data to useful AI
We use AI in our own craft too. We set up an AI-supported development process in which colleagues with deep domain knowledge but no developer background can contribute, within clear boundaries for responsible use of AI. That way your specialists' knowledge finds its way into working software more easily.
Our starting point: AI does not replace developers, but it makes knowledge easier to access and development easier to scale. You work with developers from our Utrecht office who first want to understand what you are trying to achieve, and who come to you when that helps.
What else can Chief help with?
Need new software built, or existing software taken over? Or looking for senior developers and technical leadership for your own team? Take a look at our other services.
Custom software development
Custom software development from Utrecht: platforms, apps, integrations, hardware and firmware, from business case to support. See how we work.
Hire software developers and technical leadership
Hire software developers who understand your business: in your team, as a coach or as tech lead, working from our Utrecht office. See how it works.
