AurValdAI architecture that gets past the pilot — with the running cost known up front.
We help you choose AI use cases worth funding, design the architecture to run them safely, and build the first working version alongside your team.
What is forward-deployed engineering (FDE)? Instead of advising from a distance, a senior engineer works inside your team, on your data and systems, to turn one specific use case into a working prototype — and leaves behind the architecture and know-how to take it to production.
Does this sound familiar?
- AI pilots impressed in demos but never reached production.
- The board wants an AI plan and there's no clear view of which use cases pay back.
- Teams are experimenting with agentic AI or MCP-based tools without an architecture or guardrails.
- Nobody can say what an AI feature will cost at production volume.
- It's unclear whether a use case is high-risk under the EU AI Act.
What this means commercially: AI spend concentrated on the few use cases with a measurable return, a known cost at production scale and a clear compliance position.
Practitioner-led. AurVald's founder has led AI automation programmes in an enterprise environment and brings data-platform and FinOps depth to every AI decision.
AI Architecture & FDE services
Opportunity assessment
Use cases scored on value, feasibility and running cost, so funding goes to the few that matter.
Solution architecture
Retrieval, agents, integration, evaluation and guardrails designed for production, not just a demo.
Rapid prototypes (FDE)
A working version of the top use case, built hands-on with your team on your own data.
Agentic AI & MCP
Architectures for AI agents and Model Context Protocol tools, with permissions and oversight built in.
Platform & model evaluation
Independent comparison of platforms and models against your quality, security and cost needs.
Pilot-to-production roadmap
Sequencing, cost envelope and EU AI Act classification for each use case you take forward.
Two ways to engage.
AI Opportunity Assessment — 2 weeks · Fixed fee, agreed before we start
A fixed-scope Rapid Review focused on this area. You receive:
- A prioritised portfolio of use cases
- Target architecture and prototype plan for the top use case
- Cost estimate at pilot and production scale
- EU AI Act risk classification of the shortlisted use cases
- A 90-day plan and a leadership read-out
Fractional AI architect — monthly retainer
Design authority for your AI portfolio: architecture decisions, prototype builds, evaluation and the handover to production with your team or our delivery partner.
Related: AI quality depends on the data underneath — see data & Fabric architecture. Metered AI usage needs cost guardrails — see FinOps.
Frequently asked
Which AI platforms do you work with?
We're platform-independent. We evaluate options — including Microsoft's AI stack and the major model providers — against your data, security and cost constraints.
Will you build it?
We build prototypes ourselves; that's the forward-deployed part. Production build is done by your team or our London delivery partner, with AurVald as design authority.
How do you control AI running costs?
Every use case gets a cost estimate at pilot and production volume before it's approved, plus guardrails such as model routing, caching and usage budgets.
Does the EU AI Act affect our use case?
It depends on what the AI is used for. We classify each shortlisted use case as part of the assessment — see our EU AI Act readiness page.
Talk it through with us.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether an AI Opportunity Assessment would be useful — and if it wouldn't, we'll say so.