AI consulting and custom software for established Irish businesses

We do both. We are a consultancy and a build partner. A lot of AI consultants will sit with you, analyse your business, write a report, and then leave you to find someone else to build what they recommended. We do not do that. The roadmap is written by people who will have to deliver what is in it. That tends to make it more honest and more useful. Every Deep Purple engagement starts with a Discovery phase so we understand what your business needs. If the Discovery identifies something worth building, we build it. Our team has been delivering production software for 14 years through Purpledecks, the same legal entity as Deep Purple. AI is the newer capability. Delivery is not.

Deep Purple is a senior-only delivery team. No junior handoffs. No outsourced development. Your intro call is with our CEO, Brian Egan. 26+ years in software and AI, a neural networks background from Dublin City University, and a former Marie Curie Research Fellow. Brian leads all AI Consulting engagements personally. Build work is led by Barry Gough, our CTO. Barry has an MSc in Computer Science from University College Dublin with a machine learning focus, and over 20 years building production software systems. He architected Reactable AI, our internal product with paying customers across five continents. Kamil Swituszak (Lead AI Engineer, 8 years) and Niall Farrell (Lead Software Engineer, 11+ years) deliver alongside them. Where a project needs research-grade modelling, we bring in our formal TUS (Technological University of the Shannon) data science partnership. The same senior people scope the work, write the roadmap, and deliver the system.

All prices ex-VAT. AI Discovery has two tiers. Focused Discovery (single-problem scope) starts at €3,000. Comprehensive Discovery (multi-problem or multi-site scope) is €5,000 to €15,000. For eligible Irish and Northern Irish SMEs, Enterprise Ireland's Digital Discovery Grant covers 80%, bringing client contribution to €600 to €3,000 depending on tier. Build projects after Discovery vary by scope. Smaller focused builds typically run from €25,000. Function-level or department-scale implementations run into six figures. Custom AI software builds range from €25,000 to €250,000, with larger programmes often phased over time. Enterprise Ireland's Digital Process Innovation Grant covers up to 50% of implementation costs for eligible SMEs (maximum €150,000 grant). We do not give a specific quote before Discovery because the scope is not clear enough yet. Anyone who does is guessing.

Focused Discovery runs 1 to 3 weeks elapsed. Comprehensive Discovery runs 4 to 10 weeks. Both include workshops, analysis, and a final implementation roadmap with costed next steps. Build projects vary. Timelines depend on scope, the technology involved, and the resources we bring to the project. A focused automation tool or analytics dashboard is typically measured in weeks. Larger builds run into months. We agree a timeline at the start of every project and flag early if anything changes. Surprises at the end are a sign of poor delivery, not complex work.

Yes. That is how most of our engagements work. The Discovery Assessment is the low-commitment entry point. Focused Discovery from €3,000 (or €600 after Enterprise Ireland grant for eligible businesses) produces a clear implementation plan with costed next steps. You keep the roadmap and the analysis either way. Nothing is contingent on committing to a build afterwards. For larger implementations, we often structure the work in phases. It tests the concept, builds trust on both sides, and surfaces the things you only learn by doing real work together. Some clients prefer a bigger single engagement. Others prefer to see something working before committing further. We work either way.

You do. After full payment, you own the software, the trained models, and all data produced during the engagement. Deep Purple retains no rights to your data or to the models we train on it. No vendor lock-in. No per-seat licence fees. Your data is processed within the EU/EEA. We do not use your data to train public AI models. GDPR-compliant throughout. Deep Purple's methodology, internal prompts, and reusable tooling remain our own. Everything else is yours.

We tell you. The Discovery phase is designed to answer that question honestly. If AI is not the right fit for your problem, we will say so, and we will explain why. You still keep the roadmap and the analysis. You can choose to proceed with a different approach, with another partner, or with nothing at all. In practice, most Discoveries lead to a build because the client and we both see what is worth doing before we start. But we have recommended “not yet” before, and we would again. Honest advice is the point.

For eligible Irish and Northern Irish businesses, government grant funding can cover a significant portion of AI project costs. Enterprise Ireland's Digital Discovery Grant covers 80% of discovery work up to €5,000 grant funding. The Digital Process Innovation Grant covers up to 50% of implementation costs up to €150,000 grant funding. LEO Digital for Business and Invest NI offer similar programmes. We help eligible clients navigate the application process as part of the engagement. For clients outside Ireland and Northern Ireland, or those who do not qualify for a specific programme, we work at full commercial pricing. Grants are a supporting mechanism, not the reason to do the project. The work still has to make commercial sense without them. Some clients who are eligible for grants choose to self-fund to move faster.