How an Engineering Firm Got an AI Roadmap for €1,250

The Capacity Problem: When You Cannot Hire Fast Enough

A precision engineering firm based in Munster with approximately 45 employees was growing faster than it could hire. A strong client pipeline, a solid reputation built over decades, and a team that was stretched. The constraint was not demand. It was delivery capacity.

Engineers were spending a significant portion of their working week on tasks that were necessary but not billable design work. Reviewing specifications against compliance standards. Cross-referencing design documents against building regulations. Compiling project documentation packages. Checking submissions from subcontractors against contract requirements. The same patterns, repeated across dozens of projects every week.

For professional services firms where revenue depends on headcount, this is the fundamental bottleneck. The more time engineers spend on repetitive compliance and documentation tasks, the lower the team's effective utilisation on billable design work. Hiring more engineers only scales the problem unless the underlying workflows change.

The MD had explored some off-the-shelf AI tools for individual staff members, but the results were mixed. What he wanted was a structured AI readiness assessment of where AI could unlock capacity across the entire engineering team. He also wanted an honest answer, not a sales pitch from an AI vendor with a product to sell.

The AI Discovery: What €1,250 Gets You

The company qualified for this programme. Brian Egan of Deep Purple AI Consulting — an Enterprise Ireland approved consultant with over 26 years in software and AI — led the consulting engagement. Over eight weeks, we:

Our approach to AI consulting is deliberately broad. We did not arrive with a solution looking for a problem. We started with how the team actually worked and worked backward to where AI could make a measurable difference.

5 AI Use Cases for Engineering, Ranked by ROI

We identified five specific areas where AI could reduce the time engineers spent on repetitive tasks. Without disclosing the client's proprietary findings, the use cases covered:

These projections were based on observed workflow samples, stakeholder interviews, and time estimates gathered during the Discovery, not generic benchmarks.

We assessed data formats, system APIs, document structures, and existing automation capabilities across the engineering team's daily workflows. For the highest-priority use case — automated specification extraction — we tested sample documents against NLP models to validate feasibility and estimate accuracy before projecting ROI.

What the AI Assessment Delivered

The deliverable was not a slide deck. It was a comprehensive AI Opportunity Assessment and Implementation Roadmap:

The Discovery stands alone. There is no obligation to proceed to implementation.

"What surprised me was how specific it was. I expected a generic report about AI. Instead we got five concrete opportunities with actual numbers — hours saved, costs to implement, grants available. It was a business case, not a technology pitch."

Grant Funding: From €1,250 to Full Implementation

Enterprise Ireland Digital Discovery is generally available to Enterprise Ireland client companies with 10 or more employees, subject to current programme criteria. LEO offers a similar programme for smaller businesses.

If the client proceeds to implementation, Enterprise Ireland's Digital Process Innovation programme covers up to 50% of implementation costs, up to €150,000. The Discovery findings and roadmap form the basis of the implementation grant application. We handle the technical documentation.

The funding pathway is designed so that each step de-risks the next. You do not commit to a €50,000–€100,000 build until you have a €1,250 assessment telling you exactly what to build and why.

What Happened Next

The company is reviewing the roadmap and evaluating which use cases to implement first. We are working with them to prepare the Enterprise Ireland grant application for the first implementation phase. The Discovery findings form the core of that application.

The assessment also surfaced data quality issues that the company is addressing in parallel, so the foundation is ready when implementation begins.

While this engineering firm focused on documentation workflows, other Irish businesses use the same Discovery process for quoting, scheduling, and quality control — see how a building services company cut quoting time by 80%.