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AI Consulting for UK Businesses

Your team spends
hours on work
AI could do in minutes.

We’ll show you where.

BUILD+SHIP helps businesses across the Midlands and the UK cut the manual work that’s eating your week. No jargon. No hype. Just results.

The problem

You know AI matters.
You just don’t know where to start.

Most businesses know AI could help. They just don't know where to start. So they sit in a webinar, read a few articles, maybe book someone in for a workshop. Six months later there's still nothing running.

Somewhere in your business, people are doing the same manual tasks every week. Copying information between systems. Writing the same emails. Pulling together the same reports. Hours gone, every single week, on stuff that doesn't need a human.

Meanwhile, a business down the road automated half their admin over a weekend. No big project. No consultant. Just someone who knew where to look and got on with it.

That gap between knowing AI matters and actually using it, that's the thing we fix.

“I got tired of watching companies spend 6 months writing AI strategies and shipping nothing. So I built a consultancy that runs on the thing it sells. If I can’t show you it works, I won’t ask you to buy it.”
Mark Darling, Founder
How it goes

Four steps.

We talk

30-minute call. No pitch. I'm figuring out whether there's a fit as much as you are. If there isn't, I'll say so.

I dig in

I look at how your business actually runs. Where the time goes, what's done by hand, what's repeated every week. The real stuff, not the version that ends up in a presentation.

We build

We build something real. Not a report. Not a roadmap. A tool or a system that's actually up and running, doing useful work.

You own it

Proper handover. Documented. Your team knows how to use it and keep it running. I'm not trying to make myself indispensable. I'm trying to make myself unnecessary.

About
Mark Darling, founder of BUILD+SHIP
Based inThe Midlands
PreviouslyGymshark
Role thereHead of Mobile Engineering

Mark Darling.
I build the thing, not just the slide deck.

I was Head of Mobile Engineering at Gymshark. Scaled the app from a small team to something handling millions of users. I know what it's like to lead a team through fast growth, competing priorities, and the constant pressure to get things done without breaking what's already working.

A couple of years ago I started experimenting seriously with AI. Not the hype. The actual tools. What works, what breaks, what saves time and what wastes it. I started replacing my own manual tasks one by one. Then whole processes.

BUILD+SHIP itself runs on AI. Prospect research, content, admin. There's one human in the loop, me, and even that's reducing. The business is the proof of concept. I'm not selling something I haven't done myself.

That's not a pitch. It's just how I work. And it's what I help businesses do, without the six-month strategy exercise.

I work with a small number of clients at a time. If you want cheap and fast, there are plenty of other options. If you want it done properly, let's talk.

Get in touch

Send a message.
No commitment required.

Tell me what you’re dealing with. I’ll reply with an honest view of whether I can help.

Prefer to skip the form?

Email
mark@buildandship.com
Book a call
30-minute intro call

Response time is usually same day.

Based in the Midlands. Happy to meet in person.

Questions

The obvious ones,

Most AI consultancies send you a junior analyst with a slide deck. I've actually built the thing I'm selling. BUILD+SHIP itself runs on AI. It finds clients, writes content, handles the admin. I know what works and what doesn't because I've watched it fail. That's not a pitch, it's just true.

Then I'll tell you that. Honestly. The AI Readiness Assessment exists for exactly this situation. To figure out what's actually blocking you and whether now's the right time. Some businesses aren't ready. Some think they aren't but actually are. Either way, a conversation will tell us both.

I build. The Agent Strategy & Build engagement gets something real up and running. The Embedded AI Leadership engagement has me working directly alongside your team, day to day, not just showing up for monthly check-ins. Advisory-only isn't something I do. I find it too easy to say smart things that never turn into anything.

Assessments start at £3k. Builds from £5k. Embedded leadership from £3k/month. I'm not the cheapest option out there, but I'm not trying to be. You're paying for someone who's done this before and will actually get something built, not hand you a PDF.

You own everything we built. Documented, handed over, running in your business. I'm actively trying to make myself unnecessary by the end. If your team can't keep it going without me, I haven't done my job properly.

No. Most of the businesses I work with don't have in-house tech people at all. We build things that your existing team can use and maintain. You don't need to understand how it works under the hood, you just need to see that it saves time.

I work with a small number of clients at a time, so it depends on availability. Best thing to do is get in touch. If there's a fit and a slot, we can usually start within a few weeks.

Got a question that's not here? Just ask.