AI Design Advisory

The judgment
AI can't
replicate.

Acuity Bureau embeds a fractional AI Design Leader inside your team — turning AI tools from expensive experiments into lasting competitive advantage.

Acuity
72%
of design teams use AI tools
29%
report measurable gains
Gap.
That's our entire business.

Advisory, not execution.
Strategy, not output.

Most consultants do the work for you. We do something harder — we make your team permanently better at doing it themselves.

Acuity Bureau provides fractional AI Design Leadership: embedded strategic guidance that helps your team select the right tools, build the right workflows, and govern AI adoption with clarity and judgment that no software can replicate.

We don't take on production design work. We advise, train, and lead — until your team doesn't need us anymore.

01 — Audit

AI Design Audit

A 2-day intensive that maps your current AI tool usage, surfaces gaps, and delivers a prioritised 90-day roadmap.

From $4,500
02 — Sprint

AI Integration Sprint

A 4–6 week engagement to embed AI tools into your design workflow, with hands-on training and a lasting playbook.

From $12,000
03 — Retainer

Fractional AI Design Leader

Ongoing embedded advisory — your senior AI design strategist, without the full-time hire.

From $4,500 / month

AI accelerates.
Humans decide.

Every AI design tool we've evaluated is extraordinary at generating output and poor at exercising judgment. They can produce a hundred wireframe variants in seconds. They cannot tell you which one is right — and why — for this audience, this moment, this brand.

That distinction is everything. It's the difference between a team that produces more and a team that produces better.

AI handles

Wireframe generation, component variants, accessibility scanning, brief synthesis, prototype scaffolding

Humans lead

User psychology, interaction choreography, conversion strategy, ethical guardrails, stakeholder communication

Ready to use AI
with intention?

Start with a free 45-minute Clarity Call. No pitch — just an honest conversation about where you are and what's possible.

Services

Three ways to work
with us.

All engagements are advisory in nature. We don't execute production work — we make your team permanently better at doing it themselves.

01

AI Design Audit

Best for teams that want an honest picture of where they stand before committing to a larger engagement.
$4,500 · $8,500 · $15,000

A focused 2-day engagement — remote or on-site — that gives you a clear, prioritised picture of how your team currently uses AI design tools, where you're leaving value on the table, and a concrete 90-day roadmap to close the gap.

What's included

  • Stakeholder interviews with design team, PMs, and engineering leads
  • Current toolstack inventory and usage assessment across 6 dimensions
  • Workflow mapping: where AI could save time, reduce friction, or unlock new capability
  • Gap analysis: skills, processes, and governance missing for effective AI adoption
  • Prioritised 90-day AI integration roadmap with specific tool recommendations
  • Executive summary deck (boardroom-ready) + detailed written report
  • 60-minute strategic debrief with Q&A

Pricing tiers

  • Startup ($4,500) — 1–30 person team, remote delivery, written report + debrief call
  • Growth ($8,500) — Up to 100 people, includes wireframe opportunity mockups
  • Enterprise ($15,000) — Multi-team, on-site option, prototype concepts + board deck
Timeline: 2 days on-site/remote + 5 days report production · ~2 weeks total
02

AI Integration Sprint

Best for teams with a defined goal who need structured, hands-on guidance to implement it properly.
$12,000 – $35,000

A 4–6 week engagement with weekly working sessions. We work alongside your team inside their actual tools, redesign workflows for AI, build prompt libraries, and document everything into a lasting playbook your team owns permanently.

What's included

  • Tool selection and procurement guidance — vendor-neutral, no affiliate relationships
  • Workflow redesign: adapting existing design sprints to incorporate AI tools effectively
  • Custom prompt library and AI brief templates for your specific domain
  • Live working sessions inside your actual Figma or tool environment
  • Team training workshop (2–3 hours, recorded for async reference)
  • AI Integration Playbook: documented SOPs for ongoing use
  • 2-week post-sprint check-in to address blockers and reinforce adoption

Pricing

Scoped per team size, toolstack complexity, and number of sessions. Most engagements fall between $12,000 and $35,000. We'll scope this precisely after your Clarity Call.

Timeline: 4–6 weeks · Typically follows a Tier 1 Audit
03

Fractional AI Design Leader

Best for organisations that want ongoing strategic AI design leadership without a full-time hire.
$4,500 · $8,500 · $16,000 / mo

Your embedded AI Design Leader, on a retainer. A standing presence inside your team — attending key meetings, unblocking AI adoption, keeping your toolstack current, and giving leadership someone to think alongside every week.

What's included

  • Dedicated senior advisory presence: 8–30 hours per month depending on tier
  • Monthly priorities session: define AI design goals, track adoption metrics
  • Weekly or bi-weekly check-in with design lead and/or CPO
  • On-call Slack channel for team questions between sessions
  • Quarterly AI design strategy review: what's changed, what to adopt next
  • Governance support: AI policy, IP guidelines, ethical use frameworks
  • Monthly executive summary of AI design maturity progress

Pricing tiers

  • Essential ($4,500/mo) — 8 hrs/month, ideal for startups and small product teams
  • Growth ($8,500/mo) — 16 hrs/month, ideal for Series A–B scaling their design org
  • Scale ($16,000/mo) — 30+ hrs/month, ideal for enterprise multi-team environments
Minimum commitment: 3 months · 10% discount at 6 months · 18% at 12 months
Add-ons

À la carte services

AI Design Policy
Custom IP and ethics policy for AI tool use — legal-team ready.
From $3,500
Full-Day Workshop
Hands-on AI tool training for design teams of 5–20 people.
From $5,000 / day
AI Tool RFP Support
Vendor evaluation, scoring matrix, and negotiation guidance.
From $2,500
Keynote / Speaking
Conference or all-hands presentation on AI design strategy.
From $3,000
AI Maturity Report
Benchmarking against peer companies — board-presentable.
From $6,500
Clarity Call
45-minute diagnostic conversation — no pitch, no obligation.
Complimentary
About

The gap between
buying AI tools and
using them well.

Acuity Bureau was built for the space between "we bought Figma AI" and "our team actually designs better because of it."

Most design teams are not short on AI tools. They're short on the strategic clarity to use them in a way that's sustainable, governed, and genuinely additive to the work rather than just to the invoice.

Acuity Bureau exists to close that gap. We work as an embedded Fractional AI Design Leader — not a vendor, not a trainer, not an agency. A strategic partner who sits inside your team, understands your context, and helps you build AI design capability that compounds over time.

Our approach is deliberately vendor-neutral. We don't take commissions, we have no preferred partners, and we don't recommend tools because they're popular. We recommend them because they're right for your team, your workflow, and your goals — and we'll tell you honestly when the answer is to use less AI, not more.

The name Acuity Bureau reflects what we believe makes great design leadership: acuity — sharpness of perception, refined judgment, the ability to see clearly what others miss — delivered with the structured, methodical discipline of a bureau. Not a studio. Not an agency. A practice.

What we stand for
Vendor-neutral
No affiliates, no commissions. We recommend what's right for you.
Advisory-only
We don't produce design work. We make your team better at producing it.
Outcome-focused
Every engagement defines success metrics before work begins.
Honest
We'll tell you when AI is the wrong answer. Not every problem needs a new tool.
How we think
01

Tools don't think. You do.

AI design tools are extraordinary at generating output. They're poor at exercising judgment. Our job is to make sure judgment is never outsourced.

02

Adoption is a behaviour problem.

Most AI tool rollouts fail not because the tools are bad, but because teams weren't given the context, workflow, or permission to use them properly.

03

Speed is a byproduct, not a goal.

The right AI workflow makes your team faster. But we never optimise for speed at the expense of the quality of thought that goes into the work.

04

Governance is a feature.

IP policy, ethical guidelines, and AI use frameworks aren't bureaucracy — they're what allow your team to move fast with confidence and legal clarity.

Work

Case studies
coming soon.

We're in our first engagements. Case studies will be published here as clients complete work and grant permission to share results.

Coming · Q4 2025

Series B SaaS — AI Workflow Audit

How a 40-person product team went from AI tool confusion to a governed, productive workflow in 6 weeks.

01
Coming · Q1 2026

Agency White-Label Partnership

How a boutique dev agency added AI design advisory to their service offering without a single new hire.

02
Coming · Q1 2026

Enterprise AI Governance

Building an approved toolstack and AI use policy for a 200-person design org with legal constraints.

03

Want to be
our first case study?

We're taking on a small number of founding clients at preferential rates in exchange for the opportunity to document and share results — with full approval before anything is published.

If you're working through an AI design challenge and want hands-on advisory support, we'd like to talk.

Contact

Start with a
Clarity Call.

45 minutes. No pitch. An honest conversation about where your team is with AI tools and what's actually possible.

We'd like to
hear from you.

Whether you're ready to engage or just exploring options, a Clarity Call is the right first step. We'll listen, ask good questions, and give you something useful to take away — regardless of whether we work together.

Emailhello@acuitybureau.com
ResponseWithin 1 business day
TimezoneUS Eastern · flexible for other zones
What happens next
01
You send a message

Tell us a bit about your team and what you're working through. Takes 2 minutes.

02
We reply within 24 hours

A brief response with a calendar link, or a question to better understand your context.

03
45-minute Clarity Call

We listen, ask questions, and give our honest read on the situation — including if we're not the right fit.

04
Proposal or next step

If there's a fit, we'll follow up with a tailored proposal within 3 business days.

Send us a message

We respond within 1 business day. Your information is never shared with third parties.