powered by fortu.aiStart your DiscoveryCONSULTING.REVOLUTIONISED
What's the biggest opportunity
in your business?
We help organisations realise their strategy and business transformation using data and AI.
Our people bring the expertise backed by fortu.ai our intelligence engine
Trusted by leading organisations across retail, FMCG, energy, financial services and healthcare.
(01)
What we do
Four things we do,
end to end.
Most providers sell one or two of these. Our clients need all four, connected, so we deliver all four.
The vision
AI strategy and operating model design
The question is the unit of work. We design the strategy, the operating model and the pipeline that turns business questions into measured value.
See the case study →The plumbing
Data engineering and architecture
The foundations that make AI usable at scale: pipelines, platforms, common models, governance. Built once, so every use case costs less than the last.
See the case study →The intelligence
Data science and machine learning
Models built to change decisions, not to sit in a report. Days to minutes, at the point the decision gets made.
See the case study →The transformation
Change, building capability and results
Adoption, ways of working and the skills that stay behind. We measure the value, and we leave the capability with you.
See the case study →(02)
What to expect
Not what you'd expect from a consultancy.
- 01
It starts with a conversation
Human, no pitch, no obligation. Whatever happens next, you leave with a clearer view of your challenge.
- 02
Small teams, not big ones
Human and hands-on: a few people who get to the heart of your challenge, with fortu.ai doing the heavy lifting behind us.
- 03
Your problem, not a template
You'll recognise your own business in the work. No recycled decks.
- 04
Flexibility, not change control
When the plan needs to move, it moves.
- 05
Independence, not dependency
You'll be fine when we leave. That's the point.
Behind every engagement: fortu.ai
fortu.ai works alongside our people as a sparring partner, built on our history of past work and lessons learned. It's always on hand to test ideas, sharpen your question and speed up the answer to your own problem.
Explore fortu.ai ↗(03)
What we solve
Sound familiar?
We solve the problems that stall growth: rising costs, slow decisions, data you can't trust, and transformation that never lands.
"Our costs keep rising and we can't see where."
→We find and remove cost across the value chain, fast.
"We have data everywhere, models and dashboards, and none of it changes a decision."
→We build data foundations leaders trust, and data science people actually use.
"Every transformation programme takes too long."
→Months, not years, with proof of value from week one.
"We've spent a fortune on AI and seen nothing back."
→We deploy AI where it pays for itself, and we track it.
"We keep solving the same problem in different parts of the business."
→We capture what works once and reuse it everywhere.
"Our consultants leave and take the knowledge with them."
→We build your capability, not your dependency.
(04)
How we do it
From a five minute conversation to a route to results.
The unit of work is the business question, not the project. Proof before commitment, then delivery and measured results.
01
Maturity assessment
Interactive radar across AI, data, transformation and ROI. Full or light touch across data domains.
02
Opportunity discovery
A fast, practical route to the projects most likely to deliver value. Review real opportunities we've delivered, keep the ones that fit, and they become your business questions.
03
Priority use cases and questions
The opportunities you keep become your business questions. Pick your top three.
04
Delivery and measured results
Our teams deliver alongside yours, using proven accelerators to move faster. We track the value against the business outcome, not the milestone.
(05)
Who we are
Consulting, with a decade of delivery already inside it.
Not a consultancy with AI bolted on. 600+ projects, 400+ reusable accelerators, £2bn+ of measured value. Working for you from day one.
The engine
600+
Projects delivered
400+
Reusable accelerators
£2bn+
Measured value
10 yrs
Transformation delivery
The outcomes
See all outcomes ↓£146m
Value delivered from one client's question pipeline
11,000+ users
30+ countries
Rolled out in under a year at a global retailer
16.2m
UK customers unified in a single customer view for a global energy business
Up to 15%
Capital expenditure savings from site selection and asset optimisation
(06)
fortu.ai
Built in layers.
A business question goes in. Value identification, prioritisation and a delivery plan come out.
fortu.ai isn't a wrapper around a public chatbot, and it isn't a platform waiting to learn from you. Its intelligence is built in layers, and the foundation is ours: a proprietary model built on 600+ real projects and 400+ accelerators, with an optional layer for your own, and the latest frontier models above them, swappable.
The stack
Frontier models change. The two layers beneath them carry forward.
(07)
Real results
What our clients say.
“The ICS team have grown with us over time, truly understands our business and works hard to understand our goals and deliver value.”
“Working with ICS and fortu.ai felt like switching from dial-up to fibre broadband. Fast, focused, yet deeply practical. We cut through months of strategic ambiguity in days. It's consulting, evolved.”
“ICS isn't just a partner - they're a catalyst for transformation. Their results are faster, smarter, and more impactful than we ever imagined.”
“We are really enjoying working with the team. It's really great for us to be working with a supplier whose competence we trust and rate so highly. Gives us a lot of confidence in the outputs and makes it a pleasure to get on the daily stand-ups.”
“Partnering with ICS was a game-changer. Their precise data capture, insightful analysis, and rapid sector learning moved the whole world of allergy forward. Our report is now making schools safer.”
(08)
Work with us
Three ways to work with us.
Embedded, not visiting. Whichever way you work with us, our people sit inside your business, not across the table from it.
Option 01
Specialists for your team
The people you're missing, working as part of your team for as long as you need them.
Option 02
A problem, solved
A small team takes on one specific challenge and sees it through to measured value.
Option 03
Help with a new product
Scoping and developing it with you, from first idea to something people use.
(09)
People
AI doesn't deliver transformation. People do.
The Institute of Clever Stuff is a London consultancy founded by Bernie Smith, and a team of innovative problem solvers. We'll use any tool or technique to answer a business challenge, AI included. The answer always comes from people who care about the work and about each other.
What we care about
Creative
Sometimes the answer is clever, sometimes it's simple. We know the difference.
Transparent
You'll always know how we got to the answer.
Kind
Funny, family-minded and generous with our time, inside the firm and out, including pro bono work for charities.
Who you'll work with
Finding the value
Strategists, analysts and statisticians.
Putting data to work
Data engineers, data scientists, ML, AI and full-stack engineers, product designers and product managers.
Making it stick
Change and capability specialists, delivery leads and storytellers.
(10) Over to you
Every transformation makes the next one better.
Take the assessment. Get a tailored Discovery Blueprint, generated for you.