Manufacturer keeps its AI program in-house, renting the judgment and then the hands
A large automotive and industrial components manufacturer. Delivered
The problem
The innovation group at a large automotive and industrial components manufacturer wanted AI to improve operations and had teams eager to run proofs of concept, but nobody who had built these systems before and could say which model or first project would hold up. Years of business data sat in its ERP, reachable only through IT-built reports or hand-written SQL. The company wanted to own its AI program, not outsource it.
Why it mattered
AI pilots that pick the wrong problem burn months and credibility, and every tariff-cost question waited on IT.
What we did
Vizius provided a fractional AI advisor for a few hours a month who stayed out of the keyboard, guiding model selection and program direction while the client's staff drove execution. As the backlog grew, Vizius proposed an outsourced AI team, then right-sized it to a fractional senior AI engineer one day a week, with knowledge transfer as a deliverable. Concrete uses followed, including plain-English querying of ERP data to track tariff costs.
What changed
A three-month retainer ran for roughly a year. The client now owns its AI program, with senior engineering capacity renewable quarterly and a plain-English window into its tariff data.
- Manufacturing
- Large company