AI services
Practical AI training, workflow planning and implementation. Start with a useful idea, a recurring task or ongoing help for your business.
Start with a defined workflow, a team session or a wider adoption programme. Next Step Ventures helps you choose a useful starting point and take it through to implementation.
Our main focus is private markets. We also work with property developers, startups and business owners. Each engagement starts with the work, information and tools your team already has.
Based in London, Next Step Ventures works with private-markets firms globally, including clients in New York and San Francisco. Engagements can be delivered on site, remotely or in a hybrid format.
01Choose the problem you need to solve
| Need | Best starting point | Practical outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Turn a defined workflow into a reliable tool | AI implementation | A tested workflow with controls, human review, ownership and sign-off. |
| Find useful AI ideas and plan a workflow | AI Workflow Planning | A clear process, practical tests and a recommendation on what to build. |
| Establish direction, guardrails and ownership | AI foundations programme | A clear operating baseline, opportunity map and implementation roadmap. |
| Build confident, consistent team capability | AI literacy and training | Role-relevant skills, safe working habits and reusable ways of working. |
| Find and prototype the best opportunities | AI hackathon and use-case discovery | A ranked backlog, working prototypes and owned next actions. |
| Shape an end-to-end programme | AI consultancy for private markets | A joined-up plan spanning strategy, governance, delivery and adoption. |
02Support for private-markets teams
The method is consistent, but the source material, judgement and controls differ by investment strategy. Sector pages explain how the work adapts to the way your firm works.
- Private equity: hands-on AI training for deal, portfolio and operating teams, plus firm-wide consulting and implementation.
- Private credit: AI consulting for private credit across document-heavy underwriting, monitoring, reporting and operations.
- Investment and asset management: AI consulting for research, reporting, knowledge and operational workflows, including hedge-fund and multi-asset contexts.
- Infrastructure investing: AI consulting for infrastructure investment and asset-management teams working across technical, commercial and operating information.
Support for startups and other businesses
Building an AI product or adding an AI capability to an existing product? Explore AI consulting for startups. For business owners and teams improving marketing, outreach, reporting or everyday operations, AI Operating Partner provides hands-on implementation for established businesses as well as startups.
03What makes the work implementable
Every engagement is built around five questions: what is causing friction, which approved data is available, how the process really works, what a good output looks like, and what evidence is needed before the result can be trusted. Those questions keep the work grounded when an attractive demo would otherwise hide missing data, judgement or ownership.
04Ways to work together
| Type of support | What it can include | Where it leads |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation sessions | One firm-wide workshop, smaller function-specific sessions or a modular series covering practical prompting, projects, connectors, skills, artefacts and governance. | A shared capability baseline and stronger use-case intake. |
| Use-case intake | A short submission form, approved samples and focused reviews to clarify the data, process, judgement, output and owner. | A visible, scored and prioritised opportunity list. |
| Build support | A build day, targeted sprint or end-to-end implementation using real or approved demo data, followed by testing, hardening and handover. | A working result or a clear, documented decision not to proceed. |
| Ongoing support | Office hours, workflow unblocking, champion coaching, targeted refreshers and concise guidance as tools and capabilities change. | Continuity, ownership and improvement after the first launch. |
These services can stand alone or form one programme. Work can start with one session, one team or one use case and expand only where the evidence supports it. The same approach can also extend across selected portfolio companies.
05Tools and delivery models the work can cover
“AI” often describes several different purchases. The right service depends on whether the need sits in a general-purpose assistant, a finance-specific platform, a focused point solution or automation between systems.
- General-purpose AI: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot for reading, writing, reasoning, analysis and building.
- Finance-focused AI: evaluation and implementation support where a specialist platform has a clear advantage for investment work.
- Point solutions: practical adoption of focused tools for meetings, dictation, research, deployment or another defined task.
- Automation: triggers, workflows and scheduled processes using tools such as Power Automate, n8n, Make or Zapier after the underlying process and controls are clear.
The work is vendor-neutral. It can include tool evaluation, but the starting point is the workflow and the firm’s approved environment - not a predetermined product.
06Questions about AI services
Can a firm start with a single session?
Yes. A focused training session, hackathon or workflow working session is often the right way to create evidence before committing to a larger programme.
Do you work with existing tools?
Yes. The starting point is the firm's approved environment, which may include Microsoft 365 Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude, Gemini, local models, document stores, data rooms, email and spreadsheets.
Do you work internationally?
Yes. Next Step Ventures is based in London and works with private-markets firms globally, including clients in New York and San Francisco. Engagements can be delivered on site, remotely or in a hybrid format; London remains the consultancy's base.
Is the work only for private equity?
No. Private markets is our main focus. We also support property developers, startups and business owners with practical AI workflows.
See AI Workflow Planning or talk to James about a useful starting point.