Marginalia Partners Marginalia PartnersAI, made practical
For independent firms & professional practices

AI, made practical for firms that run on expertise.

We help independent firms ship one or two real AI capabilities their competitors don't have — in 90 days, not 12 months. No hype, no jargon, no retainers you can't leave. Start by seeing exactly where your firm stands.

4 wkFrom readiness to a shipped capability
30 minFree diagnostic — a 1-page assessment you keep
0Retainers, lock-ins, or vendor kickbacks
The problem

You know AI matters for your firm. You just can't tell what's real from what's a pitch.

Every week another vendor emails your firm promising AI will transform your practice. The demos look impressive. The pricing is vague. And nobody can tell you, in plain terms, what it would actually change about the work your team does on a Tuesday.

So most independent firms do one of two things — they buy a tool that never gets adopted, or they wait, watching larger competitors quietly pull ahead.

There's a third path: start with what's true about your firm, ship one capability that earns its keep, then build from there.

That's the work we do. We sit inside an independent firm, find the one or two places AI genuinely creates leverage, and ship them — then hand you a firm that knows how to do it again without us.

Our method

Readiness to shipped, in three deliberate moves.

Our method takes a firm from "we should look at AI" to a capability running in production — without the false starts, stalled pilots, and shelfware that sink most firms' first attempt.

Step one

The AI-Readiness Diagnostic

A free 30-minute call that scores your firm across five dimensions and hands you a 1-page assessment: your top 3 AI opportunities, the one hidden risk you're carrying, and a 30/60/90-day order of operations.

Free · 30 minutes · yours to keep
Step two

The 90-Day AI Sprint

A focused engagement that ships one to two AI capabilities into your real workflow in four weeks — chosen for leverage, scoped to your bandwidth, built to be used the day we leave.

$7,500 · fixed scope · ship-or-it's-on-us guarantee
Step three

Implementation & Continuity

When the Sprint proves the model, we go deeper — broader rollout, staff enablement, and an optional monthly continuity engagement so your firm keeps shipping after we're gone.

From $25,000 · or $1,500/mo continuity
See the full method →
What this looks like in practice
30 minfree diagnostic — a 1-page readiness assessment that's yours to keep, with or without us
5readiness dimensions every diagnostic scores, from strategy clarity to pilot capacity
1–2capabilities shipped per Sprint — chosen for leverage, not volume
90 daysfrom "we should look at AI" to a capability running in your real workflow

For shipped proof of the kind of capability we build, see the platforms we've built.

Who we work with

Independent firms that run on expertise, not headcount.

If your firm is built on professional judgment and weighed down by repeatable back-office work, the method fits. The examples below are the kinds of independent professional firms the work suits well.

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Professional servicesExpertise-led firms buried in repeatable intake, review & admin work
Practice groupsPractices weighing AI for scheduling, records & billing workflows
Owner-operatorsSmall teams where the founder's time is the scarcest resource
Independent firmsSpecialty practices that run on expertise, not headcount
The first step of our method

See exactly where your firm stands in 30 minutes.

The AI-Readiness Diagnostic scores your firm across five dimensions and hands you the top 3 AI opportunities, one hidden risk, and a 30/60/90-day plan — yours to keep, with or without us.

Get your AI-Readiness score → Free · 30 minutes · No obligation. The first move of our 90-day method for taking a firm from readiness to a shipped capability.