AI Consulting in Austin, TX

Austin-Based AI Consulting

M41 Strategies is an AI consultancy in Austin, founded by Mike Michaels, a 25-year Austin resident. We help local businesses, in-house legal teams, and small-to-mid-size companies figure out where AI can actually make a difference — saving time, reducing costs, and staying ahead of competitors.

Unlike consultants who fly in from somewhere else, we're part of this community. We understand the Austin business landscape, we're here for the long haul, and you work with the founder directly — not through a layer of account managers or offshore teams. When the work calls for additional hands, we bring in trusted local collaborators.

Mike has been a software engineer for 15+ years and has run his own businesses for about as long. That mix matters: we understand both the technical side and the day-to-day reality of being a small business owner trying to make decisions about new tools.

M41 Strategies works across three areas: AI consulting and strategy, hands-on team training and workshops, and custom software when off-the-shelf AI tools don't fit your workflow. Most engagements start with a free 30-minute conversation about what you're trying to do.

What We Help Austin Businesses With

Identifying where AI fits. Most businesses have already tried ChatGPT. The question is what to do next. We audit your operations — what's manual, what's tedious, what's slow — and point to the specific places AI can save time. The deliverable is a short, plain-English report, not a 60-slide deck.

Evaluating AI tools. There are hundreds of AI products being sold to businesses right now. Most of them are fine. Some are not worth the subscription. We'll tell you which is which for your specific situation, and what to skip.

Training your team to use AI well. Buying tools is easy. Getting your team to actually adopt them is the hard part. We run workshops and custom team training that gets people from "I've heard about ChatGPT" to using AI confidently in their day-to-day work.

Building custom AI-powered tools. When off-the-shelf doesn't fit, we build software that does. This is real custom development — built by a senior engineer, not a low-code template assembled by a contractor.

Cutting software costs. A lot of small Austin businesses are paying $500–$1,000/year per seat for SaaS tools that AI can now replace for a fraction of the cost — or for free, on infrastructure you own.

Recent Work

Fortune 500 legal team AI training. An in-house legal team at a Fortune 500 company engaged M41 to train their attorneys on practical AI workflows. The half-day workshop covered safe prompt patterns for legal work, document review, research, and the specific use cases the team faced daily. Two-week turnaround from first call to delivered workshop.

Custom pricing-data scraper for a Texas homebuilder consultancy. A Texas homebuilder consultancy needed quarterly competitive pricing data for its clients. We built a custom scraper that pulls base pricing, floor plan specs, and community-level data across multiple metros. What used to take their team weeks of manual research now ships as structured data on a quarterly cadence.

SaaS replacement for a local entertainment business. A local Austin entertainment business was paying recurring fees for a third-party booking SaaS that didn't quite fit their workflow. We built a custom booking system that does exactly what they need — same functionality, no recurring software fees, full control of their customer data.

Website rebuild workshop for a local small business. A local Austin small business owner wanted to rebuild her website but didn't want to keep paying $1,000+/year for hosting and maintenance. In a hands-on workshop, we migrated her site to a Claude-built version, deployed it to free hosting, and trained her to update it in plain English instead of fighting with a CMS.

How It Works

Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute call. We talk about your business, your operations, and what you've been trying to figure out. By the end of the call, you'll have a clear sense of whether AI is the right tool for what you're working on — and if it is, what the next step looks like.

From there, the path depends on what you need:

Discovery and recommendations. A deeper audit of your operations with specific, prioritized recommendations. Delivered as a short written report. Typical turnaround: 1–2 weeks.
Workshops and training. Public 90-minute workshops on specific topics (operations, marketing, sales, website rebuilds) or custom team training tailored to your workflows.
Custom builds. When off-the-shelf doesn't fit. Typical projects run 4–12 weeks.
Ongoing retainer. Continuing support, training, and small build work. For teams that want AI as part of their operating rhythm, not a one-time project.

We prefer engagements where we ship something useful early — so you see value in week 2 or 3, not month 6.

Why Work With a Local Austin AI Consultant?

Face-to-face meetings when they matter
Understanding of the Austin business landscape — from West Austin small businesses to East Austin creative agencies to enterprise legal teams downtown
Long-term relationship, not a one-and-done engagement
Accountability — we're not disappearing to another city
You work with the founder directly, not an account manager

Let's Talk

Get a free 30-minute assessment and see where AI can help your Austin business.

Book a Call or Email Me

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an AI consultant in Austin cost?

The first conversation is free — a 30-minute call where we look at your operations and figure out if AI is even the right tool for what you're trying to do.

From there: Discovery + recommendations runs $1,500–$3,000 (one-time). Build projects run $5,000–$25,000 depending on scope. Retainers run $1,500–$6,000/month for ongoing support.

If you're a 5-person company, you're probably not at the upper end of those ranges. If you're a 200-person company with real budget for this, we'll scope something that fits.

What does an Austin AI consultant actually do?

The honest answer is "it depends on what you need." In practice, the work falls into three buckets: figuring out where AI fits (auditing your operations and pointing to where AI saves time), training your team to use AI well (workshops, hands-on sessions, written playbooks), and building custom software when off-the-shelf AI tools don't fit.

What we won't do is sell you on AI for the sake of selling AI. Sometimes the answer is "the spreadsheet you have is fine — fix your process first."

Do you work with small businesses or just enterprises?

Both. We've trained Fortune 500 legal teams on AI workflows, and we've also helped 5-person businesses replace $1,000/year SaaS tools with something they own. The work is different but the approach is the same: figure out what you actually need, then build or train toward that.

What's the difference between AI consulting, AI training, and AI workshops?

AI consulting is strategic — we figure out where AI fits in your business and what to do about it. Deliverable is a plan and roadmap.

AI training is custom team training tailored to your specific workflows. Deliverable is your team using AI tools confidently in their actual day-to-day work.

AI workshops are public 90-minute sessions on specific topics (operations, marketing, etc.). Free and recurring. Good entry point if you're not sure where to start.

Most clients start with the workshops or a free assessment, then move to consulting or training from there.

How is M41 different from other AI consulting firms in Austin?

You work directly with the founder, not an account manager. Mike Michaels is a software engineer with 15+ years experience who has also run his own businesses for about as long. He does the work and the strategy.

No offshore teams, no project managers playing telephone. What we agree on is what gets built. When extra hands are needed, we bring in trusted local collaborators.

And we're honest about what AI is the wrong tool for. Plenty of consultants will sell you AI for problems AI doesn't solve. We'll tell you when you're better off fixing something else first.

How long does a typical AI consulting engagement take?

Discovery and assessment runs 1–2 weeks from first call to delivered recommendations. Workshops are a single 90-minute session; custom team training runs 4–8 hours. Build projects typically land in the 4–12 week range, with bigger custom builds taking longer.

We prefer engagements where we ship something useful early — so you see value in week 2 or 3, not month 6.

Do I need to know anything about AI before we start?

No. Most clients we work with have tried ChatGPT a few times and weren't sure what to do next. That's exactly where we start. The first meeting is in plain English — we talk about your business, your workflows, and your frustrations. No jargon required from you, and not much from us either.

AI Consulting in Austin