Substantial uses a fixed-fee model for upfront strategy and implementation, followed by usage- or license-based pricing for ongoing operation of AI systems.
This structure aligns incentives around business outcomes rather than hours billed, and ensures Substantial remains accountable for the performance of the systems it operates.
How does the Intelligence Platform connect with tools and teams?
The platform connects directly into existing tools, CRMs, ERPs, communication systems, and data sources. It orchestrates actions across them, enabling AI agents to observe, decide, and act inside real workflows.
Integrations are configured around jobs-to-be-done which often require fewer tools and streamlines processes.
How are reliability and safety maintained as systems evolve?
Substantial provides continuous monitoring, evaluation, and governance for each system. Performance is tracked in production, prompts and decision logic are refined as workflows change, and model updates are introduced carefully to maintain accuracy, safety, and alignment with the intended outcomes.
Who manages incidents and vendor relationships?
Substantial can manage incidents and vendor relationships when needed, or the business can keep these responsibilities in-house. In ongoing partnerships, Substantial typically handles first-line incidents, coordinates with model and infrastructure providers, and ensures systems stay healthy. In lighter-touch or strategy-focused engagements, Substantial provides guidance while internal teams remain in control.
Which areas of the business will benefit most from AI?
The Intelligence Layer excels in workflows that span multiple tools and teams, require significant coordination, and rely on repeatable, knowledge-based decision-making. These are typically high-frequency, rules-driven processes where institutional knowledge can be captured and expressed as logic.
→Operations: finance, HR, manufacturing, and product workflows where unified data unlocks real-time insight.
→Agent Orchestration: multi-agent collaboration across departments, passing context from support to sales to operations.
These domains benefit because intelligence reduces latency, increases accuracy, and handles complexity across tools that traditionally require heavy manual coordination.
The Operate partnership is designed for mid-market companies that face enterprise-level pressures but don’t have the internal capacity to manage, govern, and operate modern AI systems. These are growing businesses whose teams are fully focused on running the day-to-day, leaving limited bandwidth to drive new initiatives or evaluate complex technology choices.
Companies that see technology as a way to create more value—for customers, employees, and the business—and want to elevate how their teams work are especially well suited. Operate provides the leadership, accountability, and operational capability needed to build, run, and evolve AI systems that would otherwise require significant internal investment.
How are hosting, deployment, and day-to-day operations supported?
Substantial supports several operating modes depending on the system being built and how each company prefers to run it. For custom software, Substantial can maintain the codebase directly, transition ownership to internal teams, or provide flexible support that scales up or down as needed. The priority is ensuring that what is built remains useful, usable, and reliable over the long term. For AI systems, Substantial can operate on existing models and infrastructure or provide fully managed hosting and operations. This includes deployment pipelines, CI/CD, DevOps, monitoring, continuous improvement, and updates to prompts, logic, and model versions. Pass-through costs are handled transparently, and companies can choose the level of operational responsibility Substantial takes on.
