Every AI project starts with too many ideas
The first rung is not a budget or an architecture. It is the idea said out loud, in front of people who will be honest about it, and a shortlist of who would actually use it.
- Free 30-min call
- No preparation needed
- Remote
- English or German
Ideas are cheap. Knowing whose problem it is is not
Most teams do not have an idea problem. They have twenty ideas, a sponsor who wants visible progress, and no shared way to compare them. The one that gets built is usually the one argued for most loudly, which is not the same as the one worth building.
This rung does one thing: it turns a vague ambition into a list of named candidates, each attached to a real person who has the problem. That is all. No architecture, no vendor selection, no budget.
It is deliberately cheap to be here, because most ideas should not survive it. A shortlist that removes fifteen of twenty candidates has done its job.
Ideas
Who needs this most?
The idea said out loud, and who it is actually for. Out: a shortlist
Free 30-min callClarity
Is the idea clear?
Written so anyone in the room can repeat it back without you. Out: one page
Concept
Is it technically working?
The idea shown, not described: data, layer and approach chosen. Out: a concept
Cloud demo
Does it survive contact?
Something real to click, running in the cloud. Out: a demo you can try
2–24 hoursMVP / POC
Do users adopt it?
First public customers on a real user journey, built with your team or a partner. Out: measured use
1–3 monthsFunctional product
Ready to scale?
Market-ready, scaled and operated, with someone on call. Out: a product
3–12 months+Ideas found on the way get parked. They stay in the discussion and out of the build, so the current step keeps its scope and nothing is quietly forgotten.
The full ladder. Every rung answers one question and leaves something people can look at or try. Each stage links to its own page.Source: Linda Mohamed, AI Use Cases Workshop deck, 2026
A shortlist, not a strategy
This is the one rung with no invoice attached. The free 30-minute Idea Call is where it happens.
The candidates, written downIncluded
Every idea in the room captured in one line each, in the words the business uses rather than the words a vendor would use.
Who has the problemIncluded
For each candidate, the role or team whose work changes. Candidates with no named owner get parked here rather than later.
An honest read on readinessIncluded
Which of them could plausibly move to the next rung now, and which are waiting on something that has nothing to do with AI.
Three signs you are still on rung one
The idea changes shape
Two people describe it differently in the same meeting, and both are sure they agree.
No named owner
Everyone agrees it would be useful. Nobody can say whose job it would change on Monday.
The tool came first
The conversation starts with a product name rather than with the work the product would do.
The next rung is clarity, not code
Once a candidate has a name and an owner, the next question is whether it is clear enough that someone else can repeat it back without you in the room. That is stage two, and it is the point where the AI Discovery Workshop starts earning its fee.
Skipping from here straight to a prototype is the most expensive mistake on the ladder. It produces working software that answers a question nobody agreed on.
Where the facts come from.
Prices, service names and limits change. The linked official pages are the reference; figures on this page were checked in September 2026.
- AWS Well-Architected Framework
- AWS Pricing Calculator
- AWS: Amazon Bedrock pricing
- ai-solutions.wiki: From AI proof of concept to production
- ai-solutions.wiki: Total cost of ownership for AI
- ai-solutions.wiki: Build vs buy for AI
- ai-solutions.wiki: AWS funding for proofs of concept
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the EU AI Act
- Documenting architecture decisions (ADR), Michael Nygard
Start with one conversation.
30 minutes to look at your idea, your data and the right starting point. Or book 15 minutes if you only have a question.
- Which of your ideas has a real owner
- What would have to be true for it to work
- Whether it is an AI problem at all
- Which workshop, if any, fits
Vienna, Austria · remote across Europe · [email protected]
