Market-ready, scaled, and someone is on call
The last rung is mostly not an AI problem. It is operations, security, cost control and ownership, applied to something that already proved it works.
- 3–12 months+
- Named owning team
- AWS migration funding up to €400,000
- Remote or on-site
The AI part is the smallest part
By this rung the model choice is settled and the prompt is boring. What remains is everything that makes software a product: it runs when you are asleep, it fails safely, its cost per user is known, and a named team owns it.
This is where the Well-Architected questions earn their keep[1] — reliability, security, cost, operations — and where an architecture that was fine at MVP scale either holds or gets rebuilt.
It is also where regulation becomes concrete. Obligations under the EU AI Act attach to the deployed system and its risk classification[8], not to the experiment it grew from.
Four things that are different from an MVP
Failure has to be safe
Not just handled. Degraded modes, fallbacks, and a defined answer for what users see when the model is unavailable.
Cost becomes a line item
Cost per request stops being interesting and starts being budgeted, forecast and defended[5].
Someone owns it
A named team with the time to run it, not the project team moving on to the next thing.
Evaluation runs continuously
Model behaviour drifts. What was measured once at prototype has to be measured on a schedule.
Check AWS funding before you pay.
Many AI proofs of concept and cloud migrations qualify for AWS funding: credits for the AWS usage and, in some partner programmes, funds for the delivery work. What applies depends on the project, the programme and the AWS account team. I check it in the Idea Call, and the workshop results are written so they can go straight into an application.
Proof of concept
For a prototype on AWS with a clear path to production.
Migration
For larger cloud moves, planned in phases.
Usually alongside your team, not instead of it
At this rung the build belongs with the people who will operate it. Where I am useful is the architecture reviews, the cost model, the decisions that are hard to reverse, and an outside read on whether the thing is actually ready.
That works as regular sessions rather than a fixed workshop, because the questions arrive on the project's schedule rather than mine.
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
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.
- What is left between your MVP and a product
- Which architecture decisions are hard to reverse
- Who would own and operate it
- Whether migration funding could apply
Vienna, Austria · remote across Europe · [email protected]
