AI Readiness Assessment
8 minutes, 12 questions, a calibrated next-step recommendation. Free.
Open the toolBUYING GUIDES & COMPARISONS
Honest head-to-heads,
not vendor spin.
The head-to-heads, decision tools, and strategic guides we walk every 30–300 person firm through before they sign an AI contract. No affiliate links, no vendor spin, no platform loyalty — just the math and the workload fit.
Head-to-head
Three comparisons that decide most AI procurements.
Microsoft 365 CopilotVSChatGPT Enterprise
Copilot vs. ChatGPT Enterprise: the honest head-to-head
Pricing math (both land near $30/seat for sub-150-seat firms), workload fit, the 5-dimension decision matrix, and the "buy both" pod case that’s more common than expected.
Best for: Firms picking their primary AI tier; M365 vs Google Workspace shops; teams sizing a power-user pod.
Read the comparisonMicrosoft 365 CopilotVSGemini for Workspace
Copilot vs. Gemini for Workspace: the SMB head-to-head
For Workspace-first SMBs: when Gemini is enough, when the M365 + Copilot suite switch pencils, and the four-scenario decision matrix. The grounding-and-Purview gap most buyers under-weight.
Best for: Google Workspace shops weighing whether to switch suites; firms with agent ambitions; regulated verticals.
Read the comparisonPower Automate + AI BuilderVSZapier
Power Automate + AI Builder vs. Zapier: should you migrate?
Most SMBs on Microsoft 365 are paying twice for the same automation capability. The 80/20 migration rule, what moves and what stays, plus 5 AI Builder patterns that pay back in the first month.
Best for: Firms with overlapping Zapier + M365 spend; ops leaders auditing automation TCO; teams looking to add AI to existing flows.
Read the comparisonPower AutomateVSSelf-hosted n8n
Power Automate vs. self-hosted n8n: which SMBs should pick
n8n is free to license and expensive to operate; Power Automate is the reverse. The 60-seat all-in math, where each genuinely wins, and the hybrid pattern we ship most often.
Best for: SMBs with one engineer on staff; teams with non-M365 long-tail SaaS; data-residency-sensitive builds.
Read the comparisonCopilot StudioVSAzure AI Foundry / custom
Copilot Studio vs. custom AI agents: build vs. buy
24-month TCO math for both paths ($70K–$110K Studio vs $190K–$420K Foundry), four signals each way, and the Studio-first-Foundry-later progression we ship most often.
Best for: Firms scoping a first production agent; IT leaders weighing platform choice; teams without a dedicated AI engineer.
Read the comparisonAzure OpenAIVSAWS Bedrock
Azure OpenAI vs. AWS Bedrock for SMB builds in 2026
The platform decision is rarely about model quality. Identity, residency, grounding store and compliance documents — the four differentiators that actually matter at SMB scale, plus the 30-second decision rule.
Best for: Firms scoping a first custom-AI build; EU SMBs with regulatory exposure; teams already anchored to one cloud.
Read the comparisonRun the numbers yourself
Three calibrated decision tools, free.
ROI Lab
Plug in your headcount, suite, and use-case mix. Get a defensible 12-month ROI projection.
Open the toolMicrosoft AI Stack Navigator
The 10-tile map of what you already own vs what you’re not yet activating.
Open the toolBefore you buy anything
Four strategic pieces worth reading first.
The cheapest way we know to kill a bad project before week 2. Five questions, used at every kickoff.
Most 30–300 person firms are paying for 60–80% of the Microsoft AI capability they need. Here’s the map.
Four ROI levers, the trap nobody talks about, and a worked example getting to 3.2× year-one ROI on Copilot.
About a third of the rollouts we triage in month 3 made the same seven mistakes. Recoverable in three weeks.
Want a second opinion on which way to go?
Eight minutes, no obligation. The free AI Readiness Assessment outputs a calibrated recommendation against your specific headcount, suite, use-case mix, and governance posture.