Applied AI for professional services firms
We find the work AI should be doing in your firm, build it, and lead the rollout: the policy, the training, and the plan for your whole team.
200+
professionals trained
by our founders
700+
AI agents built
before Sentinel
Cincinnati, Ohio · Roebling BridgeOur point of view
We start with the business problem, then decide where AI fits.
A good AI project begins by understanding how work gets done today, where time and money are being lost, and what outcome would make the biggest difference.
Sometimes the honest answer is a process change, a policy, or better use of a tool you already pay for. We’ll tell you when that’s the case.
How we workRepetitive manual work
Information buried across systems
Staff using AI with no rules for it
Systems that aren’t connected
Assessment, implementation, rollout and governance.
We build inside the tools your team already runs. No new platform to roll out.
All tools we work with →
The AI roadmap
The five stages of AI adoption.
See what each stage looks like, where your firm stands, and what changes next.
Explore the five stagesStage 01 · Manual work, untapped capacityTraditional. Most work still happens manually, with little measurable benefit from AI.
Why now · KPMG, 2025
Most business leaders expect AI to give companies an advantage, and many already see savings.
1,390 leaders surveyed
17 million companies analyzed
832 tech companies quantified
88%
of leaders believe companies that put AI to work will hold an edge over those that don’t
63%
have already achieved real cost savings from it
85%
are raising the share of budget they spend on AI over the next twelve months
of EBITDA improvement for the average company. KPMG calls that estimate conservative, and it counts labor productivity alone.
That figure comes from 18 months of KPMG research: 17 million companies assessed, 72 million employees, results pressure-tested with 500 clients. Most of the value sits in ordinary work: invoices, follow-ups, reports, the things nobody has time to fix.
Source: KPMG International, “The intelligent tech enterprise,” 2025
“The next 10 years will be the biggest transformation in all of history. We will see the economy-wide productivity growth rate at least double.”
How Sentinel works
Our five-phase process
You don’t need a large transformation project. We start with one business problem.
WP-01
Assess
Understand how the business works and where the biggest opportunities are.
WP-02
Prioritize
Rank those opportunities by value, feasibility, effort and risk.
WP-03
Pilot
Start with a focused implementation tied to one real business problem.
WP-04
Roll out
Set the policy, train the team, and bring the whole firm along, not just one desk.
WP-05
Expand
Build on what works and decide together what comes next.
You receive
The opportunity map, the prioritized roadmap, and the hours and dollars behind every fix.
About us
Our founders combine business and engineering experience.
We’re an AI firm in Cincinnati that finds the highest-value uses of AI inside operating businesses, and implements them. We measure results in hours and dollars.
Eric Rakestraw
Co-Founder
LinkedIn ↗Eric Rakestraw is co-founder of Sentinel Consulting. He comes from an engineering background, builds our systems himself, and keeps current on the tools and platforms: what each one is good for, and where it falls short.
Collin Bass
Co-Founder
LinkedIn ↗Collin Bass is co-founder of Sentinel Consulting. He comes from a finance background, leads the assessment, and knows where businesses lose time and money, whatever the industry.
Business + engineering expertise. We connect what can be built with what is actually worth building.
Measured value. We weigh opportunities in hours, dollars, capacity and outcomes.
Founder-led implementation. The people who find the opportunity stay involved in putting it to work.
Built for adoption. We make AI practical to use, so the systems we build actually get used.
Find out where AI can save your business time and money.
We start with one opportunity, measure its value, build it, roll it out across your team, and then decide with you what comes next.
Free · No sales pitch · You keep the roadmap