Industry
Consulting Technology, Human-Augmented AI
Location
Global
Business context
Organizations and teams often encounter ambiguity and inertia when tackling strategic challenges. Traditional consulting cycles are slow, generic, and lack actionable momentum. Discovery Inloop was conceived as a high-intensity, AI-powered consulting sprint to help clients get unstuck and achieve breakthrough clarity within a single, focused week.
Solution
We architected a facilitator-centric platform that blends seasoned human expertise with advanced AI agents. The one-week Inloop format delivers a structured, immersive engagement that guides clients from initial uncertainty to actionable strategy.
Outcome
Clients consistently report a rapid shift from indecision to conviction. The Discovery Inloop process enables teams to surface latent opportunities, resolve internal misalignment, and commit to a clear path forward. Post-sprint, facilitators transfer capability to client teams, enabling sustainable progress beyond the engagement.
Our services
AI Consulting, Facilitator Enablement, Product Design, Technical Implementation, Process Engineering
Technical highlights
- Backend: Ruby on Rails with PostgreSQL, building on proven conversational AI architecture
- Security framework: Thumbmark.js-powered user action provenance with fingerprint confidence scoring
- Contract integrity: Tamper-proof contract system with cryptographic signing verification for both facilitators and client engagements
- Organizational structure: Hierarchical framework supporting facilitators → inloops → engagements → conversations
- Enhanced clone capabilities: Advanced conversation replication and template functionality
- Enterprise adaptation: Professional-grade adaptation of conversational AI for consulting use cases
What discovery means
Discovery in the consulting context represents a fundamental shift from solution-driven to problem-space exploration. Traditional consulting often rushes toward solutions before fully understanding the nuanced challenges clients face. This creates misalignment, wasted resources, and initiatives that fail to address root causes.
Our "problem-space first" approach recognizes that most organizational challenges stem from incomplete problem definition rather than lack of solutions. Teams get stuck not because they can't execute, but because they're solving the wrong problems or addressing symptoms rather than causes.
Core Philosophy: True breakthrough happens when teams achieve clarity about what they're actually solving before jumping to how they'll solve it. Discovery is the disciplined practice of mapping problem territories before charting solution paths. Discovery Inloop doesn't solve client problems – it explores them more deeply to create the foundation for effective solutions.
The Discovery Inloop methodology centers on systematic problem-space exploration that helps clients:
- Surface hidden assumptions about what they think the problem is
- Identify misalignments between stakeholder perspectives on challenges
- Distinguish symptoms from root causes through structured investigation
- Build shared understanding of problem scope and impact before solution design
- Create conviction around which problems deserve focused attention and resources
This problem-space first approach consistently unsticks teams by replacing ambiguous challenges with clear, actionable problem definitions that naturally suggest solution pathways.
What we did with Discovery Inloop
Discovery Inloop represents a strategic evolution of conversational AI technology for enterprise consulting applications. Built on proven AI chat architecture, the platform extends foundational capabilities with enterprise-grade security and organizational frameworks specifically designed for professional consulting engagements.
Working closely with technical advisor Obie Fernandez, we adapted existing conversational AI infrastructure to meet the unique demands of consulting facilitation. Our goal was to create a secure, structured platform that could support professional engagements while maintaining the intuitive interaction patterns that make AI conversations effective.
Key Innovation: We implemented a comprehensive clone and template system that allows facilitators to replicate successful engagement patterns while ensuring each interaction maintains cryptographic integrity and non-repudiation capabilities.
The platform we delivered provides consulting professionals with enterprise-grade AI tools, establishing a new foundation for secure, structured AI-assisted consulting engagements.
The challenges Discovery Inloop addressed
Legacy consulting engagements face widespread issues: they are slow, opaque, and often fail to produce actionable results. Clients struggle with internal misalignment, vague objectives, and analysis paralysis. Discovery Inloop was engineered to address these pain points through several key innovations:
- Speed vs. depth: Compress discovery cycles into one week without sacrificing quality or rigor
- Human-AI balance: Design a system that balances facilitator autonomy with AI augmentation
- Trust and engagement: Build workflows that foster trust and engagement from day one
- Security and confidentiality: Ensure data security and confidentiality throughout the process
- Facilitator onboarding: Enable rapid onboarding for new facilitators across diverse client domains
- Scalable methodology: Support a wide spectrum of client domains without losing consistency
How we built it
Development focused on two primary objectives: extending proven conversational AI capabilities for enterprise consulting and implementing robust security frameworks for professional engagements. Our approach built upon existing chat infrastructure while adding the organizational structure and security features required for consulting applications.
Given the goal of adapting conversational AI for professional consulting, our approach prioritized security, structure, and enterprise-grade reliability. We had two primary objectives:
- Enhance conversation cloning capabilities: We needed to extend existing clone functionality to support structured consulting templates and replicable engagement patterns.
- Implement enterprise security framework: The platform required cryptographic integrity, device binding, and tamper-proof contracts to meet professional consulting standards.
These objectives drove several key technical and architectural decisions:
Enhanced clone architecture (Building on proven foundations)
The success of Discovery Inloop built upon existing conversational AI clone capabilities, significantly enhanced for professional consulting use. We extended the core cloning functionality to support structured templates, engagement patterns, and facilitator methodologies while maintaining the intuitive interaction model of the underlying chat platform.
Enterprise security framework (Cryptographic integrity with Thumbmark.js)
To meet professional consulting requirements, we implemented a comprehensive security layer featuring Thumbmark.js for user action provenance tracking. This approach captures detailed behavioral patterns during contract signing and engagement interactions, generating fingerprint confidence scores that verify user identity and intent. The system ensures cryptographic integrity and audit trails suitable for enterprise consulting environments with verifiable non-repudiation.
Organizational hierarchy (Facilitators → Inloops → Engagements → Conversations)
Building on the existing conversation infrastructure, we created a structured organizational framework that supports the consulting workflow. This hierarchy allows facilitators to manage multiple client engagements while maintaining clear boundaries and security controls at each level.
Tamper-proof contract system with provenance tracking
Recognizing the need for verifiable agreements in consulting contexts, we developed tamper-proof contract capabilities that bind both facilitators and client engagements with cryptographic verification. Using Thumbmark.js for user action provenance, the system tracks detailed behavioral patterns during contract signing, including keystroke dynamics, mouse movements, and interaction timing. This generates fingerprint confidence scores that provide mathematical verification of signatory identity and intent, ensuring accountability and trust throughout the consulting relationship.
By building on proven conversational AI foundations while adding enterprise-grade security and organizational structure, we created a platform that maintains the intuitive nature of AI conversations while meeting the rigorous requirements of professional consulting.
Technical approach
- Conversational AI foundation: Built upon proven chat infrastructure with enhanced capabilities for structured consulting interactions
- Advanced clone system: Extended existing clone functionality to support consulting templates and replicable engagement patterns
- Cryptographic security: Implemented fingerprint verification, non-repudiation, and device binding for enterprise-grade security
- Organizational structure: Created hierarchical framework supporting facilitators → inloops → engagements → conversations workflow
- Contract integrity: Developed tamper-proof contract system ensuring accountability for both facilitators and client engagements
- Enterprise adaptation: Professional-grade enhancement of conversational AI specifically designed for consulting applications
Lean development process
To deliver a revolutionary consulting platform, we streamlined our development approach:
- Facilitator collaboration: Direct partnership with lead facilitators and domain experts to co-design the experience
- Rapid iteration: Daily standups and async feedback loops accelerated decision-making and feature validation
- Real-time refinement: Facilitator feedback incorporated immediately to fine-tune workflows and surface edge cases
- Unified squad approach: Technical and product teams operated as one unit, prioritizing outcome-driven development
How we collaborated
Our team worked closely with technical advisor Obie Fernandez and consulting professionals to adapt proven conversational AI technology for enterprise consulting applications. We brought together engineers experienced in conversational AI platforms, expertise in enterprise security frameworks, and consulting methodology specialists to align platform capabilities with professional requirements.
Since we were adapting existing technology for a new use case, we focused intensively on understanding consulting workflows and security requirements. We followed a structured development approach:
- Technical advisory sessions with Obie Fernandez to leverage existing platform capabilities and architectural decisions
- Security framework development to meet enterprise consulting standards for verification and non-repudiation
- Consulting workflow analysis to design the facilitator → inloop → engagement organizational structure
- Clone system enhancement to support professional templates and replicable consulting patterns
This approach enabled effective collaboration between proven AI technology foundations and new enterprise consulting requirements, bridging conversational AI capabilities with professional consulting security and organizational needs.
What we achieved
Working with technical advisor Obie Fernandez, we successfully delivered an enterprise-grade conversational AI platform specifically adapted for professional consulting. Key achievements include:
- Enhanced clone functionality supporting structured consulting templates and replicable engagement patterns
- Enterprise security framework featuring fingerprint verification, device binding, and non-repudiation capabilities
- Organizational hierarchy enabling facilitators to manage multiple client engagements through structured inloops
- Tamper-proof contract system ensuring cryptographic integrity for professional consulting agreements
- Professional platform adaptation transforming conversational AI for enterprise consulting applications
Our collaboration provided the consulting technology space with key advantages:
- Secure consulting platform: Enterprise-grade security meets the rigorous requirements of professional consulting
- Structured engagement management: Clear organizational hierarchy supports complex consulting workflows
- Replicable consulting patterns: Enhanced clone capabilities enable facilitators to leverage successful engagement templates
- Cryptographic accountability: Tamper-proof contracts ensure trust and verification throughout consulting relationships
Impact Statement: "By extending proven conversational AI capabilities with enterprise security and organizational structure, we created a foundation for secure, structured AI-assisted consulting that maintains the intuitive interaction patterns consultants need while meeting professional standards."
The platform establishes a new foundation for AI-assisted consulting, built on proven conversational technology while meeting the specific security and organizational requirements of professional services.
