Blueprint diagram: Scope, Build and Embed leading to an AI-first business

Curating Brilliance

We Design AI‑First Businesses

Production agentic systems, working demos, and teams trained to run them — for enterprise, industry and government.

Not a slide factory. Two founders and a hand-picked bench who scope, ship and embed. If it doesn’t work in production, it doesn’t count.

Initiate Consult See Our Work →

01 — What We Do

Five Disciplines, One Bench

We staff each engagement with the mix the problem needs — never a fixed org chart. AI is the flagship; strategy, tech, product and creative back every build.

FLAGSHIP

AI.design

From AI-curious to AI-first: fixed-price systems reviews, agentic systems in production, and capability programs that stick.

STRATEGY.design

Complex business challenges mapped to clear growth, efficiency and alignment paths.

TECH.design

Technology, data and AI engineering — robust systems built for production.

PRODUCT.design

From concept and industrial design to UX — including hardware we engineer and supply.

CREATIVE.design

Content and film production that make the work land with the people who use it.
Explore AI.design Or start a conversation →

02 — Approach

How We Work

Strategy-firm rigour, an engineer’s bias to ship — and no junior pyramid.

We design and ship: strategy from ex-BCG/Bain consultants, systems from engineers who put them into production, and training that makes them stick. Every engagement is scoped, priced and delivered by the founders you meet on day one.

01. Innovation & Curiosity

Unobvious routes first — new tools, new angles, working prototypes over long decks.

02. Integrity & Trustworthiness

Honest about what AI can and can’t do. Results over hype.

03. Quality & User-Centricity

Built for the people who use it: practical, intuitive, finished properly.

03 — Working Terms

Clear Before We Start

The commitments that sit on every engagement — no fine print, no junior pyramid.

Fixed prices, agreed upfront

Scope and price before we start. No hourly drift, no surprise invoices.

Production systems, not demos

Integrated into your stack, measured on outcomes, ready for real users.

Yours to keep

Everything we build is yours — code, docs, models, and the know-how to run them.

04 — Selected Work

Impact In Action

Client names withheld by design where required. Open builds link to source.

AI.design

AI for a leading SA founder community

Problem
Members needed faster answers from a growing knowledge base; operators spent too long preparing briefings.
Approach
Retrieval-augmented community assistant, member health-scoring engine, and production data pipelines.
Outcome
Preparation time halved; capability productised into an ongoing AI practice for founders and operating teams.
TECH.design

Data platform for a livelihoods programme

Problem
SME growth and job-creation outcomes were hard to see in real time across a national programme.
Approach
Production ETL pipeline feeding interactive dashboards for programme operators and funders.
Outcome
Live visibility into SME growth and job creation across South Africa.
STRATEGY.design

Market sizing: Middle East & South Africa

Problem
Retail and private-equity clients needed defensible entry and growth decisions across regions.
Approach
Market sizing, entry analysis and growth strategy with implementation-ready roadmaps.
Outcome
Board-ready recommendations that moved straight into execution planning.
PRODUCT.design

Hardware for sustainable agriculture

Problem
SprootTech needed low-cost tools so more African growers could learn controlled farming skills.
Approach
Engineered a low-cost LED grow-lighting rig and cloning gel formulation for field use.
Outcome
Practical hardware and materials ready for an agritech startup training programme.
BUILD / LIVE SYSTEMS

SmokeSignal

Problem
Wildfire risk in South Africa needed timely, public-data alerts — not closed commercial feeds alone.
Approach
Live fire tracking on public satellite data; open engineering on GitHub.
Outcome
Working alert map and codebase others can inspect. View on GitHub →
BUILD / PRIVATE AI

Flowga

Problem
Most vision-AI apps send camera data to the cloud — a non-starter when privacy is the product.
Approach
Local-first AI yoga instructor: webcam pose analysis with on-device vision models.
Outcome
No data leaves the machine — a live demo of private, self-hosted AI. View on GitHub →
SmokeSignal — satellite wildfire alert map for South Africa
BUILD 01 / LIVE SYSTEMS

SmokeSignal

Satellite wildfire alerts for South Africa.
Flowga — local-first AI yoga instructor with webcam pose analysis
BUILD 02 / PRIVATE AI

Flowga

On-device vision. No data leaves your machine.
EntangleRL — reinforcement learning agent discovering quantum circuits
BUILD 03 / DEEP TECH

EntangleRL

RL agent discovering optimal quantum circuits from scratch.

Also in the wild: SeeMyCity (municipal finance transparency) · 25+ open builds on GitHub →

Facing something similar?

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05 — Who We Are

Who You Work With

A technical founder and a commercial founder — strategy-firm rigour, operator pragmatism, and a builder’s bias to ship.

Keshav Mohabir, Co-Founder — Technical

Keshav Mohabir

Co-Founder — Technical
  • UCT
  • BCG
  • Bain
  • Stanford ML

Mechatronics engineer (UCT, Honours Distinction) turned strategy consultant turned AI engineer. Stanford Online ML under Andrew Ng (98%). Complex problems at BCG and Bain; co-founded an on-demand grocery startup; steered Bolt Food Cape Town through its COVID grocery pivot. Leads AI.design — agentic systems, data platforms and capability programs.

LinkedIn →
Shulka Mohabir, Co-Founder

Shulka Mohabir

Co-Founder
  • Citi
  • McKinsey NGWL ’23
  • R100M+
  • 127 jobs

Finance and business development leader. At Citi she managed 21 client financing programs across Sub-Saharan Africa unlocking R100M+ in capital. McKinsey Next Generation Women Leaders ’23. Ran a R6M SME programme that created 127 jobs; founded ventures in sustainable fashion and regenerative agriculture. Runs delivery and the commercial side.

LinkedIn →

06 — Insights

Thinking Out Loud

Talks, notes and live builds — how we think about AI-first design in practice.

TALK

Agency in the Age of AI

On AI agents as junior teammates for African SMEs — delivered at an investor day.

 ARTICLE

The Cutting Edge

From ChatGPT-as-search-bar to architecting AI solutions for business growth.

 LIVE BUILDS

Vibe Coding Sessions

Agentic systems built live on stream — bugs, fixes and all.

All insights →

Careers

Join us

Short bench of consultants, engineers, designers and filmmakers — hired for judgment, not headcount.

07 — Contact

Facing an Intricate Challenge?

Goes straight to the founders — we reply within one business day.