A written workflow map
Every trigger, handoff, exception, and escalation path documented — including what the system deliberately will not do on its own.
Boutique AI & Security Practice
Put intelligence into the work, not another dashboard.
TheZaraAI designs, secures, and operates AI workflows that remove manual work without creating unmanaged risk. You get the hours back, and a written record of exactly what each system can reach.
U.S. Army Special Forces veteran
Cyber Electronic Warfare Officer
RSA Conference speaker
Operations · todayExample workflow
Missed call routed to text-back
0:04
Form
Urgent service request received
0:38
Cal
Estimate booked, technician assigned
1:52
Illustrative interface with fictional data. Not live customer activity, and not a performance claim.
Interactive demo
Watch one urgent request become a booked job.
Seven steps, start to finish. Advance it yourself, or jump to any stage. This is a fictional home-services scenario built to show how the workflow behaves — every name, address, and timestamp is invented.
Stages
Inbound request
NameMarcus Webb
Phone(919) 555-0148
Address4417 Ridgeway Dr, Durham NC 27703
RequestUpstairs AC blowing warm since last night. There is ice on the pipe outside.
PreferenceAs soon as possible — mornings are best
Received 7:42:06 PM · outside staffed hours · no human available
Unified inbox
Web form
Marcus WebbUpstairs AC not cooling, ice on the line
just now
Missed call
(919) 555-0148Text-back sent · awaiting reply
6 min
Google
Priya RamanQuote for full system replacement
41 min
Facebook
D. OkaforAnnual maintenance plan pricing?
2 hr
Qualifying conversation
Hi, my upstairs AC is blowing warm air. Started last night. How soon can someone look at it?7:42 PM
Zara · automatedHi Marcus, thanks for reaching out. Sorry about the warm air upstairs — that is miserable in August. I can get you on the schedule. Two quick things: can you confirm the service address, and is there any ice on the refrigerant line outside?7:42 PM · 38 seconds after submission
4417 Ridgeway Dr, Durham 27703. No noise but there is ice on the pipe outside.7:49 PM
Zara · automatedThat usually points to airflow or refrigerant. Worth switching the system off so the coil can thaw before a technician arrives. You are inside our service area. Are mornings or afternoons better this week?7:49 PM
Mornings are better. Thursday if you have it.7:51 PM
Zara · automatedThursday morning works. I have 8:00 AM or 10:00 AM on August 6 — which should I hold?7:51 PM
Rule validation
Service areaAddress geocoded against coverage map
Zone 2
Urgency thresholdNo cooling, reported line ice
High
Decision authorityConfirmed homeowner, not a tenant
Owner
Existing accountNo prior service history on file
New
Routing decisionAll booking rules satisfied. Cleared to schedule without human review. Anything failing a rule stops here and is escalated to a person instead of guessed at.
Estimate scheduling
Mon3
8:0010:001:00Tue4
8:0010:001:00Wed5
8:0010:001:00Thu6
8:0010:001:00Fri7
8:0010:001:00
Booked · Thursday, August 6 · 10:00–11:00 AM
Marcus Webb · 4417 Ridgeway Dr · assigned to Ray T. by route proximity · confirmation text sent · calendar hold written.
Pipeline
New2
D. OkaforMaintenance plan
(919) 555-0148Text-back sent
Qualifying1
Priya RamanSystem replacement
Booked3
Marcus WebbThu Aug 6 · 10:00 AM
L. FerraroWed Aug 5 · 8:00 AM
T. NguyenFri Aug 7 · 10:00 AM
Estimate sent2
Hollis PropertyRooftop unit
S. AlvarezDuctwork
Audit trail
19:42:06Request received — web formsystem
19:42:44First response sent — SMSzara
19:49:18Address validated against coverage — zone 2rule
19:49:20Urgency classified — highrule
19:51:02Slot held — Thu Aug 6, 10:00zara
19:51:03Technician assigned — Ray T.rule
19:51:05Confirmation sent — SMS + calendarzara
Every automated action is attributable and reversible. This is the difference between an automation you own and one you merely hope is behaving.
A homeowner submits an urgent request at 7:42 PM. Nobody is at a desk. In most shops this sits until morning, by which time the homeowner has called someone else.
Interactive demo. The interface, names, addresses, phone numbers, and timestamps are fictional and exist to illustrate how the workflow behaves. Nothing here represents a real customer, a live system, or a claimed result.
The gap
Most AI programs stall between the demo and the ledger.
Adoption is running ahead of governance. These are other people's numbers, linked to the source, because ours would not be checkable.
-
close to3 in 4 companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years. Deloitte, 2026 State of AI
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21% report a mature model for agent governance. Deloitte, 2026 State of AI
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37% use AI only at a surface level, with little or no change to underlying processes. Deloitte, 2026 State of AI
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9% of organizations have fully deployed an AI use case. Accenture
The risk is not using AI badly. It is running it without a record.
Three practices
01
AI Automation
We map where the manual work actually is, then build the workflow that removes it — with the handoffs, exceptions, and escalation paths written down rather than assumed.
- Workflow design
- Integration
- Agent builds
- Handoff docs
02
Virtual CISO
Executive security leadership on demand. Strategy, governance frameworks, and board-ready risk reporting from someone who has operated in genuinely adversarial environments.
- Security strategy
- Governance
- Risk reporting
- Policy
03
Security for AI
The discipline most teams skip. What the model can reach, what data it retains, who authorised the action, and how you would know if it misbehaved.
- Access boundaries
- Data flow
- Monitoring
- Audit
Three practices
What we actually do.
01
AI Automation
We map where the manual work actually is, then build the workflow that removes it — with the handoffs, exceptions, and escalation paths written down rather than assumed.
02
Virtual CISO
Executive security leadership on demand. Strategy, governance frameworks, and board-ready risk reporting from someone who has operated in genuinely adversarial environments.
03
Security for AI
The discipline most teams skip. What the model can reach, what data it retains, who authorised the action, and how you would know if it misbehaved.
Outcomes & evidence
What you can hold at the end of it.
Automation is easy to demo and hard to trust. These are the artefacts every engagement produces — the things that outlive the enthusiasm of week one.
An access inventory
A plain list of which system can reach which data, under whose credentials, with least-privilege applied and the gaps named.
An audit trail
Automated actions are attributable and reversible. When something goes sideways you can see what acted, on what basis, and when.
A handoff document
Written so your team can operate and modify the system without us. Dependence is not a business model we are interested in.
Operator background
Ten-plus years U.S. Army Special Forces as a Cyber Electronic Warfare Warrant Officer. RSA Conference speaker. Security is the practice, not a bolt-on.
Client references
Available on request and with client permission, matched to your sector. We would rather introduce you to someone than paraphrase them on a webpage.
We do not publish customer counts, revenue impact, time-saved figures, or security outcomes on this site. Numbers like those are trivial to invent and impossible for you to verify, so treating their absence as a signal is reasonable. Ask on the call and you will get specifics with the client's permission attached.
How engagement works
Five stages. A decision point at every one.
No stage begins before you have seen what the last one produced. You can stop at any gate and keep everything built so far.
01
Discover
A free 15-minute call, then a short working session. We map where manual effort and unmanaged risk actually sit — usually not where people expect.
- You receive
- A written map of current state, friction ranked by cost.
- Risk control
- Read-only access. Nothing is changed, connected, or granted.
- Your call
- Do you agree with the diagnosis, and is the top item worth fixing?
02
Design
We specify the workflow before building it — triggers, rules, exceptions, and the explicit boundary of what the system may never decide alone.
- You receive
- A workflow spec and data-flow diagram any competent engineer could build from.
- Risk control
- Data classes identified up front; sensitive material scoped out or protected.
- Your call
- Does the spec match how you would want a good employee to behave?
03
Build
Implementation against the spec, in test mode — your real tools, but not your real customers until you say so.
- You receive
- A working system you can drive yourself, plus the test evidence behind it.
- Risk control
- Outbound is gated. Nothing reaches a customer while it is still being proven.
- Your call
- Having watched it run on your data, do you trust it to talk to a customer?
04
Secure
The stage most automation work skips. Access is narrowed, credentials move into managed storage, and the audit trail goes on before go-live.
- You receive
- An access inventory and audit configuration you could show an auditor.
- Risk control
- The blast radius of any single compromised credential is established in writing.
- Your call
- Are you comfortable with what each system could reach if compromised tomorrow?
05
Operate
Go-live, then the unglamorous part: watching it, tuning rules as your season shifts, and keeping it working as vendor APIs move underneath it.
- You receive
- Ongoing operation, or a clean handoff to your team — your choice, stated up front.
- Risk control
- Patching and dependency review continue. An unmaintained automation is a liability.
- Your call
- Do you want us operating this, or do you want the keys?
Selected patterns
Systems of this shape, built before.
Each panel below is a working prototype or an illustrative reconstruction of a system pattern we build. Client identities and data are not shown. Open one to see how it is put together.
Interactive demo
Home services · lead response
Inquiry to booked estimate
Unified inbox across phone, web, and social. Qualification against service area and urgency rules, then scheduling into real calendar capacity.
- Missed calls trigger an immediate text-back and continue by message
- Rules validate service area, urgency, and decision authority before booking
- Only genuinely open calendar slots are offered; technician assigned by route
- Anything failing a rule escalates to a person rather than being guessed at
- Every automated action written to an attributable audit trail
Interactive demo
Multi-location · internal comms
One brief, every channel
A single message published to email, SMS, and social at once, with per-recipient link tracking flowing back into one engagement view.
- One authored brief fans out to email, SMS, and social channels
- Per-recipient tracked links attribute every open and click back to a send
- Quiet hours and consent state enforced before any message leaves
- Engagement rolls up into a dashboard by location and audience segment
- Test mode gates all outbound until go-live is explicitly authorised
Example workflow
Security for AI
Boundaries around a model
An access and monitoring architecture: what the model may reach, what it retains, who authorised each action, and how misbehaviour surfaces.
- Data classification determines what may enter a prompt at all
- Per-integration credentials scoped to least privilege and rotated into managed storage
- Tool and action allowlists constrain what the system can do, not just what it can read
- Monitoring on anomalous volume, unusual targets, and off-hours activity
- Audit log designed to answer "what acted, on what basis, and when"
Example workflow
Back office · document operations
Intake to structured record
Unstructured inbound — email, attachments, forms — read, classified, and turned into a structured record with the exceptions surfaced rather than silently guessed.
- Inbound documents classified by type before any extraction is attempted
- Extracted fields carry a confidence signal; low confidence routes to review
- Nothing is written to a system of record without passing validation rules
- Ambiguity is surfaced as an exception queue rather than resolved by guessing
- Original document retained and linked to the resulting record for audit
Pricing
Find the shape that fits, then we scope it properly.
Four questions, and you get the engagement that fits with its actual price. Published rates, below and in the recommendation — the call confirms which one you need, it is not where the number appears for the first time.
1 · Primary need
2 · Team size
3 · Systems to connect
4 · Timeline
Recommendation
Answer the four questions above
You will get a suggested engagement shape and where to start. It takes about ten seconds.
Book a free 15-minute workflow call →A starting point, not a quote. These are the published rates for each engagement; what changes on the call is which one you actually need, and whether the scope shifts it.
Work with us monthly
The main engagement. Ongoing advisory and build capacity — cancel or change tier as your season shifts.Reconnaissance
$1,424 starting / monthGet one workflow off your plate at a time, done properly. The usual entry point.
- One workflow at a time — automated, then maintained
- Bi-weekly strategy calls
- Monthly reporting · email support
Operations
$3,026 starting / monthShip new automations while what is already live keeps getting tuned.
- Several workflows built and optimised in parallel
- Tooling integration & documentation
- Weekly strategy calls · priority response
Command
$8,010 starting / monthRun AI operations with an embedded partner. Security leadership included, hosting covered.
- Dedicated build-and-governance capacity
- Full AI workspace architecture
- AI security audit included
- Dedicated lead · embedded weekly cadence
- Hosting, monitoring & governance included
Not ready for a monthly engagement? Start with a one-time agent build below — a build can roll into a retainer later.
Start with a one-time build
Fixed scope, fixed price, yours to keep. The care plan carries the agent after handoff.Starter Agent
$325 one-timeHand your email and your files to a lean assistant. Built in under 30 days.
- Email triaged and answered
- File storage organised
- Core automations configured
- Written handoff + a month of light support
Integrated Agent
$789 one-timeConnect your calendar and the tools your day actually runs on. Roughly six weeks.
- Everything in the Starter Agent
- Calendar — invites drafted and sent
- Up to 5 more integrations (Slack, Notion, CRM…)
- Custom skills & templates
- Care plan — $197/month, the default next step after handoff
Outgrown the fixed scope? Move up to a monthly engagement — the usual path once one agent proves the value.
All prices in USD. Reconnaissance and Operations add $325/month for hosting & security — managed hosting, uptime monitoring, updates, and patching. That is already inside Command. One-time builds cover a fixed scope; anything beyond it is quoted separately and can roll into a monthly engagement.
The AI Field Manual
Building & Securing AI Agents
Free download · two questions
Download the AI Agent Field Manual.
The practical guide we wrote for people who want to build and secure their own agents. Answer the two questions below and it downloads straight away, with a copy to your inbox. If it saves you hiring us, that is a perfectly good outcome.
The practice
One operator. One agent. No account layer.
You work with the person doing the work. That is the whole staffing model, and it is why the engagement volume is deliberately limited.
Jaclyn “Jax” Scott
Founder & Principal
Ten-plus years in U.S. Army Special Forces as a Cyber Electronic Warfare Warrant Officer, then cybersecurity practice, now AI automation and governance. RSA Conference speaker, Substack publisher, and an active practitioner rather than a commentator.
The through-line is unglamorous: systems fail at the boundaries, under pressure, when nobody is watching. That is where the attention goes.
Zara
The system at the centre of the practice
Zara is the agent layer that runs client automations — triaging, drafting, routing, scheduling, and escalating around the clock. It is software, and it is represented here as an abstract mark rather than a face for exactly that reason.
Every action Zara takes in a client system is scoped, logged, and attributable. It does not have judgement. It has rules you approved, and a boundary it is not permitted to cross without a human.
Questions
The things people actually ask.
With a free 15-minute workflow call. We map where the manual work and unmanaged risk actually sit before any money changes hands, then scope from what we found rather than from a package list. If nothing worth fixing turns up, we will say so.
Scope and cadence. How many workflows are being automated, how many systems are involved, how much security and governance work is required, and the depth of ongoing involvement you need each month. The engagement selector above gives you a shape; the call gives you a number.
One-time builds start at $325 for the Starter Agent — a lean assistant that answers your email and organises your files, built in under 30 days with a month of light support while you take over. The Integrated Agent is $789 and adds your calendar plus up to five additional integrations, delivered in roughly six weeks with an optional $197/month care plan. Larger builds are scoped individually and can roll into a monthly engagement.
Yes. Monthly engagements are scoped by deliverables, not a fixed task list, so priorities can move between workflows as your season or strategy shifts. Larger new builds are scoped and quoted before the work starts — never sprung on you after.
The ones you already use. Email and calendar, file storage, Slack or Teams, Notion, CRMs, scheduling tools, and most systems with a usable API. If something has no API we will say so early rather than build a fragile workaround and hand you the maintenance bill.
Security is in the build, not sold back to you afterwards. Most automation work grants broad access to move fast and never revisits it. Here the access inventory, the least-privilege pass, and the audit trail are stages of the engagement, and you get the documentation to prove it.
Least-privilege access per integration, documented data flows, credentials in a managed secret store rather than pasted into a workflow tool, and an audit trail on automated actions. You receive a written record of exactly what each system can reach — which is also the document that tells you your blast radius if a credential is ever compromised.
15-minute discovery call
Fifteen minutes, and you will know where the work is going.
A short working call, not a sales sequence. We walk your current setup and name the specific places manual effort and unmanaged risk are costing you. Free, and it books straight into the calendar.
- Where your inbound actually lands, and how fast it gets answered
- Which repetitive work is worth automating first, and which is not
- What your systems can currently reach that you have not thought about
- A recommended engagement shape, or an honest "you do not need us yet"