Frequently asked questions — DeBlaca AI
The questions on this page are the ones Irish SME owners, operations managers, and senior leaders ask us most often. Answers are as short and specific as we can make them. If yours isn't here, email [email protected].
Who is DeBlaca AI for?
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DeBlaca AI works with Irish SMEs in manufacturing, operations, food and beverage, and professional services, typically with 10 to 200 employees. Most clients are owner-led businesses where the MD or a senior operations manager is the decision-maker on AI adoption. We are not the right fit for large enterprises with dedicated in-house AI teams, or for pure consumer tech startups. We are based in County Kildare and work across Ireland, the UK, and the EU.
What does an AI workshop cost?
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Workshops start at €2,500 for a 3-hour customised group session. The discovery call is free and carries no obligation. Attendees receive an n8n automation file built live during the session, an AI readiness score, and six written deliverables including the RAIN prompt engineering cheat sheet.
Do I need to be technical to benefit from a workshop?
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No. The only prerequisite is comfort with email and Excel. Workshops are designed for MDs, operations managers, and senior leaders who need to understand AI practically, not technically. We cover prompt engineering using the RAIN framework and build an automation in n8n together. No coding required.
Can Enterprise Ireland or LEO grants fund DeBlaca engagements?
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Yes, for qualifying projects. Enterprise Ireland Productivity Vouchers, Digital Discovery grants, and Local Enterprise Office trading online supports often apply to AI readiness assessments and automation implementation projects. DeBlaca AI will help you map the right funding pathway during the discovery call and can draft the application with you. Grant application fees are included in the engagement cost.
How does DeBlaca AI handle the EU AI Act?
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The EU AI Act applies to most SMEs using AI in customer-facing or decision-making contexts. DeBlaca provides risk-tier mapping, deterministic guardrails advisory, and documentation templates aligned with the Act's transparency and governance requirements. Sold standalone from €1,500 for the diagnostic, or included in larger appraisal engagements.
Who is Tony Blake?
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Tony Blake is the founder of DeBlaca AI. He spent 20 years in operations at Intel Ireland in Leixlip — Six Sigma, Lean manufacturing, yield improvement, and industrial automation. He moved into AI consulting in 2025. The operations background means DeBlaca approaches AI as an operations problem, not a marketing problem.
What is AI-Discoverable?
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Does DeBlaca deliver workshops remotely or on-site?
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AI-Discoverable is DeBlaca's productised offer that makes Irish SME websites legible to AI search tools — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. In a four-week engagement we deploy schema markup, publish an llms.txt file, fix crawlability gaps, and rewrite five key pages. Pricing is €2,500 for the audit and rebuild, plus an optional €600 per month monitoring retainer.
What tools does DeBlaca AI work with?
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How do I start?
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Both, though on-site is preferred for workshops. Workshops are typically at the client's premises in Ireland. Automation implementation is usually remote with periodic on-site sessions. On-site is recommended when the business has shop-floor or warehouse processes that benefit from direct observation.
Primarily Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Microsoft Copilot, and n8n for workflow automation. For clients on Microsoft 365 we also use Power Automate. We are intentionally vendor-neutral and pick the tool that fits the client's existing stack, not the other way round.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call at cal.com/deblaca-ai/free-consultation — Tony runs these personally. Or complete the intake form on the workshop page for a customised pre-workshop assessment by email. Either option starts the conversation with no obligation.
The Irish AI consulting market has a handful of good firms. Agentica Ireland builds agentic AI systems. Deep Purple runs structured readiness assessments for established SMEs. AI Strategy & Training focuses on team upskilling and strategy. DeBlaca's wedge is operations. Tony Blake ran operations at Intel Ireland for 20 years before founding DeBlaca in 2025. Every engagement is scoped like an Intel yield project. Measured baseline. Fixed deliverables. Documented handover. If your AI problem is a marketing problem, DeBlaca is not the right fit. If it is an operations problem, DeBlaca is.
Have a question not on this list? Email [email protected]. Tony reads and replies to every email personally, usually within a working day.
How is DeBlaca AI different from Agentica Ireland, Deep Purple, or AI Strategy & Training?