What if a handful of engineers could do what used to take a team of dozens of consultants? That’s the bet behind Ode, a new joint venture backed by Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs. The company embeds small teams of forward-deployed engineers into large enterprises, armed with AI tools, to solve problems that would traditionally require armies of consultants.
It sounds like a bold claim. But the numbers behind it are hard to ignore. The venture represents a growing belief that AI-assisted teams can deliver enterprise-grade results with dramatically fewer people. For Irish small and medium businesses who could never afford a McKinsey or Accenture engagement, that’s an interesting proposition.
What Exactly Is Ode?
Ode was founded by Chris Taylor and Eddie Siegel, who previously built Fractional AI. The concept is simple: instead of sending in a large team of consultants who spend weeks documenting requirements and months building solutions, Ode sends in a small squad of engineers who use AI tools to accelerate every stage of the process. These engineers work alongside the client’s existing team, building and deploying solutions in weeks rather than months.
The backing from Anthropic — the company behind Claude AI — is significant. It signals that the AI industry itself believes its tools are ready for real enterprise work, not just experimentation. When major investment firms like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs put money behind this model, it’s not an experiment anymore. It’s a market signal.
What This Means for Irish Businesses
You might be thinking: “That’s all well and good for big corporates, but what about my small business?” The Ode model is important for smaller businesses too, because it proves something crucial: AI can dramatically reduce the cost of expertise.
If a handful of engineers with AI tools can do the work of a 50-person consulting team, the same principle applies at a smaller scale. A single employee with the right AI tools can now do work that used to require a team. That means Irish businesses can access capabilities — data analysis, process automation, customer insights — that were previously out of reach due to cost.
It also changes how you should think about hiring. Instead of asking “Do I need a full-time data analyst?” you might ask “Can I train my existing team to use AI tools that do the same job?” The answer, increasingly, is yes.
The Catch: You Need the Right Tools and Training
The Ode model works because the engineers are not just given AI tools — they’re trained to use them effectively. They understand how to break problems down into tasks that AI can handle, how to verify AI outputs, and how to integrate AI-generated work into existing systems.
This is the part that Irish businesses need to get right. Buying an AI subscription is not the same as building AI capability. The tool alone won’t transform your business. What matters is having someone who knows how to use it properly — how to prompt effectively, how to check for mistakes, and how to apply AI outputs to real business problems.
Practical Steps for Small Businesses
You don’t need a venture-backed AI startup to benefit from this trend. Here’s what you can do today:
Identify one repetitive task in your business that takes an employee several hours each week. Look at whether an AI tool could handle it — drafting emails, summarising documents, organising data.
Invest in training for one team member. Pick someone who’s curious about technology and give them time to learn. The return on that investment is likely to be far higher than buying another software licence.
Start small and measure. Pick one process, automate part of it with AI, and measure the time saved before expanding. The companies that succeed with AI are the ones that treat it as a skill to build, not a product to buy.
The message from the Ode model is clear: the cost of expertise is falling. That’s good news for Irish businesses that have never been able to afford big consulting teams. But the opportunity only goes to those who invest in learning how to use the tools.