Questions we are asked.

How do engagements with Altaire start?

You email [email protected] and a director replies, personally. The first step is an hour’s conversation about the outcome you need. What happens after that is at altaire.com/how-we-engage/.

Who will we actually work with?

The senior people who win the work do the work. Engagements are led by Altaire’s directors and senior practitioners; when deeper specialist expertise is needed it joins the team under our accountability.

You are a small team. Is that a problem for work at our scale?

It is the design, not a compromise. Staying small is what lets us put experienced people in the room rather than a pyramid with the seniority at the top of it. What we bring is judgement, and the experience of having run AI in production for 100 million users, so that what gets built is worth building and can actually clear your governance. A small senior team working alongside two hundred of your people produces more working capability than a large team doing it at arm’s length, and it stays after we have gone. Where something needs more hands than we have, we bring them: our own, specialist firms we would vouch for, or partners you already trust, and we stay accountable for the result either way.

Are you an AI company?

We are a senior advisory firm that has worked through every technology wave since 1999; AI is the current wave, not the whole of the work. Not every problem is an AI problem, and we say so when it is not.

Are you independent of vendors?

Our product is judgement, so independence is the point. We recommend what the problem needs. When the honest answer is a simpler tool, or no technology at all, that is the recommendation you get.

Do you work outside the UK?

Yes. Our client work has run from the UK across Europe, the US and Asia, on platforms serving users worldwide.

Can you work in regulated environments?

It is where we do our best work: air traffic control, health and banking. We treat regulation as a design input, and we hold that regulation is the key to innovation, because permission is what lets innovation ship.

How do you handle data and security?

Data residency in the UK by default or as your engagement requires, encryption in transit and at rest, least-privilege access with MFA, tested continuity plans and independent penetration testing. An overview is at altaire.com/security/ and detailed evidence is available to clients under NDA.

Is Altaire ISO 27001 certified?

Altaire held ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials while we built and ran enterprise platforms. As our work moved to senior advisory and strategy, we are renewing the certifications appropriate to that model, and the current roadmap is available to procurement on request. Where an engagement requires certified deployment or operation, we bring in accredited delivery partners under our accountability.

Who is responsible for data protection at Altaire?

Data protection is overseen by our Head of Compliance, an ISO Lead Auditor who wrote the bulk of Altaire’s ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 framework. As a senior advisory firm we hold minimal client personal data, and act as a data processor only where an engagement requires it, under UK GDPR (ICO registration ZA129404). Full data-processing terms are in our master agreement; an overview is at altaire.com/security/.

How do you handle procurement?

We do not respond to RFPs or competitive tenders; we are engaged by introduction. Once you have chosen to work with us, onboarding is straightforward, and we would rather answer your questions than hand you a page of statements: every engagement here is scoped individually and so is the paperwork around it. Email [email protected] and it reaches a director. Supplier facts, insurance, assurance policies, the certification roadmap, security questionnaires and supplier packs are all provided on request, promptly.

Can we see client case studies or references?

We do not publish case studies. The organisations we work with are rarely willing to discuss their internal decisions in public, and we would not ask them to. Named client references are provided at diligence stage under NDA, where the client can speak for themselves.

What does success look like?

Adoption you can see in behaviour. Our standard is the give-back test: if we offered to take the new capability away, would your people fight to keep it? If not, it has not worked, whatever the dashboard says.

Can you own the delivery, or do you only advise?

We can own it. Most engagements are senior-led and scoped to an outcome, and often the best result comes from your own people building with us alongside, because capability that stays is worth more than capability that visits. But where you want the whole thing taken on, we take it on: our own senior team, specialist firms we have worked with before and would vouch for, or a partner you already trust. We lead the work and we are accountable for the result either way. What we do not do is supply people to work under someone else’s management. If you want it owned end to end, say so early and we will scope it that way.