Find out what AI is actually worth doing in your business. Independently.
Not a sales pitch dressed up as strategy. Fixed-price diagnostics — starting at $300 — that end in a straight answer or a written plan, with no build to sell you on the other side of it.
That's David Berube — author of Practical Ruby Gems, 20+ years building and fixing production software, now applied to telling businesses honestly where AI does and doesn't pay off.
Published, spoken, and consulted across two decades — from the Ivy League to the Fortune 100
When to call
AI isn't the hard part. Knowing where to point it is.
For the owner or manager of a business who keeps hearing that AI could help, but doesn't have an independent way to tell which parts are worth it. This isn't a build — it's the diagnosis that tells you whether one, or points you to the specific tool that fits.
The hours going into busywork
Someone on your team spends half their week writing the same social post, answering the same five questions, or copying the same data between two systems. That time never shows up on an invoice, but it's real money leaving the building.
Too many AI options, no way to rank them
Every vendor pitch and blog post says AI is the answer to something. Nobody outside your business can tell you which one or two things are actually worth doing first, and which are a distraction.
One expensive decision, no independent read
Build it yourself, hire an agency, or leave it alone — that decision gets made once, and it's hard to unmake if you guess wrong. An independent diagnosis before you commit costs a lot less than a rebuild after.
What's on offer
Paid diagnosis and planning, not a build.
Berube Consulting doesn't build the AI automation — it tells you honestly whether to, and exactly what to build if so. If you already know what you want, the productized AI builds (linked below) are the faster door.
A straight answer on one question
The Quick Consult exists for exactly one situation: you have a specific build or vendor in mind and want an independent read on it before you commit, in a single 45-minute call.
A full picture, ranked honestly
The Opportunity Audit looks across how your business actually runs and comes back with a written report ranking what's worth automating — including the things that aren't, and why.
A plan you can act on immediately
The Strategy Session goes further: a half-day working session with the people who'll live with the result, ending in a sequenced roadmap and a scoping document detailed enough to quote against.
Build vs. buy vs. Durable Programming
Every diagnostic ends with a plain recommendation on how to execute — build it yourself, buy one of the productized AI builds, or bring in Durable Programming — with no obligation to pick any of them.
Yours to take anywhere
The report or scoping document is written to be usable by any competent builder. Nothing here is a funnel into a build with this practice — the advice has to stand on its own.
David directly, every time
Every call, every report, every scoping document comes from David — not an associate, not a template generated and lightly reviewed.
Engagements
Fixed prices for honest diagnosis.
Every tier here is a paid diagnostic, not a build — you leave with a clear answer or a written plan, and you decide what happens next. Already know what you want built? The productized AI sites take it from here.
An hour a day spent on manual busywork costs more, every week, than the smallest tier here does once.
Quick Consult
A focused 45-minute session on the one thing you're trying to decide.
Flat fee · one 45-minute call
- ✓ One specific question, answered straight: build this, buy that, or leave it alone
- ✓ A call with David directly, not an intake associate
- ✓ Notes in writing afterward so you have something to act on
- ✓ Scheduled within a few business days
- ✓ A written report across your whole AI surface area
- ✓ A scoping document ready to hand to a builder
Opportunity Audit
A structured look across your business for where AI actually pays off — and where it doesn't.
Flat fee · delivered in about a week
- ✓ A working session covering how your business actually runs today
- ✓ A written report ranking the real opportunities, in plain English
- ✓ Honest calls on what's not worth automating yet, and why
- ✓ Rough cost/effort sense for each opportunity, not just a wish list
- ✓ A follow-up call to walk through the findings
- ✓ A build-ready scoping document for the top pick
Strategy Session
A half-day working session that ends with a scoped, sequenced plan you can hand to any builder.
Flat fee · half-day session plus a written plan
- ✓ Everything in the Opportunity Audit
- ✓ A half-day working session with the people who'll live with the result
- ✓ A sequenced roadmap — what to do first, second, and not yet
- ✓ A scoping document detailed enough to quote against, yours to take anywhere
- ✓ A recommendation on build vs. buy vs. Durable Programming, with no obligation either way
- ✓ Included: a follow-up call once you've chosen a direction
Not sure which one fits? Describe your situation in the form below and you'll get a direct read on which tier fits, if any.
How it works
From booking to a written plan, without a month of back-and-forth
Pick the tier that matches your question
One specific decision to make? Start with the Quick Consult. Want the full picture across your business? Start with the Opportunity Audit or the Strategy Session, depending on how deep you need to go.
A short intake, then the real session
A short form covering how your business runs and what's prompting the question, so the call or session itself is spent on the substance, not on background you could've sent ahead of time.
A direct answer, in writing
You get a call or working session, then a written report or plan you can keep and refer back to — not just notes scribbled during a conversation.
You decide what happens next
If the diagnosis points at a build, take the plan to a productized AI site, to Durable Programming, to your own team, or to anyone else. The diagnosis doesn't come with a string attached to who builds it.
Who does the work
Someone who's spent 20 years figuring out what a business actually needs from its software.
Berube Consulting is David Berube's advisory practice. AI strategy is the newest question in a career spent telling clients what their software actually needs, rather than what's easiest to sell them. That's the product — independent judgment, not a ticket queue.
- ★ 20+ years of production software work, the last several years increasingly spent on AI-driven automation
- ★ Architected the Rails platform behind an 800,000+ actor database used across 45+ of the Fortune 100
- ★ I've worked on everything from Ivy League colleges to salvage motorcycle dealerships to news sites and the commercial casting industry
- ★ Author of Practical Ruby Gems (Apress) and several other books on software development
"You get what customer relations are supposed to be about."
"Extremely fast and efficient."
"Highly recommended."
Feedback from past clients across two decades of software and consulting work.
A straight answer
Sometimes the honest answer is "don't automate this yet."
Not everything is worth automating, and a rushed AI build on top of a broken process just makes a broken process run faster. If a diagnosis finds that your real problem is something other than AI — a process that needs fixing first, or a task that's genuinely cheaper to keep doing by hand — you'll hear that plainly instead of a pitch dressed up to justify a build. That's what you're paying for: a recommendation nobody's steering toward the more expensive option.
Questions
What people ask before booking
Do you build the AI automation too, or just tell me what to build?
This practice is diagnosis and planning only. If a Quick Consult, Opportunity Audit, or Strategy Session points at a specific build — a content engine, a support bot, competitor monitoring — you can take the plan to Durable Programming, the implementation studio David also runs, or to your own team, or to anyone else. The advice stands on its own either way.
I already know I want a content engine / support bot / competitor monitoring. Do I need a diagnostic first?
No. If you already know what you want automated, skip straight to the productized build: ai-social-media.durableprogramming.com, ai-customer-service.durableprogramming.com, or ai-business-intelligence.durableprogramming.com each sell one fixed-price build you can commission directly. The diagnostics on this page are for when you're not yet sure which of those (if any) is worth doing, or when the real problem is bigger than one workflow.
What's the difference between the three tiers?
Quick Consult is one question, one 45-minute call — useful when you already have a short list and want a straight answer on it. The Opportunity Audit is a fuller look across the business, ending in a written, ranked report. The Strategy Session goes further still: a half-day session with the people who'll live with the outcome, ending in a sequenced, scoped plan detailed enough to quote against. Pick based on how wide the question is, not how big the eventual build might be.
What if the answer is 'don't automate this yet'?
Then that's what the report or the call says. None of these tiers exist to justify themselves with a recommendation to build something — if the real fix is a process change, or the honest answer is that automating now would be premature, you'll hear that plainly. That's the point of paying for independent advice instead of a vendor's pitch.
Who actually does the work?
David Berube, directly — every call, every report, every scoping document. He co-founded Casting Frontier and was its technical lead through a 2020 acquisition by Talent Systems, has written multiple books on software development including *Practical Ruby Gems* (Apress), and has 20+ years of production software experience, the last several increasingly spent on AI-driven automation.
What happens after the Strategy Session or Opportunity Audit?
You get a plan and a follow-up call, and the decision on what happens next is yours. Take the scoping document to Durable Programming for the build, take it to your own team, or take it somewhere else entirely — it's written to be usable by any competent builder, not just as a lead-in to a sale.
Not sure where to start?
Describe the decision you're facing. Get an honest read.
Tell us what's prompting the question, and you'll get a read on which tier fits — a Quick Consult, an Opportunity Audit, a Strategy Session, or none of them — usually within one business day.