Glossary

Short definitions of terms that appear on several pages. Where a term has a technical meaning in one industry, the industry is named.

Business models

AI agency. A small company, often one to ten people, that builds automations and AI assistants for other businesses. Most sell fixed-price projects and monthly retainers. See agencies.

AI-native service firm. A company that delivers a professional service (insurance brokerage, legal work, bookkeeping) with AI doing much of the work from day one, instead of adding AI to an older firm. Harper (insurance) and Crosby (contract law) are examples.

AI roll-up. An investor-backed vehicle that buys many small service firms in one field, such as accounting or IT support, and applies AI across them. See roll-ups.

Services-as-software. A thesis that the money now spent on services is much larger than the money spent on software, so companies should sell finished work delivered by software. Sequoia's March 2026 essay put it as "For every dollar spent on software, six are spent on services."

Forward-deployed engineer (FDE). An engineer who works inside the client's organisation, close to the people who use the system, instead of handing over a product. Palantir made the model well known; OpenAI and Anthropic now run similar services. See implementers.

Implementer. A firm that builds and installs AI systems for a client, as opposed to a company that sells a ready-made product.

Boutique implementer. A small team of senior people doing custom AI builds, usually for mid-sized companies.

White-label. Selling another company's service under your own brand. Some Canadian AI studios, for example, offer accounting firms a service they can resell to their own clients.

Education tier (agency education). Businesses that sell courses and paid communities on how to start an AI agency. See education.

Pricing

Retainer. A fixed monthly fee for ongoing work or support, usually after a one-time build.

Fixed-price project. A build with an agreed scope and a single price, as opposed to hourly billing.

Productized offer. A service sold as a package with a set scope and price, such as a one-workflow sprint.

Pay-per-resolution. Billing for each customer issue the AI resolves, rather than per seat or per month. Sierra (customer service) describes outcome-based pricing in this spirit; Decagon bills per resolution.

ARR (annual recurring revenue). The yearly value of subscription or retainer revenue at a point in time. It excludes one-time project fees.

ACV (annual contract value). The yearly value of one customer contract.

Tools and technology

n8n, Make, Zapier. Platforms for connecting business apps and building automated workflows, usually with drag-and-drop steps. Many small agencies build on them and list themselves in the platforms' partner directories.

Workflow automation. Software that carries out a repeated task without a person, such as sending a reminder when a document is missing.

AI agent. A program that uses a language model to decide on and carry out steps, often across several tools, rather than only answering a question.

AI receptionist. A voice or chat assistant that answers calls or messages, books appointments and captures leads. Smith.ai (law) and Sonant (insurance) sell versions.

Human in the loop / human approval. A design where the AI prepares work, such as a follow-up email, and a person approves it before it is sent.

WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). A company approved by Meta to connect businesses to the WhatsApp Business API. Many Mexican AI vendors display this status as a trust signal.

Skool. A community platform used by many creators in the AI-agency education tier.

Industry software and terms

Intake. The first stage of working with a client: collecting contact details, the problem, documents and conflict-check information. In law, mortgage and immigration work it is often a form plus a first meeting.

Practice-management software. Software law firms and other practices use to manage cases, contacts, billing and documents. Clio, MyCase and Lawmatics are examples.

BMS (broker management system). The core system an insurance brokerage uses to manage clients, policies and renewals. Applied Epic is the most common in Canadian property-and-casualty insurance.

LOS (loan origination system). The system a mortgage broker or lender uses to take an application through to funding. Finmo and Velocity are Canadian examples of platforms in this area.

MSP (managed service provider). A company that manages a business's IT on a monthly fee. Small firms often trust their MSP for technology advice, and many MSPs are trying to add AI services. In Kaseya's 2026 survey only 13% of MSPs said they earned meaningful revenue from AI.

Data sources

CSBC (Canadian Survey on Business Conditions). Statistics Canada's quarterly survey, which asks whether businesses use AI.

BTOS (Business Trends and Outlook Survey). The US Census Bureau's biweekly survey, which tracks business use of AI.