AI Consulting · New York City

AI Consulting in New York City

New York firms are not short of AI ideas; they are short of someone who will look at a normal week of work, say which three tasks are worth a pilot, and check what the tool would be allowed to see. NetSys does that from its Brooklyn office, on site across the five boroughs, with a written plan, a measured pilot and the governance a New York employer needs before an AI tool touches hiring, client files or patient records.

All IT services in New York City

The short answer

NetSys provides AI consulting to New York City businesses: a readiness assessment, use cases ranked by hours returned, a pilot on your own data in Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT, a usage policy, training and the AI security assessment. Discovery runs on site from our Brooklyn office, and New York adds Local Law 144 for AI used in hiring.

Service information by The NetSys Group. Our editorial standards.

How AI consulting is delivered in New York City

New York is the one market where NetSys consultants work in the room. Discovery for an AI engagement starts with a half-day on site: we sit with the people who do the repetitive work, watch how a matter is opened, an invoice is coded or an intake form is keyed, and note which systems each step touches. The Brooklyn office is about 25 minutes from the Financial District and 35 to 45 from Midtown, so workshops in Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City and the Flatiron and Hudson Square agency districts are ordinary scheduling, not a travel event. Analysis, the written plan and the pilot build run remotely, with reviews over Teams in Eastern time, and we come back on site for the pilot kickoff and the rollout sessions. The same engineers who assess your tenant run the pilot, which is why the plan names the permission fixes with their actual cost. If your question is broader than AI, our IT consulting in New York City page covers assessments, migrations and office projects for the same firms.

Which New York businesses get the most from an AI assessment?

The city's small-business economy is heavy in exactly the work AI handles well. NYCEDC's analysis of 2022 state labor data puts professional, scientific and technical services at about 10 percent of small-business employment, health care at 9.4 percent and real estate at 7.5 percent, alongside the restaurants and retail that make up the largest share. For a Midtown law firm that means drafting and summarizing inside Clio, NetDocuments or iManage; for an accounting practice, document intake ahead of CCH Axcess or Thomson Reuters workflows; for a property manager, tenant correspondence out of Yardi or AppFolio; for a medical group, pre-visit summaries that never leave the EHR's permission model; for a nonprofit, grant reporting from Salesforce or Blackbaud. The assessment scores each candidate on hours returned, error cost, data readiness and running cost, and writes down the tasks that should stay manual, such as legal or clinical judgment, with the reason. The AI ROI calculator turns your own task times into a planning estimate before we meet.

Local Law 144, the SHIELD Act and what they mean for a pilot

Two New York rules shape AI projects here. New York City's Local Law 144 of 2021 prohibits employers and employment agencies from using an automated employment decision tool unless it has had a bias audit within one year of use, information about that audit is publicly available, and candidates and employees receive notice; the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection's rule sets the notice at 10 business days before use and has been enforced since July 5, 2023. Any pilot that screens resumes or ranks candidates therefore needs the audit, the posting and the notice built into its charter, and your employment counsel in the loop. The New York SHIELD Act (General Business Law 899-bb) requires reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards for private information, with a lighter standard for businesses under 50 employees, under 3 million dollars in revenue or under 5 million in assets, and 899-aa requires notice to affected New Yorkers within 30 days of discovering a breach. An AI tool that reads client or patient files inherits those duties, so the pilot scope records which data it may touch and which account it acts through.

What a New York AI pilot looks like in practice

A pilot has one task, a named group, a baseline and a review date. For a Microsoft 365 firm we start in the tenant: find SharePoint sites shared with everyone, anonymous links, dormant accounts and external guests, because Copilot shows each person whatever they can already open. Those fixes are quoted and finished before a license is assigned. For work outside the tenant, a Claude Team or ChatGPT Business workspace is set up on company sign-in with data retention and training settings checked against the vendor's terms, and a custom agent is built only when the task crosses systems and needs its own approval step. Staff log the task before and during the pilot, and the review counts output quality, correction time, exceptions and actual usage, not a demonstration. The go, adjust or stop decision is written down. Our published Copilot rollout for an 18-person organization shows the pattern; it is not presented as a New York engagement.

Governance, training and the AI security assessment

Most New York offices already have AI in use through personal accounts, which is the first thing discovery finds in sign-in and app-consent logs. The governance deliverable fixes that with a short acceptable use policy naming approved tools, the information that may never be pasted into them (client records, patient data, passwords, wire details) and who to ask when unsure. The AI usage policy template guide shows the structure and the AI policy generator produces a first draft from your answers; we tighten it after the pilot shows how people actually use the tool. Rollout training is by role, in the apps people already use, delivered on site in the city or over Teams, with the curriculum described on our AI training page. The AI security assessment runs alongside: which account each tool acts through, where prompts and outputs are stored, which connectors have write access, and whether a prompt injection in a shared document could move data it should not.

What is included

AI Consulting in New York City: what NetSys delivers

Readiness assessment and use-case ranking

On-site interviews with the staff who do the repetitive work, plus a read-only review of the Microsoft 365 tenant, permissions and the AI tools already in use
A ranked short list of use cases with hours returned, error cost, data readiness and running cost for each, and the tasks that should stay manual with the reason
A tool and build-or-buy recommendation per task across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT business workspaces and custom agents

Pilot design and delivery

A pilot charter naming the task, the group, the permitted data, the success measure and the review date
Permission and data fixes completed before the pilot starts, with workspace setup on company sign-in
A go, adjust or stop decision recorded in writing against the baseline

Governance, rollout and security

An acceptable use policy, a register of approved tools and the Local Law 144 steps for any hiring use case
Role-based training on site in New York City or over Teams, then month-to-month support if you want a standing owner
The AI security assessment: accounts, connectors, storage of prompts and outputs, and prompt injection exposure

Illustrative engagement

A 40-person Midtown accounting firm that wants AI without a tax-season surprise

This planning example shows how we could scope the work. It is not a claim about a customer in this market or a measured result. For published customer work, see our case studies.

Illustrative planning example, not a client. Four partners, a Microsoft 365 Business Premium tenant, CCH Axcess for tax and a document portal clients upload to. Staff are already using personal ChatGPT accounts to draft client emails. The partners want to know what is safe, what pays back and what to do before the next filing season.

A half-day on site in Midtown watching intake, document sorting and client correspondence, then time logging for each task over two weeks
Tenant review: everyone-links on SharePoint, two dormant accounts with mailbox access and an app consent for an unapproved AI plugin
Three candidates scored: document classification ahead of tax prep, drafting engagement letters from templates, and summarizing client calls; tax judgment left manual, with the reason recorded
A Copilot pilot charter for one tax team of six, with the permission fixes quoted and finished first, and a personal-account policy issued the same week
The AI security assessment of the pilot's accounts and connectors, and a training plan by role for the rollout after the pilot review

The deliverables are a ranked use-case plan, a pilot charter with a baseline, a signed acceptable use policy, a permission fix list with costs, the security assessment report and a rollout training plan. Whether the pilot expands is decided at the review against the charter, not promised in advance.

Published case study

Microsoft Copilot rollout and custom agents for an 18-person organization

An 18-person organization wanted Copilot in daily use rather than merely licensed. NetSys reviewed SharePoint and OneDrive permissions, sensitivity labels and sharing settings before enabling anything, so the assistant could only surface what each person was already entitled to see; assigned licenses across the organization with hands-on sessions by role; built custom agents grounded in the organization's own data for its recurring workflows; and stayed on to adjust the agents and keep the tenant configuration in step. No outcome figures were measured for publication.

Read the full case study (18 people)

From our client work

AI consulting work for other clients

Importers and distributors
Regional food importing company
Microsoft Copilot and Claude rollout for 25 employees, AI usage policies, connector access controls, and staff training.
Microsoft Copilot Consulting IT for Importers and Distributors

Client names are withheld. These examples were chosen for the work involved, not for where the client is, so none is presented as a New York City client.

The New York rules that reach an AI project

New York City's Local Law 144 governs automated employment decision tools: a bias audit within one year of use, public information about the audit and notice to candidates and employees, enforced by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection since July 5, 2023. The New York SHIELD Act (General Business Law 899-bb) requires reasonable safeguards for private information, and 899-aa sets breach notice within 30 days of discovery. Both were checked on the official nyc.gov and nysenate.gov pages on November 7, 2026. Which duties apply to your business, data and contracts is for your legal adviser to determine; the engagement produces the records they ask for.

Primary sources

What AI consulting costs in New York City

The engagement is quoted as a fixed scope after a first call. What moves the number: how many teams and workflows are in discovery, how many systems a tool must read or write, how much permission and data cleanup comes before a pilot, and whether the path is a licensed tool or a custom build. On-site time in the five boroughs is part of the scope rather than a travel line. Licenses and model usage are running costs estimated in the plan, builds are quoted after the pilot, and support runs month to month.

How the monthly fee is built

Who this fits, and who it does not

Best fit: New York firms of roughly 10 to 200 people in professional services, health care, real estate, finance or the nonprofit sector, with one or two recurring tasks that eat staff time and leadership that wants a measured pilot before a company-wide license.

Not a fit: a business that wants a tool switched on for everyone this week with no baseline, or one that expects guaranteed savings before anyone has looked at its data. Hiring use cases without counsel engaged on Local Law 144 are also declined.

AI Consulting in New York City: FAQs

Do you work with New York City businesses on site?

Yes. New York City is within the roughly 50-mile radius NetSys serves in person from Brooklyn, so discovery interviews, the pilot kickoff and rollout training can run in your office in any borough. Analysis, the written plan and the technical setup run remotely with reviews over Teams. Markets outside that radius are served remotely.

How is AI consulting priced for a New York firm?

As a fixed scope quoted after a first call, not by the hour. The assessment and the pilot each have a written scope and price; a rollout or custom build is quoted after the pilot review; licenses and model usage are running costs estimated in the plan; and support runs month to month. NetSys publishes no price list. The parent AI consulting page shows the published market ranges we are measured against, and the AI ROI calculator gives a planning estimate from your own numbers.

Does Local Law 144 apply to a small employer in Manhattan?

The law applies to employers and employment agencies using an automated employment decision tool for New York City candidates or employees, with no small-business carve-out on the DCWP's page. If a pilot would screen, rank or score applicants, the bias audit within one year of use, the public summary and the 10-business-day notice belong in the pilot charter, and your employment counsel decides whether a specific tool is covered. Many first pilots avoid hiring altogether for that reason.

Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT for a New York office?

The task decides. Work that lives in Outlook, Teams, Word and SharePoint points to Microsoft 365 Copilot, which only surfaces what each user can already open, so permissions come first. Drafting, analysis and shared assistants outside the tenant fit a Claude Team or ChatGPT Business workspace on company sign-in. A task that crosses several systems and needs an approval step is a custom agent. The assessment recommends per task and checks each vendor's data retention and training terms.

What does the SHIELD Act require of an AI pilot?

The SHIELD Act requires reasonable safeguards for New Yorkers' private information, so an AI tool that can read client or patient files is part of your safeguards program: which account it acts through, where prompts and outputs are stored, who can see them and how long they are kept. We record those answers in the pilot charter and the security assessment. Whether a given use is compliant is a question for your counsel; we provide the evidence they need.

Can you build what the plan recommends?

Yes, and the plan is written so another team could build from it as well. If NetSys builds the Copilot agents, the Claude application or the workflow automation, that work is quoted separately from the consulting engagement, and the same engineers can support it month to month afterward.

How long does a New York AI engagement take?

Discovery and the written plan typically run a few weeks, depending on how many teams and systems are in scope. A pilot runs long enough to measure the task against its baseline, usually one to two review cycles. A rollout follows the pilot review. Every phase gets a date in the plan rather than an estimate in a sales call.

Start with a task you can measure

Bring the task that eats your week.

Tell us the work, the systems it touches and who reviews it. A NetSys engineer will meet you in your New York office, score the task honestly and come back with a pilot you can measure.

Explore AI Consulting Scope 845-203-3914