AI Build Partner - based in Dubai, shipping globally

We find where AI creates the most value in your business and build it.

28 Labs is an AI Build Partner. Fixed-scope sprints, senior-led delivery, Build-Operate-Transfer handover. You own the system at the end. Not a pitch deck. A working system.

Who we work with

Four shapes of operator. AI visibility, ops systems, automation, enterprise R&D - if you see yourself here, we've probably shipped the pattern before.

01

The founder running lean and watching AI change the game.

Your team is 10 to 500 people, revenue is growing, and hiring isn't keeping pace with the AI moment. AI engines are starting to shape how customers find you, while your people are too busy running the business to build the response. Whether the answer is showing up in AI search or building AI into your ops, you need a partner who ships this month rather than a roadmap for Q4.

02

The operator with platform data and no AI working on it.

Your Playtomic, Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar platform already captures everything, and you can pull reports all day. What's missing is the AI layer on top: the predictions you can act on, the automated decision triggers, and the operating rhythm that ships outcomes instead of dashboards.

03

The enterprise division head with budget and no bench.

You run a division at enterprise scale with P&L responsibility and a recurring appetite for AI R&D. What you don't have is the senior engineer bench to ship as fast as your division needs. You want a senior team on call, not a fresh SOW negotiation every time a new initiative lands.

04

The service owner with data they can't turn into revenue.

You run a service business (a club, clinic, F&B concept, grocer, or multi-location operator), and your booking system, customer log, and response history hold years of revenue signal. AI could predict churn before it happens, surface the upsell your staff misses, forecast demand before you stock for it, and automate retention, but right now it's all dormant. You're growing on gut instead of insight.

What we've shipped

Real clients. Real systems. Real ownership transferred.

Scoop Wholefoods

Mid-market · Live

We shipped invoice automation, sales analytics, an investor app, and a full AI visibility audit, cutting back-office load to a fraction of what it was. The engagement is now expanding into the content engine and WhatsApp layer.

Tactical Agency

Mid-market · Shipped

A one-pass AI visibility snapshot that mapped how AI engines represent the agency across buyer-intent queries and flagged the displacement risk. Delivered senior-to-senior.

Multi-site fitness franchise

Mid-market · Starting May 2026

We're building the ops dashboard that turns fragmented franchise data into weekly operating decisions - a multi-site operator case for the Operator OS sprint shape. Name withheld pending launch.

Elora Aesthetic

Mid-market · Shipped Feb 2026

A Dubai aesthetics clinic that was invisible to AI engines across 24 high-intent buyer queries on four engines. We mapped the competitor displacement pattern, identified the citation gaps driving it, and delivered a structural fix plan.

Where we've built

Real delivery across eight domains. If your problem sits in one of these areas, we've shipped the pattern before.

Contract intelligence

Clause extraction, portfolio exposure rollup, market-signal drift scoring for industrial contract portfolios.

Operator OS

Booking platform overlays, yield and utilization dashboards, action playbook automation for multi-site operators.

Comms instrumentation

WhatsApp Business API migration, call tracking, response-time measurement for service operators.

Back-office automation

Invoice intake, reconciliation, weekly reporting, human-in-the-loop approval flows at mid-market scale.

AI visibility diagnostics

4-engine audits, entity disambiguation, Site Readiness scoring. Productized as our AI Visibility line at try28labs.com.

Compliance monitoring

Regulatory change tracking, deadline alerting, legal-to-plain-English task output for HR and compliance teams.

Investor and exec reporting

Founder-grade dashboards, strategic reporting automation, weekly operating rhythm artifacts.

Content engines

AI-driven content production, citation-aware drafting, publish-workflow automation with quality gates.

How we work

Every sprint follows the same four beats. Build-Operate-Transfer is not an add-on. It's the point.

  1. 01

    Scope

    One 45-minute call. We name the sprint, nail the deliverable, confirm prerequisites. If any of the three fails, the sprint doesn't start. That's the filter.

  2. 02

    Build

    Senior-led delivery, fixed timebox. No offshore body-leasing, no junior-delivered work, no surprise scope expansion. Roger leads every sprint end to end.

  3. 03

    Transfer

    We train your person and hand you the runbook. You own the code, the infrastructure, the credentials, the documentation. 28 Labs keeps the patterns, not the artifacts.

  4. 04

    Continue

    Optional. Run the next sprint, graduate to a retainer, or operate the system yourselves and come back when the next problem surfaces. No subscription trap.

The sprint menu

Five standalone sprints. Pick the one that fits the problem you're solving - each stands alone, no prerequisites, no "start at the top" logic. Fixed scope, fixed timebox, Build-Operate-Transfer handover so you own the system at the end. Pricing is scoped on the call based on the specifics of your situation.

AI Diagnostic

1-2 weeks

For founders and operators who want to know where AI is quietly moving against them before committing to a build.

  • 4-engine AI visibility audit (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) on your top 20 buyer queries
  • Site Readiness diagnostic across schema, entity consistency, source hierarchy
  • Top 5 priority fixes, ranked by impact and effort
  • One-hour walkthrough call with Roger

Not for pre-revenue startups, sub-3-person teams with no website, or pure consumer-social brands.

AI Visibility Fix

2-3 weeks

For operators whose AI visibility diagnostic surfaced entity drift, source-hierarchy issues, or schema gaps. You've seen the problem. This fixes it.

  • Full audit included, not billed separately
  • Entity disambiguation across Google Business Profile, Wikidata, Foursquare, Apple Maps
  • Schema markup rewrite (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, Organization)
  • Source hierarchy cleanup on homepage, location pages, press references
  • 30-day rescore proving the move

Not for operators whose AI visibility problem is content depth (needs ongoing content engine, different engagement) or pure PR-reputation issues.

Comms Instrumentation

2-3 weeks

For service operators (clubs, clinics, F&B, grocers) who can't measure response time or missed inquiries today because everything lives on a shared staff phone.

  • WhatsApp Business API migration via Wati (MENA-friendly BSP)
  • Call tracking via Twilio - logs every inbound call, forwards to your existing phone
  • Meta-approved message templates for your 5 most common outbound flows
  • Response-time and missed-call dashboard
  • Staff inbox training

Monthly fee is pass-through for BSP platform, Meta, and Twilio usage. No markup. You own the accounts. Not for operators already on Salesforce Service Cloud or equivalent.

Back-Office Automation

3 weeks

For mid-market operators losing hours per week to manual admin - invoice intake, reconciliation, approval routing, weekly report generation.

  • One workflow automated end-to-end
  • Integration with your existing system of record (Xero, QuickBooks, ERP, custom)
  • Human-in-the-loop approval layer where it matters
  • Monitoring and error alerts
  • Runbook handover to your finance or ops person

Not for workflows requiring HR or legal compliance review we're not qualified to handle, or operations without an existing system of record.

Operator OS

3-4 weeks

For operators with a booking or CRM platform (Playtomic, Salesforce, HubSpot, platform-with-API) who need a dashboard that tells them what to do, not just what happened.

  • Ops dashboard - utilization, yield, response time, missed inquiries, booking-to-revenue
  • Action playbook layer - 3 to 5 automated plays per client rhythm
  • Integration with one primary platform
  • GM training and weekly ops rhythm template
  • Handover runbook

Stacks cleanly with Sprint 03 if response-time data needs to be real, not guessed. Not for operators without an integratable booking or CRM platform.

Talk to us

45 minutes. We confirm the sprint fits, name the deliverable, and check prerequisites. No decks, no pressure.

Want to explore AI Visibility as a standalone product line first? Learn more at try28labs.com →

Enterprise AI Retainer

Ongoing AI Build Partnership.

For enterprises with recurring AI R&D appetite across divisions. Senior architect plus embedded builders, rolling scoped sprints inside the retainer, senior-to-senior access. Priced on speed and access, not scope.

  • From AED 35,000 per month, 12-month minimum
  • Warm introduction, demo-led sales motion
  • Maximum two concurrent enterprise retainers - to protect senior involvement on each
Talk to us
2
concurrent retainers, maximum
12 mo
minimum term
Tue-Fri
call on Tuesday, working thing by Friday
A sister product line

Is AI recommending you to your buyers?

AI engines now form shortlists before buyers reach your website. Our AI Visibility line benchmarks whether you appear across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity, identifies exactly what drives inclusion, and fixes the structural gaps. A dedicated 28 Labs product, delivered through a separate site.

Learn more at try28labs.com →

Who this is NOT for

The disqualifiers matter. Here's who should skip us.

Pre-revenue startups

If you're still finding product-market fit, bespoke AI work isn't the leverage. Build product-market fit first, then come back.

Very small engagements

We don't scope custom work below our mid-market sprint floor. Start with the productized AI Visibility diagnostic at try28labs.com.

Hours-based billing buyers

Every engagement is a named output with fixed price. We won't sell you hours. If you need billable-hours accounting, we're not the right shop.

Committee-driven procurement

Fast-output sprints break if six stakeholders approve every deliverable. Match us to a single sponsor with decision authority. Otherwise, your procurement process will outlast the sprint.

Four questions we get

Direct answers, no hedging.

How is an AI Build Partner different from an AI consultancy or agency?

Consultancies deliver decks and recommendations. Agencies deliver generic builds with junior teams. An AI Build Partner ships working systems end-to-end, with senior-led delivery and Build-Operate-Transfer handover so you own the system at the end. 28 Labs scopes each engagement up front with a named deliverable and fixed timebox.

Shouldn't our in-house team build this?

They should, and they should also not wait nine months to ramp. Use an AI Build Partner for the first two or three systems shipped, then hand off to your hire when they land. Services firms compound expertise across 20+ engagements per year. In-house teams see one to three. The learning loop is why the service motion often out-ships internal builds for the first 24 months, not because the service firm is smarter.

What if we lose IP to a services firm?

Every sprint ends with Build-Operate-Transfer handover. The client owns the code, the infrastructure, the trained internal person, and the runbook. 28 Labs retains the patterns, not the client-specific artifacts. You keep the system. We keep the craft.

Will platforms like Playtomic, Salesforce, or OpenAI build these features themselves?

Possibly on individual pillars. That's why the Build-Operate-Transfer model wins. By the time a platform catches up on any single capability, we've shipped three new ones elsewhere. The moat is the pattern library, not any single integration. If a platform commoditizes one layer, the bundle still stands.

Next Step: A 45-minute scoping conversation.

Talk to us