CEO @ Fotando | Building AI-ready systems for non-technical companies | Founder @ SalesRing

We help non-technical companies use AI the right way: by simplifying their business first.

Most growing companies want to use AI. 

But the business already feels hard to manage.

1. Information is spread everywhere.
2. Processes aren’t clear.

Adding AI on top of that usually makes things worse…  More tools, more activity, but not much actually changes.

That’s why so many AI projects get stuck in “almost there” for months.

 At Fotando, we help non-technical companies simplify how their business works first and then apply AI where it actually makes a difference.

The goal is real change in 8 weeks, not 18 months. 

If AI feels important for your company but also confusing or overwhelming, feel free to reach out.

Happy to have a straightforward conversation and see if this makes sense for you.

Uladzimir Ausianikau

Nick Roco

Hi, I'm Nick, from Morningside AI.

We're a completely done-for-you AI workflow automation agency.

Where we help you:

→ Transform your business into an operational machine
→ Turn AI into a tool, not just a toy
→ Ultimately save time, headaches, and money

We do this by working with you 1-on-1 to find the biggest bottlenecks in your business today, and help you solve them with AI and automation.

Here’s how we do it:

1. Audit your current workflows.
2. Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and repetitive tasks.
3. Verify if they can be outsourced to AI or automation.
4. Break down the task into steps.
5. Build custom AI automation tools to streamline.
6. Launch.

Simple as that.

What you get when you work with us:

→ Built-for-you AI and automation solutions
→ A full top-to-bottom AI Automation Business Review
→ Expert guidance on integrating AI into your business for maximum impact

Past clients have received:

→ An efficient AI System for customer support + lead generation.
→ Completely automated client onboarding system.
→ Infinite AI-enabled content creation.
→ Strategies focused on tangible outcomes (time savings, reduced overhead, and increased revenue).
→ Much more sleep.

Here's what 2 of our clients have had to say:

"Nick has taken out a lot of those pain points and a lot of those tedious day-to-day tasks that would feel very overwhelming... I can always count on him when it comes to anything AI and really automating anything" - Ryan, Marketing Manager @ Aragon

"We've been working together with Nick trying to figure out how we can integrate automation in making our workflow much more efficient... Not only did he help us figure out what to do with our workflow to make it more efficient, he also helped us develop what we have to make it better" - Syra, Marketing Project Manager @ Adcrate

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If any of this resonates, let's have a genuine conversation about your most annoying challenges.

Reach out to me directly, and let's explore how AI and automation can be a part of your success story.

I respond promptly and am here to help.

Or go here for a Free 16-page E-Guide on Ways to Use AI in your Business: https://tally.so/r/wMElKg

See ya soon.

Member

Hot take: the most successful AI consultants I know are not building custom agents. They are running audits. Lots of them.

This is the pattern we’ve seen across 50+ real engagements at Morningside, and what we see inside our community of 3,000+ AI consultancies/agencies:

The consultants closing deals are leading with a structured AI audit - not a pitch for a 6-month transformation (hint: this becomes glaringly obvious later, but not right away).

The ones struggling right now are trying to sell the destination before the client even knows where they're starting.

An audit is the most beautiful, exploratory, non-committal thing you can offer.

It lets the client:

→ See their current state clearly (no assumptions)
→ Get a prioritized list of opportunities (not a 50-page wishlist)
→ Make a confident decision about what's next (with real data)

And it lets you (the expert advisor):

→ Build trust before asking for a big commitment
→ Surface the actual problems (not the ones they think they have)
→ Position yourself as the obvious choice for the follow-on work

Our business completely changed when we started offering these at scale in January 2025.

Revenue became more predictable. Sales cycles shortened. Client satisfaction went up because we weren't guessing - we were diagnosing.

In other words:

Audit → Clear roadmap → Scoped build → Measurable ROI

Skip the audit → Misaligned expectations → Scope creep → Everyone frustrated

If you're in AI consulting and not leading with audits, you're making it harder on yourself.

Mark my words: 2026 is the year of AI audits.

Sharing hard-won lessons on AI transformation from the front lines | Launched 53 AI projects for clients (and counting)

Why AI Audits Win Over Custom Agents

Dear Claude Code, you've done it again.

I've officially found the best use case for Claude Code - hands down.

Freeing up storage space on your computer.

Literally just cleared 81 GB of space on my Mac in 2 minutes flat.

I love this thing.

Use this prompt:

Analyze my disk space and find opportunities to free up storage. Show me the biggest space consumers, explain what each one is in plain english, and tell me which ones are safe to delete. Then ask me which ones I want to clear before doing anything.

You are so very welcome.

Head of AI Consulting @ Morningside AI | Sharing hard-won lessons on AI transformation from the front lines | Launched 53 AI projects for clients (and counting)

I spent 120 hours last year running discovery interviews for AI strategy assessments.

Was it insane? Yes

Did I learn a ton about how to run interviews? Also yes.

A GOOD interview feels like an focused investigation. A BAD interview feels like a directionless jam session.

If you’ve ever run discovery interviews before, you know exactly what I mean.

Here's the method that actually works:

1. Start with execs, then frontline, then back to execs
2. Set the scene hard (one guy asked if I was building the Terminator, not kidding)
3. Open-ended questions first, quantify second
4. 2-3 pain points max - not 20
5. Follow emotion and body language

Full breakdown in the video 👇

Consulting right now is wild because 90% of the ideas that I think are brilliant one day, end up looking completely different 2-3 months later.

You can build the most beautiful offer in the world. Tie it up in a bow. Perfect positioning. Slick deck.

And if the customer didn't ask for it… It was all for nothing.

After speaking with 20+ AI consultants over the last couple months, this is the trap I see my peers fall into constantly - INCLUDING myself.

We see what others are building. We get inspired. We convince ourselves "this is exactly what the market needs." That shiny new “AI system” is EXACTLY the offer we’ve needed to accelerate.

Then we pitch it. And the client says: "That's not what I asked for. I just need this one little thing."

Been there. Deflating.

The problem is not that we're not creative enough as consultants, that’s kind of our job. It's that we're solving imaginary problems instead of real ones. We’re putting things on paper that make sense to us (which feels good), but we do so often times without the client’s actual voice in the room.

What I've learned the hard way is:

Some clients will love your big vision. They'll want the whole transformation. “Give me everything” type of vibe.

Most won't. They want the small thing that solves their immediate pain.

And the consultants winning right now are positioning ninjas. They stay close enough to customers to know which one they're talking to.

Three questions I now ask before building anything:

1. Is this solving a problem I ACTUALLY heard in the last 5 client conversations?
2. Could I sell this to someone on my calendar THIS WEEK?
3. Am I excited because it's USEFUL - or because it's NEW?

The real “edge” of AI consulting is - honestly - boring. Listen to what customers actually want, then deliver it well.

My favorite part about Claude Code (and AI tools generally): it amplifies people with taste.

The difference between AI slop and actually valuable things is TASTE. By removing the barrier to creation, we've greatly raised the barrier to making GOOD things. In other words, when the cost of creating goes to zero, the value of GOOD WORK goes up.

Marketing copy, GTM plans, sales decks, and even entire applications - all of it is made exponentially better (or worse) with taste.

If you have taste, AI propels you forward. If you don't, your work will slowly blend into everyone else's.

Tools like Claude Code just make it obvious faster.

ALRIIIGHT ALRIGHT I'll do it. Clawdbot, here we go.

Just dusted off my old Macbook Pro from 2017.

(I'm talkin' Intel chip baby. M1 who?)

Enough of the YouTube rabbit hole, it's time to test this thing out.

Will report back.

P.S. For the AI maxi's already on Clawdbot, what are your main use cases right now? What should I absolutely setup first?

Hook me up!

You're an executive or ops lead at a 150-person company. Leadership is pushing for AI. You've talked to three “consultants”.

They all sound smart. They all promise "transformation.”

Sooo how do you know who's legit vs. who is just regurgitating what they’ve read on social media?

Ask about their process.

Look for these five things:

→ Research before kickoff. They show up knowing your industry, your competitors, and some critical use cases. Not asking "what does your company do exactly?"
→ Structured interviews. For each department, expect anywhere from 3-5 people across roles, not just leadership. 
→ Specific questions. Hours spent, frequency, cost. They quantify pain, asking the "feels-y" questions about why some tasks suck. Collecting opinions alone does not help here.
→ Evidence-backed recommendations. Every suggestion ties back to something your team actually said. As in... actual quotes directly supporting main themes.
→ Clear next steps. What to do first, what it costs, expected ROI. Not "let us know if you have questions." You should feel like you're in good hands from Day 1.

Because the difference between a real audit/assessment and an expensive brainstorm is - rigor.

If your consultant can't walk you through their methodology in detail, keep looking.

I have run 100+ workflow interviews with frontline employees over the past 12 months. The two magic words that unlocked every AI opportunity are "Then what?"

Here's the problem I’ve found: When you ask someone "what do you do?" they give you workflows. Big buckets. This is not necessarily BAD, it is just NATURAL. When explaining our jobs, we describe them in broad categories of work.

"I manage social media." "I handle customer support." "I do reporting."

Thing is - You can't automate "manage social media."

You need the tasks inside the workflow. The technique is so stupid simple: Keep asking "then what?" until you hit bottom.

An interview might sound like this:

Me: "Walk me through how you handle social media."
Them: "I check all 5 platforms for comments and DMs."
Me: "Then what?"
Them: "I draft responses to common questions."
Me: "Ah ok. Then what?"
Them: "I pull analytics from each platform manually.
"Me: "Sounds like a lot. Then what?"
Them: "I create a weekly performance report in Google Sheets."

And nooooow we’ve got it:

1. Check platforms: Automatable? Yes
2. Draft responses: Automatable? Probably
3. Pull analytics: Automatable? Definitely

Three automation candidates. Clear time savings. Quantifiable impact.

Workflows are too big to automate. Tasks are where the money is.

Every exec I talk to "wants to do AI." Unfortunately almost none of them have made it a priority.

"We want to do AI" sits in the queue behind everything that feels urgent. It stays INTERESTING but never PRIORITY. 

However, just last week, I watched this flip in real time with a client, which was wild.

Story time:

We had been working with an NBA organization for 6-ish months on AI features for their custom fan app. Good client engagement, clean delivery, everything was sweet. 

Later, they asked for a proposal to discover more AI use cases within their operations. So we scoped a consulting pilot for one department. Standard issue, come in, run our process.

Then… team ownership got involved.

"The owners are wondering why we haven't done anything AI yet..."

After this, *miraculously*, the project went from “department pilot” to “org-wide strategy” literally overnight. Same objective. Same team. But now it had PRESSURE behind it.

What leadership attention unlocked: Faster access to stakeholders, quicker sign-offs, and honestly real participation (not just those polite nods you get in meetings)

The lesson here is not "wait for your board to care and to interrogate you." It's that urgency around AI is MANUFACTURABLE.

If you want AI to actually ship, create the conditions that make it unavoidable:

1. Set a deadline for your first PRODUCTION win (30–60 days, not "this year")
2. Assign someone who OWNS THE OUTCOME - not someone who just "oversees" it
3. Make participation MANDATORY, not optional
4. Start with UNDERSTANDING YOUR TEAM’S PROBLEMS, not new AI tools

AI moves from curiosity to priority when someone decides it has to.

I'm looking for 5 companies that want to get serious about AI in 2026.

Not "add a chatbot" serious. Actually redesign how work gets done.

In 2025, we ran AI Strategy Assessments for NBA teams, NRL clubs, Fortune 500s. We mapped where AI actually fits (not just where it sounds impressive), and then built those solutions side-by-side with our clients.

Almost all of that work came through referrals. Leaders who got results told other leaders.

Now we're opening the doors to others.

We’ve got 5 spots left in Q1. If you're interested, book a call below to see if there's a real fit.

I run the Consulting team here at Morningside. When you book in, you’ll chat with me directly. There are no sales people that work here.

No fancy deck. No song and dance. Just an honest conversation about what you're trying to solve.

Link below ↓

P.S. My DMs are flooded - booking is the fastest way to actually connect.

Today is Friday. This is how I used AI this week to prototype an entire business idea from scratch.

1. Used GPT5.2 to help me create a top 1% prompt to plug into Deep Research (honestly, I’m not a 5.2 hype man, GPT5 felt just as capable)
2. Used Deep Research to research target customers, market sizes, positioning, and pricing strategy
3. Fed all that research back into GPT to create a 12-month financial projection model for the business with all the tabs and working formulas - seriously, Rev Model, Cost Model, Unit Economics, the whole shebang
4. Plugged all that into Sonnet 4.5 to turn the insights into detailed specs for Lovable
5. Used @Lovable to prototype the landing page, 95% done in one-shot

Then presented everything to my team.

This is exactly the work I used to do - completely manually.

I'd spend days manually researching market sizes, googling industry articles, and compiling information. I'd take those data points and manually plot them in a financial projection model. And then finally I'd use something like Framer to quickly spin up a landing page.

Something like this would have taken me at least a full week to do properly.

Now (with some caffeine and Brain FM), it takes me a few hours.

What's cool is these tools & functionality now feel nearly second nature to me. As in, “obviously I would have GPT create the projection model for me… how else would I do it?”

This is such an awesome time to be building.

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I'm Nick. I share how we're using AI to transform our business (and our clients' businesses).

Follow along if you're interested.

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