AI automation & AI agents for Leeds businesses
Your most expensive people spend half their day opening files, chasing documents and re-keying client data instead of doing the chargeable work you hired them for — and the hours they forget to record never come back. That is where an AI automation agency in Leeds like Propel earns its place: governed systems that take the admin off your fee earners, with permissions, audit trails and UK data-protection built in from the start.
We begin with the one workflow bleeding the most non-billable time, connect to the practice management, finance and document tools you already run, and only replace what you have genuinely outgrown — no rip-and-replace, no big-bang.
The admin tax your fee earners pay every week
Leeds is the UK's largest legal and financial centre outside London — the firms around Park Square and East Parade, the accountancy and advisory practices, the fintech and challenger-bank cluster, more than 200 corporate headquarters all running on qualified, expensive people. And those people lose hours every week to the same relentless load: file and matter opening, conflict checks, AML and KYC, time recording, WIP, document chasing. Sector studies put the leak at roughly four-plus billable hours a week per earner. It rarely shows up as a crisis. It shows up as a year-end where WIP was clearly under-captured, a senior leaver the firm cannot replace without taking on cost, and the quiet sense that you cannot win more matters without hiring more admin. The work that earns the fees keeps getting crowded out by the work that records them. That is exactly where the right systems start to pay for themselves.
Who we build for in Leeds
- Law firms & legal services
- Accountancy & advisory
- Financial services & fintech
- Surveying & property consultancy
- Healthtech & healthcare
- Management & professional consultancy
- Recruitment & staffing
The hours leak out before anyone notices they are gone
Four problems quietly drain billable time and expose you at audit. Propel starts with the one costing your fee earners the most.
The billable hours that quietly walk out the door
Fee earners forget to log time and spend too long on admin instead of chargeable work. Lose four-plus hours a week per earner and across a team it is real revenue gone before month-end — money you can never bill because nobody recorded it in time.
Onboarding and AML scattered across five places
Client and matter opening, conflict checks, KYC and engagement letters live across the CRM, the case system, spreadsheets and email with no single thread. People re-key the same details all day, and when a regulator or auditor asks, nothing is easy to trace or evidence.
You only see WIP slipping once it is too late
There is no live view of WIP, capacity or which matters are at risk — so it surfaces at year-end or in an audit, when the under-recorded time and write-offs are already locked in. Reporting is stitched together by hand, after the fact, when you can no longer do anything about it.
Generic AI feels off-limits, so the firm does nothing
Public AI tools are ungoverned: you cannot see where client data goes, who did what, or keep a human in control. For confidential work and your regulator that is a non-starter — so while peers in the profession talk about AI, your firm stays still and starts to look behind.
How Propel takes the admin off your fee earners
Less time recording the work, more time doing it — every build permissioned, audited and human-in-the-loop, fitted to the systems you already run.
Stop losing time you should be billing
Capture billable time from the work fee earners already do across email, documents and the case system, so hours are recorded without anyone nagging — and WIP reflects reality rather than memory. The mechanism is governed automation that watches the work, not the people.
One governed thread for onboarding and compliance
Client and compliance data entered once and consistent everywhere, instead of re-keyed across six systems. We connect file and matter opening, conflict checks, AML and engagement letters into a single permissioned, auditable workflow your regulator can follow.
See WIP and capacity while you can still act
A live view of recorded time, WIP, capacity and matters at risk — built for how partners and your head of operations actually run the firm, so nothing slips until year-end. Delivered as internal dashboards that pull from the systems you already run.
Desk work prepared, a fee earner in control
The routine drafting, first-pass conflict and KYC checks and information-chasing handled for you, with a person reviewing and approving before anything is sent, filed or billed. Governed AI agents do the preparation; every action is logged. Not a black box.
Make your systems stop fighting each other
Information that moves once and stays in step, instead of living in the practice management, CRM, finance and document tools separately and being re-typed by hand. We build the integrations so your team stops being the integration.
Custom software development in Leeds, built around your process
When off-the-shelf practice tools fall short, you get software shaped to how your firm actually works — with permissions, audit trails, human-in-the-loop and UK data-protection standards built in from the first line, not bolted on later.
Before you trust us with client data, see the governed system we already run
The fair question for any AI agency in Leeds you have not heard of is whether a regulated firm can hand it confidential client and compliance data. Our answer is Atlas. Our founder built it from scratch to run That Works, a 26-person agency — clients, contracts, matters, hours, delivery, sales, finance, reporting, client portals, permissions, audit trails and governed AI in one platform, in production every day. We did not pitch it on a slide; we built it and we run our own business on it. That is why permissions, a full audit trail and a human in control of every action are not features we bolt on for you — they are how everything we ship is designed, because we live with the consequences ourselves.
1 platform
replacing a stack of disconnected tools
26-person
agency runs on it in production, daily
15+
business functions unified in one system
Built from scratch
not a template or a wrapper
A low-risk way to start, built for a regulated firm
The honest obstacle with any AI consultant in Leeds you have not heard of is trust: can you hand confidential client and compliance data to a supplier nobody at the firm can vouch for? Atlas is our answer — a governed, audited, permissioned system already running a 26-person agency in production daily, so governance is how we design, not a promise on a slide. From there we keep your risk low. You start with one workflow at a fixed, scoped price agreed before any work begins, you own what we build, and there is no lock-in. We are workflow-first, so we connect to the practice management, finance and document tools you already run rather than ripping them out. And if the audit says the payback is not there, we will tell you. We cover Leeds and the towns around it — Wakefield, Bradford, Pudsey, Morley, Castleford and Garforth.
Where we cover
We work with firms across Leeds and the surrounding towns, from the legal and financial district to practices in the wider city region.
- Wakefield
- Bradford
- Pudsey
- Morley
- Castleford
- Garforth
- Governance first: permissions, full audit trails, human-in-the-loop and UK data-protection by design — proven daily on Atlas, not promised on a slide.
- Fixed scope, fixed price agreed before any work begins, you own what we build, and no lock-in to keep it running.
- Workflow-first: we connect to your practice management, finance and document tools and only replace what you have genuinely outgrown.
How we work, without betting the firm on it
No big-bang rebuild. We prove the payback on one process, at a fixed price, before you commit the practice.
AI Opportunity Audit
A free, no-obligation 30-minute session where we map where your fee earners actually lose non-billable time and which one workflow would pay back fastest — with an honest build-or-don't view either way.
Scope and design
We design the workflow around your regulator and your obligations, agree fixed scope and a fixed price before any work begins, and set out exactly where permissions, audit trails and human sign-off sit.
Build and integrate
We build and connect to the practice management, finance and document tools you already run, so client data is entered once and moves cleanly — governed and auditable from the first line.
Launch and support
We launch on the one workflow, your fee earners use it on real matters, and we support and extend it as the payback proves out — only when you are ready to do more.
Governance, liability and cost — answered straight
We're a regulated firm — can I trust an AI automation company in Leeds with confidential client and compliance data?+
Yes, and we treat that as the starting point, not an afterthought. Everything we build is permissioned, audited and human-in-the-loop, to UK data-protection standards. You can see exactly what the system does, who did what and why. Atlas already runs a 26-person operation on that basis every day, so this is how we build by default rather than a promise on a slide.
Is this compliant with our regulator and UK data protection — SRA, ICAEW, AML obligations?+
We will not pretend to be your compliance officer or claim a blanket tick against every rule. What we do is build to UK data-protection standards with full audit trails, clear permissions and a human approving anything that matters, so your records are easier to evidence to a regulator, not harder. We design the workflow around your obligations and keep you in control of every decision.
AI hallucinates — how do I keep a fee earner in control and an audit trail of every action?+
Nothing acts unsupervised. Agents prepare and draft; a person reviews and approves before anything is sent, filed or billed. Every action is logged, so you have a complete trail of what happened and who signed it off. That human-in-the-loop design is exactly why a governed build suits regulated legal and accountancy work better than a generic AI tool.
We've been burned by practice tech that fee earners abandoned — and you've never worked in our profession. What's different?+
Fair challenge. We do not claim to be legal or accountancy insiders, so we start the other way round: we map where your fee earners actually lose time and build for that one workflow first, fitted to how they already work. You see value on a real process before committing the firm. Atlas proves we ship and run governed systems people use daily, rather than tools that get abandoned.
How much does it cost, and could it balloon mid-project?+
Every build is scoped from the free AI Opportunity Audit and quoted at a fixed price before we start — no packages, no open-ended day rates and no surprise invoices. You know exactly what you are paying and what it delivers before committing a penny, and you own what we build, so you are never locked in to keep it running.
Will this rip out our practice management and finance systems?+
Usually not. We are workflow-first and connect to the case management, CRM, finance and document tools you already run, so information moves once instead of being re-keyed. We only replace something when you have genuinely outgrown it. The audit happens in week one, and most builds run from a couple of weeks up to around six, starting with the workflow that pays back fastest.
Custom software and governed AI for firms across Leeds and Yorkshire
See where your billable time is leaking — before you hire to cover it
Book a free, no-obligation 30-minute AI Opportunity Audit in Leeds. We show you where non-billable time is leaking and which one workflow pays back fastest in your firm — with an honest build-or-don't recommendation either way.
No obligation, no sales push, and no commitment — just an honest view of where the payback is, or whether there is one yet.