AI consultant in Liverpool & Manchester
AI that makes people better at their thing.
Tell me what your team does and where it gets stuck. I'll help you find where AI earns its place, build the first useful thing, and train your team to use it. Advice from someone who builds it.
Most organisations do not need an AI revolution. They need someone who understands their work, knows what the tools can really do, and can build the first useful thing.
I'm Pete Woodbridge, an AI consultant, creative technologist and software prototyper based in Liverpool. I've spent twenty years building technology with organisations like the BBC, Aardman and the NHS, and most of that work now is AI: agents, agentic workflows, AI-augmented production and fast software prototypes.
I am also the Digital & Technology Cluster Lead for the Liverpool City Region, so I spend my days with the region's businesses, universities and investors, and see where AI is working for them and where it is not. That view goes into every project. Alongside the regional role I still take on independent work, as I have since 2003.
Not knowing where to start is the most common starting point. It is four steps, and it has already run across 35+ funded projects.
Who it is for
Organisations that want AI to do real work.
- Small and growing businesses taking their first serious steps with AI
- Creative, media, music and games studios
- Agencies that want AI inside their production workflows
- Universities, colleges and skills providers
- Public sector bodies, clusters and innovation programmes
Based in Liverpool, working across the Liverpool City Region, Manchester, the North West and the rest of the UK.
Services
Where I can help with AI.
AI strategy & adoption
Working out where AI genuinely earns its place in your organisation, and where it does not. A clear-eyed look at your workflows, the tools that fit them, and a plan your team can actually carry out.
Rapid prototyping & software
Building the thing, fast enough to find out whether the idea holds up before anyone commits a budget to it. Python, APIs, ComfyUI, games engines and the web, wired into the tools you already use.
AI training & workshops in Liverpool and Manchester
Hands-on sessions that get teams from curious to capable: understanding what the tools can do, and prototyping an idea of their own in an afternoon. Built on over a decade of university teaching.
Creative AI for media
AI-augmented animation and production workflows for film, TV, music, games and live events: tools built with ComfyUI and realtime engines, and the hacks and jams that spread them across the North West's studios. From someone who has spent twenty years inside those pipelines.
AI agents & agentic workflows
Agents that take on the legwork inside your processes: research, data gathering, reporting, production tasks. Built to make people faster and better at their jobs, never to make them redundant.
AI R&D & funding
Shaping AI research and development projects, partnerships and funding bids. Past projects have won grants from the AHRC and Innovate UK, and I review bids for the EPSRC, CoSTAR and Digital Catapult.
The method
Tested on 35+ funded projects.
It is the same method that ran through the MediaCity Innovation Hub and Dreamlab, across dozens of funded projects and over a hundred businesses, many of them building with AI.
- 01
Understand the work
Start with what the team actually does all day, and where it gets stuck, before any tool is mentioned.
- 02
Find where AI earns its place
Pick the few places where AI saves real time or makes something new possible, and be honest about the rest.
- 03
Prove it with a prototype
Build a working version quickly and test it with the people who will use it, before anyone commits a budget.
- 04
Hand it over
Train the team, document it and wire it into their tools, so it keeps working after I have gone.
Some of the AI work that came out of it
That work saw me named one of the 500 UK Trailblazers in the UKII Intelligence Report 2024, sponsored by Verizon and Epic Games, for AI workflow innovation.
Proof
Where it has already helped.
Since 2024 the team at Dreamlab has helped over 100 businesses and freelancers shape commercially viable innovations, win new work and solve day-to-day technical and market challenges. The lab's 48+ experts work on AI and realtime workflows and production technology, and larger builds can draw on them.
The creative work goes back further. I was creative producer and technologist at Pathway, a 6,000 sq ft LED volume in Manchester, as the stage launched. Partners and projects there included BBC Three's Project Ikon with Jason Derulo, an ARRI test shooting virtual production on 65mm film, Sony and McLaren.
Soundings uses AI agents to sweep the Companies House register every month and map roughly 745,000 creative companies across 65 regions of the UK, with a full evidence briefing for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Dream Machine, my newsletter, podcast and book on AI and the creative economy, has been cited by The Economist and Fast Company. My programmes and teaching pages have more on the funded work and the courses behind it.
FAQ
Questions people ask about AI.
Who is an AI consultant in Liverpool I can talk to?
Pete Woodbridge is a Liverpool-based AI consultant and creative technologist with over twenty years in digital technology and innovation. He advises on AI strategy, builds AI agents and prototypes, and runs AI training for teams, and is the Digital & Technology Cluster Lead for the Liverpool City Region.
Do you work with organisations outside Liverpool?
Yes. Most of the work is across the Liverpool City Region, Manchester and the wider North West, and projects run remotely across the UK and internationally.
We do not know where to start with AI. Can you help?
That is the most common starting point. It usually begins with a conversation about what your team does day to day, then a look at the workflows where AI could save time or open something new, then a small prototype to prove it before anything bigger is committed.
Can you build AI tools, or only advise on them?
Both. The work is hands-on: AI agents, agentic workflows, software prototypes and production tools, built in Python, with APIs, ComfyUI and games engines. Larger builds can draw on Dreamlab, an R&D lab and collective of 48+ experts.
Do you run AI training for teams?
Yes. Practical AI workshops and training for businesses, creative teams, universities and skills providers, covering creative AI, AI agents and software prototyping, built on years of designing university courses and industry bootcamps.
Has your approach been used on real projects?
Yes, a lot of them. The same method of understanding the work, finding where AI helps, proving it with a prototype and handing it over shaped the MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub's 35+ funded R&D collaborations and Dreamlab's support for over 100 businesses and freelancers, including AI tools for fashion, scriptwriting, digital characters and skills training.
Will AI replace my team?
Not if it is done properly. The aim is always to make people faster and better at what they do, with AI taking on the repetitive work so the team can spend more time on the parts that need judgement and craft.
Can you help with funding for AI projects?
Yes. Pete has developed and led £12m of innovation programmes and projects, supported 50+ funded R&D collaborations across all his programmes, and reviews bids for national funders, so he can help shape AI R&D projects and funding applications.
How do I get in touch?
LinkedIn is the quickest way, or email through the contact page. Send a line or two about what you are working on.
What do you want AI to do?
Tell me what your team does and where it gets stuck. If AI can help, we will find out quickly, and if it cannot, I will tell you.