What's the difference between Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus?

Cyber Essentials is a verified self-assessment against five security controls. Cyber Essentials Plus tests the same controls with a hands-on technical audit by a licensed assessor. You must hold Cyber Essentials before doing Plus.

Do you do the work, or just assess us?

We do the work. Foresight runs the gap analysis, carries out hands-on remediation, prepares the evidence and liaises with the assessor, so you pass first time rather than paying to re-sit a failed audit.

How much does Cyber Essentials cost?

The IASME assessment fee is tiered by size from around £320 + VAT and includes £25,000 cyber liability insurance for eligible UK businesses. Cyber Essentials Plus is scoped to your estate, typically from around £1,380 + VAT.

Professional Services

AI for Professional Services: where can professional services use AI safely?

AI can save your team real hours — here’s where it genuinely helps professional services, where to be careful, and how to use it safely.

Book an AI Readiness Audit Call 0161 738 1399

Why Foresight

Cyber Essentials Plus certified
Microsoft CSP & Copilot specialists
Greater Manchester, since 2006
Honest advice — not licence-selling

Quick answer

Professional-services firms — consultancies, agencies and advisers — can use AI for drafting proposals and reports, summarising meetings and documents, research, and client communications, freeing fee-earners to focus on advice and relationships. Keep client-confidential data in secure tools, verify output, and keep a human in the loop.

Where AI helps

Practical uses for professional services

Area	Where AI fits
Proposals	Drafting and tidying proposals — Copilot
Documents	Summarising reports and meetings — Copilot
Research	First-pass research — verified by the team
Client advice	Stays with your experts — never automated

Doing it safely

Governance first

Client-confidential information must stay in secure tools and AI output should always be checked by your team. Before rolling anything out, tidy permissions, put a simple AI usage policy in place, keep sensitive data out of public tools, and keep a human in the loop — all part of our AI Adoption service. See also IT support for professional services.

Free downloads

Start today with our templates

The same free, ready-to-use templates we use in our audits:

“Day in the Life” AI template

Find exactly where AI will save your team time.

Download →

AI Usage Policy template

A short, practical AI policy to keep your data safe.

Download →

FAQs

Common questions

Can professional-services firms use AI?

Yes — for proposals, summarising, research and client comms. It frees fee-earners to focus on advice and relationships.

Is AI safe for client-confidential work?

In secure, permission-respecting tools, yes — never public ones. Over-sharing must be fixed first and a clear AI policy put in place.

Which AI is best for consultancies and agencies?

Usually Microsoft 365 Copilot, because it works securely over your own documents and emails inside the apps you already use.

Will AI replace consultants?

No — it speeds up drafting and research, but the expertise, judgement and relationships stay with your people.

Put AI to work — safely

Start with a fixed-fee AI Readiness Audit and get a clear, honest plan — and the licences you actually need.

See AI Adoption as a Service Call 0161 738 1399