Hire an AI consultant in Colombo.
I’m Janaka Ediriweera, Principal AI and Product Management Consultant at specshop.dev in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I have spent twelve years building software products — 120+ of them, across Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Australia, Oman and the UAE — and the last nine of those shipping them spec-first. Now I help firms decide what to hand to AI, in what order, and then my team of seven builds and runs it.
The consulting is short on purpose. A thirty-minute call to tell you honestly whether AI is worth your time yet. A workflow mapping sprint when it is. After that the advice turns into agents and engineers with published prices, so you are never paying for a deck.
Three things an AI consultant in Colombo should do for you.
- Tell you which rung you are on. Tools that draft, agents that do the work, or agents that learn from your corrections. Most firms are on the first rung and think they are on the second. The thirty-minute call settles it, free.
- Map the work. The workflow mapping sprint, US$2,300: your three busiest workflows, the staff-hours against each, the order they can hand over safely, and who approves what. You keep the map whether or not you go further.
- Stay on the engagement. I lead every engagement my team takes. When you hire an agent or an embedded engineer, I am the consultant on it, not a name from the sales call.
For engineering leaders, the same applies to product: I trained 150+ startups for RMIT Activator on product management, and the spec-first method my team uses came out of that work. The training programmes →
What to ask before you hire any AI consultant in Colombo.
There are good AI consultants in Sri Lanka, in large firms and working alone. These are the questions I would ask any of them, including me.
| Ask | My answer |
|---|---|
| Have you shipped, or only advised? | 120+ products shipped, most still maintained. The advice comes from delivery, not from a framework. |
| Who does the work after you? | My own team of seven. I stay on the engagement. There is no bench. |
| What does it cost, before we meet? | The call is free. The mapping sprint is US$2,300. Everything after that is a published price on this site. |
| What happens when the AI is wrong? | A person you name approves every output before it reaches a client. The approval rate is the only number I report, and you make it. |
| Will you tell us not to do it? | Yes, and often. If you are not ready, or a cheaper tool would do, the call ends with that advice and nothing to buy. |
Hiring an AI consultant in Colombo: what people ask.
Straight answers, so the call is about your firm.
How much does an AI consultant cost in Sri Lanka?
The first thirty minutes with me are free. The workflow mapping sprint is US$2,300. After that the prices are for agents and engineers, not for consulting: an AI agent from US$1,225 a month, a recruitment fee of US$9,500, and embedded engineers at fixed three, six or twelve month prices. I do not charge a day rate.
What does an AI consultant actually do?
Decides with you which repeatable work can be handed to AI safely, in what order, with which approvals, and what it should cost. Then makes sure the build matches the decision. The second half is the part most consultants skip; my team does it. If you are still building a shortlist, the five questions we would ask on a first call are written down in how to shortlist AI companies in Sri Lanka.
Are you based in Colombo?
Yes, Colombo 5. I meet clients in person in Colombo and work with the rest in their hours. I have also lived and worked in the Netherlands and Australia, and my team serves clients in Muscat and Dubai.
Can you help a small business, not just a tech company?
Most of my clients are small and mid-sized firms: accounting practices, clinics, retailers, agencies. The agent salaries are set so a junior role pays for itself against one member of staff’s time.
Do you do AI strategy for boards and leadership teams?
Yes, as a one-day AI-for-business workshop for owners and leadership, and through the mapping sprint. I keep it tied to work that can be live within weeks, because strategy without a first workflow does not survive contact with the quarter.
What is your background?
Twelve years in software product management and delivery across five countries, 120+ products shipped, 150+ startups trained for RMIT Activator, and founder of specshop.dev and Humanised Technology Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. My full profile is on this site at janaka-ediriweera and on LinkedIn.
Read before you call.
- Before you book the call, it is worth reading what an AI product management consultant actually does, because half the job is the product decision and only half is the automation.
- Before you decide between training your team and buying help, read AI courses in Sri Lanka, which explains the one question that separates the two.
Thirty minutes. I’ll tell you whether this is worth your time.
Tell me the work that wears your team down. I’ll tell you which rung you’re on, what to hand over first — and if the answer is “not yet”, I’ll say so.
Janaka Ediriweera · specshop.dev · XB5/5/3, Edmonton Apartments, Colombo 5, Sri Lanka · +94 76 443 7726 · full profile · LinkedIn.