The Practice
Ashford & Sterling is an independent AI consultancy founded in 2025. We serve private companies, public-sector institutions and regulated organisations that need AI solutions respecting their data, their jurisdictions and their executive standards.
We are not a traditional consultancy and not a generalist agency. We operate as a network of senior independent consultants — based across the Côte d'Azur, Paris, Lyon and London.
Each engagement is staffed by a small team selected for the specific mandate. We work across the leading AI models — choosing the right one for each client's sovereignty and compliance needs — and deploy on-premise or on European sovereign clouds.
What we deliver is not volume. It is senior-grade AI consultancy, with the care, discretion and seniority that executive teams expect.
Our Expert Network
Our network is made of senior independent consultants — each selected for technical mastery, sector expertise and the ability to speak with C-level executives. We do not source from open marketplaces. Every member signs a framework agreement that protects our clients.
Below is a representative view of the profiles that make up the practice. Names remain confidential and are shared only under non-disclosure agreement.
15–20 years architecting AI and digital systems for regulated environments. Builds production AI architectures that use a company's own knowledge (RAG) — with workflow automation (n8n), sovereign LLMs (local and API) and AI agents — under GDPR, NIS2 and healthcare-data (HDS) hosting constraints. Based between Nice, Monaco and Sophia Antipolis.
Ph.D. in Information Systems, Université Côte d'Azur. Adapts AI models to each client's data and deploys them on-premise or on European sovereign clouds. Proven track record in banking, healthcare and industrial use cases with strict regulatory constraints.
Eight years in regulatory compliance, with a Big-Four background. Reference expert on the EU AI Act and GDPR. Builds the documentation, impact assessments and audit registers required when AI is deployed in regulated industries.
Twelve years in enterprise cybersecurity. Ensures AI deployments meet European security standards (SecNumCloud, NIS2, DORA) — whether the AI runs on the client's servers or on a sovereign cloud. Banking and public-sector experience.
Thirty years across hardware, cybersecurity, software and internet sectors — international ventures, several corporate turnarounds, transformations of listed entities, and multi-country operational launches across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Board-level interlocutor for executive committees and investment funds.
Ten years building reliable data pipelines for regulated industries — healthcare, banking, insurance. Designs the infrastructure that keeps AI systems running, secure and observable in production. Based on the Côte d'Azur.
10–15 years in search engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation (GEO). Designs strategies that make organisations findable — and citable — across Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Mistral. Expert in schema.org structured data, llms.txt, AI-crawler access (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Claude) and E-E-A-T signals.
Senior UX/UI designer specialised in design systems built for the AI era — minimalist, conversion-focused interfaces (Figma) that perform for both human readers and AI crawlers. Fast, responsive design-to-code across enterprise contexts.
Senior developer across modern web stacks (React, Next.js, Astro, TypeScript) and back-end (Node, Python, MongoDB). Builds AI-native applications with embedded AI, custom APIs, retrieval-augmented frontends and document-intelligence interfaces. Strong on accessibility and performance.
C-level advisor with two decades of board-level dialogue across regulated industries. Translates AI capabilities into executive decisions, transformation roadmaps and operational priorities for executive committees.
Senior editorial expert producing E-E-A-T grade content for demanding brands — white papers, thought leadership, AI-optimised knowledge architecture. Long-form writing built for both human readers and AI discovery.
Senior consultant orchestrating complex multi-expert engagements — end-to-end project steering, steering committees (COPIL), multi-vendor coordination and risk management. Coordinates the network on client missions, ensuring milestones, quality and discretion from kick-off to handover.
Four Convictions
Every engagement is structured around European data sovereignty, on-premise or sovereign-cloud options, and regulatory perimeters that match the institution we serve. Sovereignty is not a slogan; it is the architecture.
We are an independent practice. We choose the right AI model for each project — whether sovereign or open-source — based on your sovereignty, performance and cost requirements. No vendor lock-in. Your interests come first.
EU AI Act, GDPR, healthcare data hosting (HDS), banking resilience (DORA), cyber regulation (NIS2), sovereign cloud (SecNumCloud). Our compliance officers join the team from day one. The documentation we produce meets the standards of an audit committee.
Our engagements are designed for boards, executive committees and audit committees. Clear scores, prioritised actions, measurable outcomes. Intelligence that informs strategic decision-making — not a hand-off document.
Where We Operate
Legal seat — International
EU Markets & Public Sector
Rhône-Alpes Operations
Nice · Sophia Antipolis · Aix · Marseille
Distributed Coordination — EU Wide
Considering an AI engagement that requires sovereignty, discretion and rigor?