Your questions, answered.

About the firm

1. What does Alvio do?

Alvio helps organizations put Microsoft Copilot to work: Copilot Studio agents, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Power Platform, deployed in your own tenant with governance built in. Three workshops, guide-first by default: the Copilot Spark Day (Kveikja), the Copilot Sprint (Sprettur) and the Makers Program (Smiðja). Your team ships, we coach. Alvio-led delivery is available on request.

2. Who is Ágúst Björnsson?

Ágúst Björnsson is the principal at Alvio. Twenty-plus years on the Microsoft platform, focused since 2024 on responsible AI deployment. Named on the contract. In the room on day one. Reach him at alvio@alvio.is.

3. What does Alvio NOT do?

Alvio is not a Microsoft cookie-cutter Copilot reseller, not a generic AI consultancy selling strategy decks, and not a body shop billing hours against scope. How we work is set out in full on the About page.

4. What languages does Alvio work in?

English and Icelandic. Deliverables ship in either or both, per your preference. Operating playbooks and meeting decks are kept bilingual where useful.

Workshops

5. How is the Spark Day priced?

The Spark Day is a fixed-price, one-day, on-site engagement. The exact figure is shared on request — email alvio@alvio.is. No starting-from, no asterisks, no discounting.

6. How is a Sprint scoped?

A Copilot Sprint is a fixed-scope engagement sized to the capability you are shipping, rather than a set number of weeks. One Copilot capability live in your tenant, an AI use policy drafted alongside the build, your team trained at three levels, a KPI baseline before go-live and a written measurement report on completion.

7. Does my team build it, or does Alvio?

Guide-first is the default and the point: your named owners build the production capability, the Alvio principal coaches, a weekly working session gates the controls, and your people own the code, the deployment and the operation. If your team lacks the capacity and you want Alvio to write the code instead, we quote that on request — the exception, not the default.

8. Is there ongoing support after a Sprint?

Yes, on request. After a Sprint we can stay on in an advisory rhythm with your executive team: governance reviews against ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST AI RMF, and a standing working session with the owners. It is scoped and quoted as part of a proposal, not sold from the website.

9. What is the Makers Program and when do I need it?

The Makers Program (Smiðja) is four to six weeks, fixed scope, to stand up a governed group of makers who build with Copilot Studio and Power Platform: sanctioned tooling, light governance gates, named maker roles, training at three levels, and a community that keeps going after we leave. You need it when the people who know which workflow to automate do not yet have a safe way to ship it. It is also what makes a guide-first Sprint work at scale.

10. Are engagements fixed scope?

Yes. The Copilot Spark Day, the Copilot Sprint and the Makers Program are all fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagements. Ongoing advisory work after a Sprint is quoted as a fixed monthly figure. We do not bill hours against scope, and we do not erode the price to win the engagement.

11. Do you offer free discovery calls?

No free working sessions. We do offer a 20-minute introductory call to confirm fit and answer questions — alvio@alvio.is to book one. Real work begins after a contract is signed. Free working sessions erode the paid ones; we do not do them.

How Alvio works

12. Does Alvio do AI training?

Not as a standalone product. Training-at-scale is a commodity business. For pure training, we refer to Akademias and GoFlowtics — both excellent. We include training in every Sprint engagement, but training is not the deliverable; the AI capability is.

13. Is Alvio a Microsoft partner?

We are a Microsoft shop by choice. We build on Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Defender for AI and Microsoft Entra, inside your own tenant. We are not a partner-network reseller: we do not sell licenses, and our advice is not tied to a licensing target.

14. Why Microsoft-first?

Because it is where most organizations already work. Your people, documents and identities are in Microsoft 365, so Copilot and Copilot Studio agents can be deployed in weeks rather than months, and the platform's own controls, Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Entra, carry weight with auditors. If your organization is not on Microsoft 365, we will say so early and point you to the right partner instead of forcing a fit.

15. What if my team doesn't have time to build it themselves?

Then Alvio-led delivery is available on request: an Alvio principal plus practitioners embed with your team and write the code, on the same scope and controls. It is priced as an exception and sold only when capacity is the binding constraint — guide-first coaching is the default.

16. How fast can we start?

Spark Day: typically two to four weeks from the introductory call, depending on the senior sponsor's calendar. Sprint: confirmed within a one-hour scoping call after the Spark Day closes; engagement starts within four weeks of contract signature.

17. How is Alvio different from a Big-Four advisor?

Three differences. (1) Senior people in the room: an Alvio principal does the work; we do not staff junior consultants behind a partner brand. (2) Fixed price, shared on request — no daily-rate timesheet. (3) The engagement ships a capability and a named owner, not a roadmap deliverable. Speed, price discipline, and the named-owner rule are structurally different from a Big-Four operating model.

Regulation and responsibility

18. How does Alvio handle the EU AI Act?

EU AI Act obligations are met by default in every engagement. Article 4 (literacy) is closed by the three-tier training we deliver alongside the build. Article 50 (transparency) is configured into the deployed capability through the platform's own disclosure surfaces. ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST AI RMF are the framing for the controls memo and the measurement report.

19. What is EU AI Act Article 4 and how do you meet it?

Article 4 requires that anyone involved in operating or using an AI system has sufficient AI literacy for their role. Every Sprint engagement closes this in one motion through training at three levels — executive, manager, frontline — your-tenant-specific, attendance logged, material handed over. Not a separate workshop, not a poster on the wall.

20. What is EU AI Act Article 50 and how do you meet it?

Article 50 requires that interactions with AI systems are disclosed to the people affected. We configure the platform's own disclosure surfaces — Copilot Studio response labels, Microsoft 365 Copilot citation footers, Microsoft Purview audit logging, content provenance markers. The disclosure pattern lives in the build configuration, not in an operating manual.

21. Do you cover ISO/IEC 42001?

Yes. The Sprint controls memo and our quarterly governance review template map to ISO/IEC 42001 control areas. We do not chase a 42001 certification on your behalf — that is a customer decision — but our artifacts make the certification path materially shorter.

22. What controls do you put in place?

Microsoft Purview for data classification, DLP, sensitivity labels, and audit. Microsoft Defender for AI for threat protection and posture management. Microsoft Entra for identity, conditional access, and service-principal isolation. A drafted AI Acceptable Use policy. A controls memo per deployed capability. All named, all configured, all included.

23. Where can I see Alvio's AI inventory and conformity statement?

Both are published. See the AI inventory and the conformity statement. Updated quarterly. Available as a bundle on request from alvio@alvio.is for legal and procurement teams.

Getting started

24. How do I book a Spark Day?

Email alvio@alvio.is with the names and roles of the executives who will attend, two or three things in your business you suspect AI could change in the next eighteen months, and your preferred date window. Typical time to scheduled day: two to four weeks.

25. Who from my organization needs to attend a Spark Day?

The economic buyer — CEO, COO, CIO, or audit-committee chair — and the user buyer whose team will actually ship (typically a Director of Operations, Head of Customer Service, Head of Risk, or Director of Digital). Both roles must be in the room. If only one is willing to attend, the day is deferred.

26. What if I'm not ready for a full engagement yet?

Take a Spark Day first. One day, on-site, fixed scope. By close of day your team has working prototypes in your tenant and a 90-day plan to take forward. No commitment to a Sprint engagement after — the prototypes are yours either way.