Twenty-seven questions, answered.

// About the firm

1. What does Alvio do?

Alvio is a Responsible AI practice. We put working AI inside organisations on the Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Azure AI Foundry stack, with EU AI Act and ISO/IEC 42001 obligations baked into the build. Three products (Kveikja, Sprettur, Áfram) and one companion (Smiðja). Coaching-led by default; Alvio-led delivery 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 agust@alvio.is.

3. What does Alvio NOT do?

Alvio is not a training provider, not a Microsoft cookie-cutter Copilot reseller, not a generic AI consultancy selling strategy decks, and not a delivery shop billing hours against scope. The refusal list is on the About page and stays there.

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.

// Pricing and offerings

5. How is Kveikja priced?

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

6. How long is a Sprettur engagement?

Twelve calendar weeks, fixed scope. One production AI capability live in your tenant. AI Acceptable Use policy drafted alongside the build. Thirty employees trained at three levels. KPI baseline before go-live; written measurement report at week sixteen.

7. What is the difference between Sprettur-Coach and Sprettur-Deliver?

Sprettur-Coach is the default: your named owners build the production capability, the Alvio principal coaches, your people own the code. Sprettur-Deliver is the premium exception: an Alvio principal plus two practitioners embed in your team and Alvio writes the code. We sell Deliver only when you ask for it.

8. How does Áfram pricing work?

Áfram is a monthly retainer, six-month minimum, evergreen. Two flavours — Steer (advisory only) and Build (advisory plus delivery pod). Exact monthly figures are shared on request.

9. What is the difference between Áfram-Steer and Áfram-Build?

Áfram-Steer is a pure advisory retainer: a fractional Chief AI Officer at 0.15–0.25 FTE, audit-committee partner, quarterly reviews, annual independent audit, 24-hour incident clock. Áfram-Build adds a small Alvio delivery pod that ships one new governed AI capability every month. Steer is the default; Build is the exception.

10. What is Smiðja and when do I need it?

Smiðja is the maker programme — four to six weeks, fixed scope. Sanctioned tooling, light governance gates, named maker roles, training at three levels, a community model. You need it when you have people who know which workflow they want to automate but don't yet have the framework to ship it safely. Smiðja is what makes Sprettur-Coach work.

11. Are engagements fixed scope?

Yes. Kveikja, Sprettur, and Smiðja are all fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagements. Áfram is a monthly retainer with a fixed monthly figure. We do not bill hours against scope, and we do not erode the price to win the engagement.

12. Do you offer free discovery calls?

No free working sessions. We do offer a 20-minute introductory call to confirm fit and answer questions — agust@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

13. Does Alvio do AI training?

No. Alvio is not a training provider. Training-at-scale is a commodity business. For pure training, we refer to Akademias and GoFlowtics — both excellent. We include training in every Sprettur and Áfram engagement, but training is not the deliverable; the AI capability is.

14. Is Alvio a Microsoft partner?

We are Microsoft-fluent in execution and we use Microsoft as our default execution stack — Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Azure AI Foundry, Microsoft Purview, Defender for AI, Microsoft Entra. We are not a partner-network reseller; the strategic posture is vendor-agnostic.

15. Why is Alvio "vendor-agnostic on strategy"?

Because the right stack depends on your business, not on our incentives. Microsoft is the default because most of our customers are already there and the platform's controls carry weight with auditors. If your stack is AWS Bedrock, Vertex, or open-source, we will tell you and refer you to the right partner instead of forcing a fit.

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

That is what Sprettur-Deliver and Áfram-Build exist for. Sold when you ask for it. The premium reflects Alvio doing the build instead of coaching your people through it. Choose Deliver when capacity is the binding constraint, not Coach.

17. How fast can we start?

Kveikja: typically two to four weeks from the introductory call, depending on the senior sponsor's calendar. Sprettur: confirmed within a one-hour scoping call after Kveikja close; engagement starts within four weeks of contract signature. Áfram: contract to first principal session, two weeks.

18. 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 published or 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

19. 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.

20. 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 Sprettur and Áfram 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.

21. 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.

22. Do you cover ISO/IEC 42001?

Yes. The Sprettur controls memo and the Áfram-Steer quarterly 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 artefacts make the certification path materially shorter.

23. 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.

24. 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 agust@alvio.is for legal and procurement teams.

// Getting started

25. How do I book a Kveikja day?

Email agust@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.

26. Who from my organization needs to attend a Kveikja 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.

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

Take Kveikja first. Eight hours, on-site, fixed scope. By close of day your team has working prototypes in your tenant and a 90-day plan signed in the room. No commitment to a Sprettur engagement after — the prototypes are yours either way.