16 Locust Partners builds AI-forward universities, AI-ready graduates, and AI-capable businesses — in the same ecosystem, at the same time.
Most AI consultancies pick a lane: enterprise or SMB, training or strategy, higher ed or corporate. We built a different architecture — one where the three constituencies we serve make each other stronger.
The university produces graduates. The Academy makes them job-ready. The SMB hires them and engages us for advisory. Their success stories go back to the university as proof of outcomes. The flywheel turns.
We deliver the AI Forward Assessment & Roadmap — a structured engagement that gives university leadership an honest picture of where they stand, a governance framework, and a phased 365-day plan to get ahead. The university becomes a regional hub for AI innovation. Students have a reason to choose it. Donors have a reason to fund it.
Assessment & Roadmap →A 12-week, hybrid AI Engineering Academy. Tuition-free to students — underwritten by corporate sponsors. In the final module, cohort members deliver supervised consulting sprints for real SMB clients. They graduate with AWS/GCP certifications, a live portfolio, and a client reference. Not a bootcamp. A career launch.
The Academy →AI is passing most businesses by — not because they don't want it, but because the services built for enterprise don't translate to their world. We assess, advise, and implement. We place Academy graduates at client sites. And we do it at a price point that makes sense for a $10M business, not just a $10B one.
SMB Services →Every engagement — regardless of which constituency — connects back to the flywheel. A university engagement surfaces SMB clients. An Academy cohort produces placement candidates. An SMB assessment generates the next sponsor conversation.
A 2-hour executive session with your leadership team. Honest assessment of where you stand. No slides selling you tools. Just a clear-eyed view of what AI means for your institution — and what it will cost to wait.
A 30–90 day structured engagement producing a full institutional AI readiness picture, governance framework, and a phased 365-day transformation roadmap. Designed to survive faculty governance and a board presentation.
Assessment clients have a natural pathway into the Academy — their graduating students become the first cohort candidates. The university becomes a co-applicant on workforce development grants that fund the engagement. We help you find the money that pays for the work.
Start with a Workshop →Four modules. Two breakpoint reviews. One capstone engagement with a real SMB client. Tuition-free to participants — program costs underwritten by corporate sponsors who get preferred access to the graduating cohort.
In Module 4, cohort members deliver supervised consulting sprints for real SMB clients — scoped and managed by 16LP. Law schools and business schools have used clinic models for decades. Nobody has applied it to AI engineering talent at SMB scale. We're first.
Corporate sponsors underwrite cohorts at $50,000–$75,000 per sponsor in a multi-sponsor model. In return: preferred interview access to all graduates, branded capstone project, and co-marketing. Target sponsors: regional mid-market employers with active AI talent gaps — not Fortune 50 companies who don't need the pipeline.
Become a Sponsor →We assess your business — not your tech stack. We look at how AI is already affecting your sector, what your competitors are doing, and where you are most exposed and most opportunistic. You get a clear roadmap, not a vendor recommendation.
Most SMBs don't need a full-time Chief AI Officer. They need someone who shows up, knows what they're doing, holds the team accountable, and keeps the work moving. That's the fractional model — the expertise of a senior AI practitioner at a fraction of the cost.
Academy graduates who completed a supervised capstone engagement with your business are the most natural hire you'll ever make. They already know your problems. They've already delivered value. Placement gives you vetted, job-ready AI talent — without competing against enterprise salaries.
When you're ready to build — not just plan — we deploy. AI workflow automation, agentic process design, data pipeline construction, and LLM-powered tooling. Scoped tightly, delivered on time, priced for your scale.
The core pitch: AI is passing your competitors right now. We will tell you exactly what it means for your business, build the plan to respond, and give you access to the talent to execute it — at a price point built for your scale. Start with the assessment. Everything else follows from there.
Request an Assessment →We are in active engagement with our anchor university partner and initial SMB clients. Case studies publish here as engagements conclude. Check back shortly.
16 Locust Partners LLC is a Delaware-registered consulting and services firm. We were founded on a straightforward premise: the firms best positioned to help universities and businesses navigate the AI transition are the ones that have actually built and deployed AI systems at scale — and who have run the training programs that produce the practitioners who do the work.
Our model is integrated by design. The university engagement, the Academy, and the SMB practice are not separate offerings under one roof — they are a single closed-loop system that creates compounding value for every client we serve.
We start with a conversation — no commitment, no vendor agenda. For universities: a 2-hour AI Readiness Workshop that costs less than one student's tuition. For SMBs: a scoped AI assessment that tells you exactly where you stand and what to do about it. Either way, you leave with something actionable.