About
A small studio for the careful end of AI.
Hyena Industries is an independent consultancy and research studio working with companies on AI strategy, governance, and original systems. We’re based in the United Kingdom and we work with a small handful of clients at a time.
Why we exist.
Most of the AI conversations happening inside companies right now aren’t focused. They’re reactive. Driven by the a need to use AI, by vendor pitches, by the worry that everyone else is doing something and they’ll be left behind if they dont act now. The result is a lot of expensive deployments that don’t hold up in production.
Hyena Industries exists for the other end of that conversation. The leaders who want a clear, vendor-neutral view of where AI actually belongs in their business, the systems to back it up, and a digital surface that does the work justice.
The work we take on is limited by what we can do well, not by what we can sell. Engagements are run by the people doing the work. The advice is opinionated and the deliverables are written by hand.
What we believe
- AI is a tool, not a category.
- Every decision should come back to whether it adds real business value & benefits. If the answer isn’t obvious, the right move is usually to wait.
- Governance belongs in the build.
- Cost, privacy, security, and oversight don’t get bolted on after the demo lands. They’re part of the scope from day one. They’re also what decide whether the system survives in production.
- focused models, small teams, small surface area.
- Where it’s viable, we prefer systems you can run, audit, and reason about end to end. It’s usually the cheaper answer and almost always the safer one.
- We’ll tell you not to do it.
- Recommending against an AI investment is part of the job. It’s how clients keep trusting us with the next one.
Founder
Owen
Founder, lead consultant, ML Engineer.
I started Hyena Industries out of a genuine love for AI & innovation. Companies were asking for help with AI without anyone in the room willing to push back on whether they should be doing it in the first place. My background is in AI-driven systems for the British Army and other companies, where overstating what a system can do isn’t a marketing problem. That perspective shapes how i approach every engagement.
Outside of consultancy work, I run the studio’s research line. Memory architectures, embodied AI, local inference. The R&D and the client work feed each other: what we recommend, we’ve already built.
Adjacent interests
- AI systems
- Robotics
- Local-first software
- Open source
- Community platforms
- Digital art