Nico Lafakis

I’m an AI consultant and developer focused on making AI useful inside real business workflows.

My background sits at the intersection of HubSpot, RevOps, automation, and software development. I’ve spent years working inside the HubSpot ecosystem, including time inside partner agencies, teaching AI through HubSpot Academy, and building tools and integrations that connect AI to the systems teams already use.

Today, most of my work is with HubSpot agencies that have clients asking for AI capability but do not necessarily want to hire a dedicated AI engineer or build an entirely new delivery practice around it. I work as a white-label partner behind the agency, helping scope, design, and build AI agents, workflow automations, integrations, and custom systems while the agency keeps ownership of the client relationship.

I also work directly with operators and teams when there is a concrete workflow worth improving.

My approach is deliberately problem-first. I do not start with “where can we add AI?” I start with how the work happens today, where time or information gets lost, what systems are involved, and what outcome actually matters. Sometimes the right answer is an AI agent. Sometimes it is a conventional automation, a HubSpot configuration change, an integration, better process design, or simply leaving the workflow alone.

The shift to Value-First in my practice means being much more disciplined about that distinction. The technology is secondary to whether the work creates enough value to justify the complexity, cost, maintenance, and behavior change that come with it.

I’m especially interested in the layer between a clever AI demo and a system people can depend on: context, data, integrations, human review, failure states, adoption, documentation, and ownership after launch.

I build a lot of my own software as well, so much of what I share comes directly from shipping and testing these ideas rather than commenting on them from the sidelines.