IK ConsultingIK ConsultingILLAN KNAFOU
FRLet’s talk production

IK CONSULTING / PRODUCTION AI

The PoC is done.
Let’s make
it scale.

Your agent, RAG system or LLM application now has to hold up with real users. My specialty: turning it into a reliable, observable system your team can operate in production.

Try the AI Let’s talk production
Illan Knafou AI Engineer & Builder
INTELLIGENCE / IN MOTION
An intent.
A reliable action.
Say it out loud.MOVE THROUGH THE SPHERE
AGENTS / RAG / LLMOPSEXPLORE THE PLAYGROUND ↓PARIS ↔ EVERYWHERE
FROM ENGINEERING TO PRODUCTIK Consulting Independent consulting
BACKGROUNDÉcole PolytechniqueTélécom ParisHEC Paris

THE AI PLAYGROUND

Fewer slides.
More interaction.

Give the assistant a real problem, try a voice conversation or put an architecture under pressure. Three ways to explore what happens behind the interface.

IK / ASSISTANT
IK / AI

Hello! Describe your system and what is blocking production. I can help you identify the first things to check.

Sending a message shares it with Vercel AI Gateway and Google to generate the answer. Do not include confidential data.

AN INTERFACE IS THE START. RELIABILITY IS BUILT BEHIND IT.Let’s build yours

THE REAL WORK STARTS AFTER THE POC

The demo made the case.
Production has to hold up.

01

Your agent acts. With what safeguards?

Duplicate actions, excessive permissions, unavailable APIs. I define access, approvals and recovery paths to keep execution under control.

02

Your RAG answers. Can users trust it?

A plausible answer is not enough. I work on retrieval, citations, document permissions and evaluations based on your real cases.

03

Your product works. Until traffic spikes.

Latency, API limits and inference bills. I tackle bottlenecks and instrument the system before rolling it out more broadly.

01 / INTERVENTIONS

The expertise between
“it works” and “it’s in production”.

I assess the existing system, then implement.
A clear scope. Verifiable acceptance criteria.

01 / INDUSTRIALIZE

PoC to Production

Your prototype becomes an operable system.

I take over your code, identify blockers and build the path to deployment: evaluations, access control, integrations, error handling and monitoring.

Architecture & codeEvaluationsDeployment
Scope defined after technical review
02 / CONTROL EXECUTION

Reliable Agents & RAG

Grounded answers. Controlled actions.

Hybrid search, citations, tool calling, permissions, human approvals and error recovery. I harden the links that break in real use.

RAG & retrievalMCP & toolsAction controls
Focused work on critical components
03 / SCALE

Performance & LLMOps

More usage. Controlled costs and latency.

I identify where tokens and time go. Then optimize calls, models, caching and processing, with measurements before and after each change.

Cost per taskp95 latencyObservability
Objectives and measurements agreed upfront
04 / TAKE OWNERSHIP

Fractional AI Engineering Lead

One technical lead. The right specialists.

I provide senior technical leadership on an agreed scope. Depending on the engagement, I bring in infrastructure, security, data or product experts and coordinate their work.

Technical leadershipSpecialist supportWhite-label
Scope and availability agreed together

Agency or consultancy: you own the client relationship. I lead production delivery and bring in the technical expertise required, including white-label work.

WHERE I STEP IN

Specific problems.
Engineering decisions.

Select a topic to see what I take ownership of.

YOUR STARTING POINT

What do you already
have in place?

Check the areas your team has already verified. The remaining topics give us a concrete starting point.

Topics to review together
  • Business evaluations
  • Permissions & approvals
  • Traces & alerts
  • Failure handling
  • Load & cost

This prepares the conversation; it does not replace a system review.

Topics to review together

02 / EXPERIENCE

Hands-on practice.
Clearly scoped engagements.

Independent consulting and personal products: two ways to design, build and ship.

INDEPENDENT CONSULTING

Focused scope.
Hands-on delivery.

IK Consulting is my independent practice, alongside my employed role. We agree on scope, pace and deliverables that fit your needs and my availability.

  • One technical point of contact: me
  • Additional specialists when the engagement needs them
  • Clear commitments agreed before we begin
Discuss the scope
INDEPENDENT PRODUCTSiOS / APP STORE
IdeaDesignCodeRelease

INDIE BUILDING · MOBILE

From idea to App Store.

I also design, develop and publish my own mobile apps and games. From the first screen to distribution, I handle the entire product cycle.

Independent builder
Your next product could start here.Let’s discuss it

IK CONSULTING / EXPERTISE ON DEMAND

I own the engagement.
I bring in the right expertise.

You keep one accountable technical lead. Depending on the scope, I bring in specialists for the areas that need them.

AI engineering

I own architecture, agents, RAG, evaluations and technical decisions.

Infrastructure & cloud

When needed, a specialist contributes to deployments, load and operations.

Security & data

I bring in the expertise needed for permissions, governance and data flows.

Product & interface

Depending on the engagement, specialists help make the system truly usable for your team.

03 / PROCESS

Observe. Harden.
Deploy. Measure.

We define how to verify
that the system is ready.

01

Diagnose

I review your code and traces. We identify critical cases, constraints and failures to reproduce.

Deliverable: risks & priorities
02

Set the criteria

Expected quality, access rights, acceptable latency and costs. We agree on tests that gate deployment.

Deliverable: acceptance criteria
03

Industrialize

I implement fixes and integrations. Business scenarios, errors and permissions are tested at each iteration.

Deliverable: evaluated system
04

Deploy & hand over

Progressive rollout, alerts, documentation and rollback. Your team knows what to watch and how to respond.

Deliverable: operations & handover

Source code, access and handover are agreed from the start.

TOOLS, NOT DOGMAS

Models change.
Good engineering principles last.

I choose the stack based on the problem, your constraints and your team.

PythonTypeScriptSwiftOpenAIAnthropicGeminiLangGraphMCPRAGAPIsCloudLLM evals
IK CONSULTING / PRODUCTION AI
Illan KnafouBuilt to work. Ready to scale.
Based in Paris · Working remotely

04 / ABOUT

Illan Knafou.
AI engineer. Delivery owner.

My focus is the moment AI needs to leave the demo and become a product people use daily. When someone has to decide what can be automated, what needs approval and what must be measured.

IK Consulting is my independent consulting practice, alongside my employed role. I select clearly scoped engagements, with availability and a working pace agreed together from the outset.

I stay personally involved in technical decisions and delivery. When the scope calls for it, I bring in complementary infrastructure, security, data or product specialists.

My background on LinkedIn
Production AImy specialty
One point of contactspecialists as needed
EDUCATION
École PolytechniqueInnovation & entrepreneurship
Télécom ParisArtificial intelligence
HEC ParisGrande École programme

GOOD QUESTIONS

Before we begin.

Do you still build PoCs?
My core work is production deployment and scaling. I may isolate an experiment to resolve technical uncertainty, but it serves a defined deployment objective.
When should we bring you in?
When your prototype has validated a use case but reliability, integrations, permissions or performance are blocking deployment. I also work on live products with quality or load issues.
Do you work alone or with a team?
I remain your main point of contact and technical owner. Depending on scope, I bring in complementary infrastructure, security, data or product specialists. Their roles and contributions are defined in the proposal.
Can you work with our existing code?
Yes. I start from your architecture, tooling and constraints. The initial review identifies what can be kept, improved or replaced.
How do we know the system is ready?
We agree on appropriate acceptance criteria: business-case quality, error behavior, permissions, latency and cost. Evaluations and a progressive rollout verify those criteria.
How are budget and timeline defined?
After an initial context review, I propose a clear intervention and deliverables. Budget, timeline, dependencies and any specialist contributions are agreed before work begins.
What does our team receive?
Code for the agreed scope, evaluations, deployment assets and operating documentation. Handover covers what to monitor and recovery procedures. Ongoing support can be scoped separately.
Do you work remotely and white-label?
Yes. I work remotely in French or English, within your team or for an agency’s or consultancy’s clients. Responsibilities and confidentiality are agreed upfront.
How does your availability work?
I run IK Consulting independently alongside my employment. Before starting, we agree on scope, a working pace and check-ins. I do not promise around-the-clock availability.

30 MINUTES TO GET CLARITY

A system that
needs to scale?

Choose a time to discuss where you stand: architecture, constraints, answer quality or production rollout.

◷ 30 minMeeting details in your confirmation
  1. 01Your system and its users
  2. 02The main friction point
  3. 03The next technical step
IK Consulting
Illan KnafouIK Consulting · Production AI
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YOUR NEXT PRODUCTION MILESTONE

Let’s find what’s
blocking your next stage.

Show me your system, its users and its friction points. We identify what should be tackled first.

Message me on LinkedIn

30 minutes · Remote · Technical conversation

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