Who is Frontier Economics?
Frontier Economics is a staff-owned economics consultancy founded in 1999. It advises clients across 13 sectors, including energy, financial services, technology, healthcare and transport, with specialisms in competition, regulation, data science, dispute support and public policy.
Frontier Economics has nine offices, in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Dublin, London, Madrid, Paris and Prague.
What was the challenge for Frontier Economics?
AI use at Frontier Economics was uneven. A small group of power users was getting real value, while many colleagues had barely started, and the offices outside London were less engaged.
The firm wanted AI literacy across every team, so every economist could use AI safely in client work. It also wanted a smaller advanced group to test new techniques and inform its choice of tools.
They needed an AI Strategy fit for purpose. Staff were already using AI tools informally, and leadership wanted a clear plan for how AI should support their work over the next 12 months, with priorities, guidance and the right tools in place.
What we delivered
General Purpose has worked with Frontier Economics since October 2023, building up the programme in stages:
- AI Strategy Development: a strategy workshop with the senior management team in September 2025, followed by a 12-month AI roadmap
- Mastering ChatGPT: workshops built around Frontier Economics' own work, delivered in London and then in Berlin, Dublin, Madrid and Paris
- AI Activation Programme: an AI in Action talk for the firm and an AI champions network, launched in March 2026, to keep adoption going after the workshops
- 1:1 AI Coaching: one-to-one calls for power users, applying AI to their own projects
- Agent Builder: a workshop for advanced users on building their own agents, in November 2026
Using custom GPTs is a game changer! By sharing these with the wider group, we'll be even more knowledgeable.
What results did Frontier Economics see?
- After the 2025 Mastering ChatGPT workshops, attendees expect to save 47 minutes each per day using ChatGPT, or 22,584 hours a year.
- That time is worth an estimated £478,676 a year in recovered productivity, a projected 13x return on the training in its first year.
- 98% of 2025 attendees would recommend the training, and 100% feel more confident spotting bias and hallucinations in AI output.
- In the 2026 workshops across Berlin, Dublin, London, Madrid and Paris, 92% would recommend the training.
In my recent drafting work, which took the best part of three days, I would say I saved at least a day's worth of work using ChatGPT.
AI use cases built in the workshops
- Tribunal analysis GPT: drafts and reviews expert analysis for the Competition Appeal Tribunal
- Litigation precedent finder: finds UK competition cases on market definition
- Expert report checker: checks formatting and consistency against the house template
- Tender screener: screens tenders and builds proposal checklists
- Case timeline builder: maps several documents into a competition case timeline
- Security questionnaire skill: drafts answers to client security and data protection questionnaires
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