What First Analytics does

First Analytics is a privately held AI and analytics consulting firm headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, founded in 2009. The firm designs, builds, and deploys AI systems and predictive analytics solutions that operate in production environments for Fortune 500 enterprise clients, with stated focus on moving analytics from prototype to operational systems that deliver measurable productivity gains. Its service portfolio spans custom consulting engagements (proof-of-concept to multi-year strategic projects), flexible analytics resourcing that embeds its practitioners with client data science teams, and a Collaborative Analytics Lab environment for prospective use case testing.

The firm's technical footprint covers predictive analytics, statistical modeling, mathematical optimization, industrial engineering, generative AI, agentic AI, natural language processing, and computer vision. Notable proprietary or co-developed assets include the AI Store Manager Briefing for Restaurants (an agentic AI product for QSR operators launched March 2026), the Sentient Safety subsidiary (launched May 2025 for workplace and public safety analytics), the Gurobi Guru optimization assistant co-developed with Gurobi, and the Railroad Greenhouse Gas Expert plugin for ChatGPT. The firm operates as software-agnostic, maintaining strategic alliances with SAS (Viya implementation partner) and Gurobi (Alliance service partner).

First Analytics generates revenue primarily through project-based professional services engagements and, to a lesser extent, licensing of custom-built analytical routines and AI software products. Pricing is quote-based and engagement-specific, with multi-year contracts common for strategic clients. The firm serves enterprise customers across transportation and railroads, consumer packaged goods and retail (including restaurants), safety-critical industries, healthcare and life sciences, and energy and utilities, with named clients such as Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Walmart, Chick-fil-A, Toyota, International Paper, SoCalGas, Kellanova, Fresenius Kabi, and Boddie-Noell Enterprises. The team is small and highly credentialed, averaging 28 years of analytics career experience with 100% of members holding advanced degrees.

Name

First Analytics

Legal name

First Analytics

Website

https://firstanalytics.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

First Analytics is a private AI and analytics consulting firm that designs and deploys production AI and predictive analytics solutions for Fortune 500 enterprises across transportation, retail and CPG, safety-critical, healthcare, and energy sectors, with a team of about 28 highly credentialed practitioners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Analytics Consulting Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services (BPAEAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data, Analytics & AI Consulting (BPAHAEAF), Industry/Domain Analytics Solutions & Accelerators (BPAEAHAK), Data, Analytics & AI Consulting (BPAHACAI), Enterprise AI Data & Knowledge Platforms (Vector Databases, Knowledge Graphs) (HDAEANAH)

Keywords

• Predictive analytics consulting
• Machine learning solutions
• Data science services
• AI integration services
• Optimization analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Cary

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Professional Services / Consulting: Custom analytics consulting engagements. Projects typically start with a proof of concept (1-3 months), then move to implementation (3-6 months). Longer-term strategic projects iterate and evolve over several years. The company also provides flexible analytics resourcing where they work as adjuncts to client data science teams.
2. Licensable AI Software Products: The company creates custom solutions or applications and has analytical routines or reusable programs in various languages that can be licensed or included in client applications. They are software agnostic but have partnerships with vendors like SAS and Gurobi.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

First Analytics designs, builds, and deploys custom AI systems and predictive analytics solutions for enterprise clients. The firm operates as a professional services organization delivering custom consulting engagements (proofs of concept, implementations, multi-year strategic projects) along with licensable AI software products and reusable analytical routines. Solutions span demand forecasting, safety analytics, mathematical optimization, agentic AI applications, and generative AI integration for Fortune 500 clients.

Product overview

First Analytics operates as an AI innovation firm that delivers advanced analytics and AI-powered solutions. Their portfolio consists of custom AI software products (including licensable routines and custom builds), service offerings (consulting, flexible analytics resourcing, collaborative labs), and specialized AI applications. Key products include: AI Store Manager Briefing for Restaurants (agentic AI for store operations), Sentient Safety (AI for workplace safety), Legal Invoice Automation, Vetting Vendor AI Claims, Gurobi Guru (optimization assistant), and Railroad Greenhouse Gas Expert plugin for ChatGPT. They also offer AI Infusion services to bolt AI capabilities into third-party platforms. The company positions industrial engineering and optimization as the pinnacle of their analytics work, with a Gurobi partnership for mathematical optimization. While primarily a services company, they create custom solutions and have reusable programs that can be licensed.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sentient Safety: A First Analytics company focused on AI applications for workplace and public risk reduction, including predictive safety analytics, generative AI, and agentic AI integration for safety applications.

Products and services

• AI Store Manager Briefing for Restaurants An agentic AI application that monitors daily store performance KPIs and briefs restaurant managers on where to take impactful actions. Built specifically for Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) operators to translate operational data into clear, prioritized actions for store managers.
• Sentient Safety AI and analytics product focused on workplace and public risk reduction. Includes machine vision for equipment monitoring, generative AI for safety regulation interpretation, and agentic AI for safety decision support.
• Predictive Safety Analytics Predictive analytics offering for workplace safety using machine learning to assess accident risk, uncover adverse safety trends, and support safety decision-making. First Analytics co-authored a book on safety analytics in this domain.
• Legal Invoice Automation Custom analytics solution that reduces payments to outside counsel and enables efficient use of legal administration resources.
• Vetting Vendor AI Claims Analysis tool that helps clients evaluate and validate AI claims from vendor pitches, addressing AI hype in vendor presentations and supporting AI procurement decisions.
• Gurobi Guru Interactive AI assistant that helps formulate optimization problems and generates starter code for the Gurobi mathematical optimization solver. Featured at the Gurobi Decision Intelligence Summit.
• Railroad Greenhouse Gas Expert Plugin for ChatGPT Plugin for ChatGPT built from railroad emissions papers and reports. Published to OpenAI's ChatGPT store to help railroaders understand and achieve Science Based Targets for emission reductions.
• Flexible Analytics Resourcing Consulting engagement model that pairs First Analytics team members with client data science teams for project delivery and knowledge transfer.
• Collaborative Analytics Lab Technical environment with pre-installed software stack and First Analytics team access for testing prospective use cases, skunkworks projects, and analytics innovation.
• AI Infusion AI integration services that add AI capabilities as bolt-ons into third-party platforms and embedded or hosted solution development.

Quantifiable outcome

• 0.1% forecast error achieved for restaurant client using SAS Visual Forecasting
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability10 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and notable.

• Sentient SafetyflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2025Sentient Safety is a First Analytics company focused on predictive safety analytics. It was launched in May 2025 and applies AI and analytics for workplace and public risk reduction, including integration of generative and agentic models.
• SAScoreTechnology or IntegrationFirst Analytics is a SAS partner that assists with implementation of SAS Viya analytics platforms. They helped establish test markets for restaurant clients and have co-presented in SAS webinars on AI and safety topics.
• GurobicoreTechnology or IntegrationFirst Analytics joined the Gurobi Alliance as a service partner. They use Gurobi Optimizer as part of their optimization solutions and have developed the Gurobi Guru interactive AI assistant for optimization problem formulation.
• L.B. Foster Rail TechnologiesnotableStrategic or Co-development PartnerFirst Analytics and L.B. Foster co-present at industry conferences on fuel savings and GHG reduction analytics for railroads. They presented together at Rail Research Week on validating heavy haul fuel savings with statistical analysis.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Latentview Analytics: Latentview is an AI and analytics consulting firm offering predictive modeling, forecasting, and decision-science solutions to global enterprises, comparable in size and service orientation to First Analytics and competing for similar CPG/retail/financial services engagements.
• AbsolutData: AbsolutData is an AI and analytics services company providing predictive modeling, customer analytics, and marketing optimization to enterprise clients in CPG and retail — directly comparable in service offering and vertical mix.
• Mu Sigma: Mu Sigma is one of the largest pure-play decision sciences and analytics services firms, serving Fortune 500 clients with custom predictive modeling and data science delivery — a comparable services-led AI/analytics competitor.
• Tredence: Tredence is an AI/analytics services firm focused on delivering production-grade data science and ML solutions to enterprises in CPG, retail, and industrials. It competes for the same Fortune 500 analytics engagements and shares a similar delivery-first positioning.
• Fractal Analytics: Fractal Analytics is a global AI/analytics services firm delivering predictive analytics, forecasting, and decision intelligence to Fortune 500 enterprises across CPG, retail, healthcare, and financial services — a close peer in service model and client base.
• Tiger Analytics: Tiger Analytics is a pure-play AI and analytics consulting firm that designs and deploys data science solutions for Fortune 500 clients, closely mirroring First Analytics' service model, vertical focus (CPG, retail, transportation), and emphasis on operationalization rather than experimentation.

Broad incumbents

• ZS Associates: ZS Associates is a large professional services firm with deep analytics and AI capabilities focused on pharma, healthcare, consumer goods, and industrials — a broader incumbent that overlaps with First Analytics' analytics delivery model in healthcare/life sciences and CPG.
• Slalom Consulting: Slalom is a large, US-based consulting firm with a dedicated AI/analytics practice serving enterprise clients across many of the same verticals as First Analytics (retail, transportation, healthcare). It is a broad incumbent offering overlapping analytics and AI delivery capabilities at greater scale.

Others

• SAS Institute: SAS Institute is First Analytics' technology partner and the underlying analytics platform on which many of its implementations run (e.g., SAS Viya for Boddie-Noell). It is adjacent/enabling rather than a direct competitor in services, but its roadmap directly affects First Analytics' delivery capabilities.

Emerging players

• DataRobot: DataRobot is an enterprise AI platform vendor that overlaps with First Analytics' predictive analytics and ML deployment services. While DataRobot sells a software platform rather than services, it competes for the same operationalization-of-AI budgets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/firstanalytics
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/first-analytics

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about First Analytics