Hedgehog lab acquires Label Sessions to speed AI product delivery
Digital product consultancy hedgehog lab has acquired Edinburgh-based Label Sessions, bringing strategy, expert advisory services, and product delivery under one roof. The combined group covers early-stage innovation, AI-focused product development, and scaled delivery. All roles from both companies move into the enlarged business.
For product teams, this means one partner from problem framing to production-grade AI products-plus access to a global network of more than 500 experts for on-demand insight and decision support.
Why this matters for product teams
Most AI initiatives stall between the pilot and scale. This deal closes that gap by pairing experienced discovery and strategy with proven engineering and delivery. Expect faster validation, cleaner handoffs, and fewer dead ends.
The firm will focus on finance, travel, retail, and technology, with a broader advisory bench and deeper build capacity. The goal: move from ideas to shipped, scalable products with clear commercial outcomes.
What the combined firm offers
- End-to-end pipeline: concept, pilot, scale-without switching vendors midstream.
- Expert network: 500+ senior practitioners and board-level advisers embedded into strategy and execution.
- AI product delivery: design, engineering, data, and MLOps in one place.
- Expanded footprint: UK (Newcastle HQ, London, Leeds, Edinburgh) and Sofia, with more international work planned.
- Credibility with complex brands: past work includes Deliveroo, Under Armour, Aviva, AJ Bell, Google, Mastercard, and Lululemon.
Leadership signals
hedgehog lab's leadership says the move broadens reach and adds a global expert bench to complement delivery teams, creating new growth paths for clients and staff. Label Sessions' founders frame the partnership as working "side-by-side" with senior leaders to move big ideas to market faster-combining on-demand expertise with engineering that ships.
Company snapshot
hedgehog lab, backed by BGF since 2023, specializes in AI delivery and digital product design and development. The consultancy has operated for nearly two decades and reported its strongest quarter earlier this year, reflecting rising demand for AI-driven products across industries.
Label Sessions, launched in 2023, connects corporate innovation teams with experienced practitioners and strategists across Europe, North America, and Africa. Its structured innovation methodology and expert network integrate directly into discovery and strategy work.
What to do if you're shipping AI products in 2026
- Start with a sharp business case: define the decision, KPI, and payback window before touching models.
- Bring experts in early: use targeted sessions with domain specialists to pressure-test assumptions and de-risk data, legal, and operational blind spots.
- Set governance baselines: align to an AI risk framework for model risk, bias, security, and auditability (see the NIST AI RMF).
- Fix the data path: inventory sources, secure access, define quality rules, and design feedback loops for continuous improvement.
- Right-size the build: choose fine-tune, retrieval-augmented generation, or custom models based on latency, cost, and IP constraints. Avoid defaulting to the most complex option.
- Pilot for scale: design the pilot with production in mind-telemetry, human-in-the-loop, fallbacks, rollout criteria, and decommission plans.
- Plan MLOps early: CI/CD for models, versioning, evals, drift monitoring, and cost controls. Treat model updates like product releases.
- Resource smartly: blend product, data science, engineering, and design. Make one leader accountable for outcomes.
- Measure ROI weekly: tie feature usage to cost and value. Kill what doesn't move the KPI.
Expected impact
Clients should see tighter strategy-to-build alignment, faster decision cycles using the expert network, and clearer paths from pilot to production. The enlarged group also expects more international engagements and a stronger advisory layer on top of established delivery work.
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