Selling Your Expertise Online: A Paid AI Knowledge Base for Consultants, Solicitors and Accountants
If you want to sell expertise online with AI without adding more billable hours, the most practical format is a paid knowledge base: you upload the reusable part of your know-how (guides, checklists, method notes, course material you wrote), an AI answers questions from it with the passages cited, and each question is paid. Most of the effort is editorial rather than technical: picking the right documents, keeping client files and third-party content out, choosing a price per question and updating the material. This guide covers each step for consultants, solicitors, accountants and trainers working in the UK.
Why productising your know-how makes sense
Every consultancy has a set of questions it answers again and again: how a process works, what a deadline is, which form applies, where the template sits. You already wrote those answers, in a training pack, a client briefing or an internal wiki. A knowledge base lets people query that material directly, at any hour, and a pay-per-question model means the time you invested in writing it is rewarded each time it is used.
Technically, this relies on retrieval-augmented generation: the system finds the relevant passages in your documents, writes the answer from them only and shows them as sources. Because the answer is grounded and checkable, it carries far less risk than a general chatbot improvising from memory; our guide to reducing AI hallucinations explains why. If the concept is new to you, RAG as a service gives a short overview.
A paid base does not replace your retainers. It sits below your cheapest service, as a self-serve tier for small businesses, students or individuals who need general, documented answers. Some of them will later need tailored advice, and they will know where to find you.
What to include, profession by profession
Narrow beats broad. A base on one recurring problem (VAT for new online sellers, preparing for a disciplinary hearing, running a supplier audit) answers precisely and is easy to describe. Start where you get the most repetitive questions.
Management consultants
- Your frameworks written out in full sentences: purpose of each step, questions to ask, typical mistakes.
- Diagnostic checklists and scoring grids, with guidance on interpreting each result.
- Method notes for recurring assignments: process mapping, procurement reviews, post-merger integration plans.
- Lessons learned, rewritten as general guidance with nothing that could point to a specific organisation.
Solicitors and barristers
Aim for general legal information: know-how notes you authored, plain-English guides you already publish for clients, annotated checklists (for instance, what a landlord must provide at the start of a tenancy), and public legislation and guidance you are allowed to reuse. Make clear on the base page that answers are general information, not legal advice on the reader's situation, and that they do not create a solicitor-client relationship. If you are SRA-regulated, the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors still governs confidentiality and how you describe your services.
Accountants and tax advisers
Accounting and tax content suits a question-and-answer format very well: filing calendars, guides to Making Tax Digital, notes on sole trader versus limited company, year-end checklists with references to the HMRC manual or notice they rely on. Date every document and state the tax year it covers, because figures and thresholds change. The confidentiality principle in your professional body's code of ethics (ICAEW, ACCA, CIOT or ATT) applies to anything derived from client work.
Trainers
Trainers usually have the most usable material: delegate handbooks, exercises, glossaries, transcripts of your own talks, years of collected FAQs. A base built on a course becomes a revision tool for past delegates or a taster for prospective ones. Check the contracts first: content commissioned by a corporate client may have been assigned to them.
What must stay out
A public base is read by people you have never met. Treat every file as if you were publishing it on your website.
Sorting your documents
| Document | Include? | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Guides, checklists and notes you wrote | Yes | Your own work, your own rights |
| Legislation and gov.uk guidance | Usually yes | Much of it is Crown copyright published under the Open Government Licence; check the terms and attribution |
| Client advice, letters, files | No | Confidentiality duties, and often client ownership |
| Anonymised case studies | Only if rewritten | Sector, size and dates can re-identify a client |
| Books, paid reports, other firms' material | No | Protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 |
| Anything containing personal data | No | UK GDPR applies, and you would need a lawful basis to publish it |
The simplest rule: if a document came from a client or was written for one client, leave it out and write the general point again from scratch. For personal data questions, the ICO publishes guidance for small organisations under UK GDPR.
Watch your own back catalogue
Slides with licensed images, a template co-written with a former partner, or reports written while you were employed may not belong to you. Clear the rights before uploading.
Pricing a question
On Kopik, the creator of a public base sets the price per question and keeps 70 % of it. Set £1 and you keep 70p for every question asked. There is no going rate yet, so reason it through:
- Value of a good answer to the buyer. Saving a sole trader a call to their accountant is worth more than a definition.
- The nearest alternative. An hour of your time, a paid guide, a training module. One question should be a small fraction of that.
- Typical number of questions per visit. If people tend to ask several follow-ups, a lower unit price keeps the total sensible.
- Depth of the material. A specialist, well-sourced base justifies more than a general introduction.
- Room to adjust. Start modestly, watch the questions coming in and revise.
Avoid budgeting on an assumed volume of questions. Demand for a new base is unknown until it is live, so treat the first months as a test.
Getting the base noticed
The catalogue brings some visitors who search the topic, but your existing network converts best:
- Link it from your website, your email signature and your service pages.
- Point delegates to it at the end of each training session for follow-up questions.
- Share a real question and its cited answer in a LinkedIn post or newsletter.
- Write a precise description: who it is for, what it covers and does not cover, and when it was last updated.
- Choose example questions that show depth rather than the obvious ones.
Kopik bases are also available through an API and an MCP server, so people can query them from assistants such as Claude, Cursor or ChatGPT; our guide on giving Claude access to company documents shows what that looks like in practice.
Keeping it current
- Put a date, a version and the legal or professional standard it reflects on every document.
- Review on a fixed rhythm: quarterly for most topics, around each Budget and new tax year for tax content.
- Replace outdated files instead of adding new ones alongside them; contradictory sources make for muddled answers.
- Keep a handful of test questions with known answers and re-run them after each update.
- Read the questions buyers ask: they reveal the gaps in your material.
You can browse existing public bases to see how other creators describe their scope and sources before writing your own.
Package your know-how in a paid base
Upload your own PDFs, Word documents or notes, choose your price per question and keep 70 % of each one. Creating a base costs nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Is selling a knowledge base the same as giving legal or tax advice?
Not if it is framed and written as general information. Advice applies the law to someone's specific facts. Keep the content general, say so clearly on the base page, and check your regulator's guidance if you are unsure where the line sits for your profession.
What price per question should I set?
There is no standard figure. Compare one good answer with the nearest paid alternative and price well below it. On Kopik you set the price yourself, keep 70 % and can change it later.
Can I reuse gov.uk guidance and legislation?
Much of it is Crown copyright published under the Open Government Licence, which allows reuse with attribution. Check the licence statement on each source, as some content is excluded.
Can I include anonymised client work?
Only after rewriting the general lesson yourself. Removing a name rarely removes every identifying detail, and the engagement letter may give the client rights over the deliverables.
Can I offer the base only to my own clients?
Yes. A Kopik base can be private, accessible only to you and your API keys. Only public bases appear in the catalogue and are paid per question.
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