# element61 vs In The Pocket

> Two top-rated AI Consulting agencies in Ghent. Side by side: published rates, team size, service and industry coverage, and the curator's assessment of both — pairings are never sold.

Canonical page: https://www.aiagencies.eu/compare/element61-vs-in-the-pocket
Generated: 2026-09-17 · Curated by Gabor Kiss · No paid placements — inclusion, score, and rank are never sold.

## Facts
| | element61 | In The Pocket |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 65.8/100 | 65.8/100 |
| Hourly rate | not published | not published |
| Team size | 50-249 | 250+ |
| Location | Ghent, Belgium | Ghent, Belgium |
| Founded | 2007 | 2010 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-07 |
| Services | AI Consulting, AI Development, Generative AI | AI Development, Generative AI, AI Consulting |
| Industries | FinTech, Manufacturing, Public Sector | FinTech, Public Sector, Manufacturing |

## Our take on element61
Reviewed 2026-09-10 by Gabor Kiss against published evidence.

This is a large analytics consultancy with an AI practice inside it, and the firm publishes the numbers most agencies leave out: more than 145 consultants averaging nine years of experience, over €28 million of 2025 revenue, individual consultant CVs on the site, and group ownership under Moore Belgium since 2016.

The AI delivery evidence is narrower than that footprint suggests but it is real and dated. At the roofing and cladding company Modde, machine-learning models rank prospects, predict which orders convert to invoices and segment customers, surfaced to sales representatives through a Qlik app with write-back over Databricks, live since March 2025.

What those write-ups do not carry is an outcome figure, so you will be judging approach and staffing rather than measured effect.

Best for Belgian enterprises and public bodies that want AI built into an existing reporting and performance-management estate by a consultancy their finance function will recognize.

### Key strengths
- Verifiable at an unusual level for this category: published headcount, average consultant experience, annual revenue and named CV pages for individual consultants
- Vendor coverage spans IBM, Microsoft, Databricks, SAP, CCH Tagetik, Vena and Qlik, so an architecture recommendation is not forced by a single partnership
- The Modde build shows AI landing where the business already works—models feeding a reporting app with write-back, rather than a separate tool nobody opens

### Good to know
- The published project library is dominated by business intelligence and performance management; ask specifically for AI engagements from the last two years and what each one does today
- AI case studies name the technique but not the result—ask what changed commercially at Modde since go-live and who maintains the models now
- Delivery is described as coaching and co-development, so budget for your own people's time; this model assumes your team takes the system over

## Our take on In The Pocket
Reviewed 2026-09-07 by Gabor Kiss against published evidence.

The AI work is named and dated: Penny, an assistant handling Bancontact Company's 8,000 monthly support tickets on Azure with OpenAI models, Jira integration and human verification, reported as a 75% cut in response time—and three protocol-consistency tools built for cancer research organization EORTC in 2026, tested on live protocols and handed to EORTC's own environment.

Client staff are quoted by name and role in both, and the older SD Worx mail classifier is published with its accuracy stated at three-quarters rather than rounded up.

The caveat is proportion—AI is one line inside a 200-person product studio whose published work is mostly apps, platforms and augmented reality, so ask how many people on your team have shipped a language-model system.

The weaker fit is buyers who want a specialist ML shop or a model built from scratch; this is product delivery with AI inside it.

### Key strengths
- Named clients with named client-side staff quoted, across banking (KBC, Bancontact Company), HR services (SD Worx) and semiconductors (Melexis)
- The EORTC write-up states what was deliberately left out of scope and that the tools stayed human-in-the-loop in a regulated clinical setting
- Runs its own internal AI platform on Open WebUI across GPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral with per-use cost control, at 4,500 requests a week

### Good to know
- AI is a minority of the published portfolio—ask for the AI team specifically and their last three language-model deliveries, not the studio's overall case list
- EORTC is described as a validated pilot handed over for integration, not a system In The Pocket operates—clarify who runs and maintains what you commission
- No rates published and delivery spans five offices including Bucharest—confirm the blend, the location of your team and the day rate before scoping

## Which to choose
Choose element61 for:
- closer collaboration at a smaller team scale
- an overall editorial score of 65.8/100

Choose In The Pocket for:
- larger team capacity for multi-stream or enterprise-scale programs
- an overall editorial score of 65.8/100

## Questions buyers ask

### Which has more FinTech experience, element61 or In The Pocket?
Both agencies show documented FinTech work and have similar industry breadth. Compare directly on the agency profiles: element61 and In The Pocket.

### Which scores higher overall, element61 or In The Pocket?
Both score equally well overall (65.8/100). The deciding factor is specialization — see the editorial quotes and Strengths sections above. Full methodology.

### When should I consider both element61 and In The Pocket?
Consider running parallel discovery briefs with element61 and In The Pocket if your project spans multiple workstreams, you want competitive proposals to compare scope and approach, or you're undecided between the specialization angles each brings (see the Best for cards above). Most engagements ultimately go with one — but the parallel-brief phase is a low-cost way to validate fit.

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Source: AIAgencies.eu — the curated register of European AI agencies. Rate provenance: "agency-confirmed" = disclosed via submission or claimed profile; "directory-listed" = Clutch or two agreeing B2B directories (lone unverified sources are never written). Full method: https://www.aiagencies.eu/methodology · Rate index: https://www.aiagencies.eu/rates