Evidence over hype
Make your technology earn its keep
Training, audits, and working systems that make the AI you already bought actually work — for organizations that run on trust, including newsrooms, universities, public agencies, and businesses.
How We Work
A clear ladder of engagement — start small, see results, then decide what comes next. Every engagement has a fixed scope, a price agreed before work begins, and a deliverable you can hold us to.
Audit & Build
Two weeks to map how your team actually works — then we build what’s missing.
- Inventory of the tools you pay for — and what they actually return
- Written report with a prioritized 90-day plan
- Board-ready AI policies and use guidance your team will actually follow
- Systems built to order: document pipelines, dashboards, search tools, automation
- Delivered on infrastructure you own, with documentation and handoff
Workshops & Training
Hands-on sessions built on curricula Dr. Yousuf developed and teaches at the university level — practiced on your team’s own material, never canned examples.
- Data analysis for teams without programmers
- Writing, research, and verification with AI — responsibly
- Automating the repetitive work that eats your week
- Reusable templates and follow-up office hours
Research & Expert Analysis
Rigorous analysis at scale, for teams and institutions that need results they can defend.
- Text analysis at scale: thousands of documents, transcripts, or survey responses
- Analysis pipelines you keep and reuse on the next project
- Misinformation and synthetic-media assessment, including litigation support
- Commissioned studies and program evaluation — court- and board-ready
Not sure which fits? Tell us what you’re trying to accomplish and we’ll point you to the right starting rung — or tell you honestly that you don’t need us.
What You’ll Hold in Your Hands
An audit isn’t a slide deck and a handshake. Here is how a typical engagement runs, week by week — and exactly what you walk away with.
Week 1
Kickoff & mapping
A working session with leadership, then we map where technology actually touches your work — tools, accounts, workflows, and what you pay for.
Week 2
Staff survey & interviews
A confidential, anonymized staff survey plus one-on-one interviews. Blameless by design: we describe the system, not the individuals.
Week 3
Analysis
Findings are tested against the evidence: usage data, account settings, workflow traces, and what your team told us — not vendor claims.
Week 4
Findings & live readout
A written findings memo with prioritized recommendations, a board-ready AI policy where needed, and a live walkthrough with leadership.
Why Rihlah
Most organizations have adopted new technology. Few have made it work. The difference isn’t the tools — it’s the capability of the people and workflows around them. That is what we build.
Research-Grade Methods
Led by Dr. Mohammad Yousuf — an award-winning professor whose research on misinformation, data analytics, and language technology has been cited more than 600 times and published in the world’s top computer-science venues.
A Journalist’s Skepticism
Eight years in national and international newsrooms taught our founder to verify before he trusts. Every tool — including AI — is held to the standard he learned on the copy desk: nothing is true until it’s verified.
A Builder’s Hands
We don’t stop at advice. We build the workflows, data pipelines, and applications ourselves — full-stack, from analysis to deployment.
A Note on AI
Much of what we teach and build involves AI — and we hold it to a higher standard precisely because we know it well. Our founder researches these systems for a living, publishes on their failures as well as their strengths, and has spent a career — first as a journalist, then as a professor — asking one question: where’s the evidence? That’s the standard your organization deserves before it trusts a machine with its work.
Who We Work With
Any team whose work depends on getting it right. If a wrong answer costs you credibility — with readers, students, citizens, clients, or customers — we speak your language. That includes:
Newsrooms & Media
Sustainability, automation, and audience analytics — built for how newsrooms actually work.
Education & Research
Faculty development, research methods, and teaching innovation — from someone who lives it.
Government & Civic Agencies
Staff capability, public communication, and responsible technology adoption.
Businesses & Nonprofits
From law firms to local companies to foundations — results without the hype or the enterprise price tag.
Not on this list? The industry matters less than the pattern: technology that should be doing more for you than it is. Tell us what you’re working on.
Funders, associations & program leads
We deliver training cohorts on behalf of foundations, associations, and press-support organizations — one contract, many organizations trained.
New Mexico employers
Qualifying businesses may recover a substantial share of training costs through the state’s Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP) — ask us how.
Based in Albuquerque — delivering across New Mexico and remotely nationwide.
Get Started
Five minutes, a few questions. Dr. Yousuf reads every submission personally and responds within two business days.