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Practice 07

Digital & AI advisory

Practical AI adoption and systems consolidation for mid-market operators — where models pay back in months, and where they do not.

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AI that pays back in months, not decks
AI that pays back in months, not decks

AI that pays back in months, not decks

Every mid-market board is being sold AI. Our job is to be the sober second read. We map the company's actual workflows, identify the four or five where language models genuinely remove cost today — document review, first-draft correspondence, data extraction, code assistance, service triage — and size each in pounds with a pilot design that reports in eight weeks.

Just as valuable is the list of what not to build. If a vendor's proposal cannot state its baseline, its error tolerance and its rollback, it is not a pilot; it is a donation.

  • AI opportunity mapping with eight-week pilot designs
  • Vendor selection and contract negotiation from the buy side
  • Board AI literacy briefings and usage policy design

Systems consolidation before automation

Automating a fragmented estate automates the fragmentation. Before AI investment we usually consolidate: one ERP truth, one CRM, document management with permissions that reflect reality. The unglamorous work makes the glamorous work cheap.

We negotiate software from the buy side — no reseller commissions, ever — and our licensing benchmarks for the mid-market routinely recover our fee before the first pilot concludes.

Common questions

Digital & AI advisory — what boards ask

If your question is not here, ask it directly — the first conversation is free and candid.

Common questions

Where should a mid-market company start with AI?
Almost always in the back office: document-heavy processes with clear baselines and tolerant error rates. Customer-facing deployment comes after governance exists, never before.
Do you sell or resell software?
No. We take no commissions, reseller margins or referral fees from any vendor. Selection advice is paid for by you alone, which is precisely why it is worth taking.
Is our data safe in these tools?
The policy we help you write answers this before the first pilot: approved tools, prohibited data classes, retention settings and an audit trail. Enterprise-tier agreements with major providers now offer contractual protections adequate for most mid-market uses — the discipline is in enforcing them.
Can you brief our board on AI risk?
Yes — a ninety-minute briefing, refreshed twice a year, covering capability reality, governance obligations and the questions to ask management. It is the single most requested session in this practice.
Related practices

Often engaged together

Growth & Transformation

Consolidate the operating model first.

Risk & Governance

Govern AI like any other systemic risk.

Corporate Strategy

Anchor technology bets in strategy.

Next step

Bring us the decision, not the brief

The most useful first conversation starts with the decision the board cannot close. We will tell you within the hour whether we are the right firm for it.

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