Substitute
Hand it over
AI does it by default. Nobody needs to keep this skill.
ExampleFormat checked information into the agreed template.
AI strategy
Decide where to use AI—and where to keep people in charge.
We help your leadership team understand what AI can do for the firm, decide which tasks it gets and which stay with people, and leave with a prioritised plan.
Professional services firm · SCAN‑O example
Which tasks does AI get?
Hand it over
AI by default
AI drafts, an expert checks
expert signs off
Practise with it
development zone
Keep it human
senior review
Sorting example tasks…
Click a task to move it. The firm decides.
Who this is for
For leaders deciding where to spend time and money on AI.
Strategy is for firms that know AI matters but have not agreed where it belongs. Nothing is built at this stage. You finish with a plan the leadership team has agreed and can act on.
Not sure where you stand? Take the free assessment →How it runs
One engagement, five steps.
Make sense of AI
A leadership session. We set predictions aside and look at what firms like yours have actually done with AI. For each case we ask four questions: what is newly possible, what could we do, what is it worth to us and why does it work. Leaders leave with a shared picture of what AI can and cannot do for the firm.
Drawing on Cedric Chin’s writing on sensemaking at Commoncog.
Align the leaders
Executive AI Alignment, our workshop for leadership teams. Bring the different views into the room, agree a place to start and record who owns it.
About the workshop ↓Map the work
Follow the work from its first input to its final output. Interview the people who do it, name the process owners and note the tools, delays and repeated checks.
Decide what AI gets
For each recurring task the firm answers two questions. Do we need people to keep this knowledge? Can someone here check AI’s output and take responsibility for it? The answers place the task in one of four zones.
The four decisions ↓Set the plan
Agree what to start, what to leave alone and who will own each change. The plan sets priorities, with costs and potential returns estimated from the information available, and says whether each change is built, bought or automated.
Step 02 · for leadership teams
Need your leadership team to agree what comes next?
Executive AI Alignment
Two half-days · 5–10 leaders
A workshop for leadership teams, rather than a group version of one-to-one coaching. Use practical exercises and discussion to agree how your firm will put AI to work.
Available as a standalone workshop.
Discuss a leadership workshopBring the different views into the room
Participants share their questions and current views before the workshop. Together, examine where expectations differ and work through practical AI exercises.
Agree a place to start
Choose a first workflow to test, agree who owns it and discuss which risks are acceptable and where people need to review the work.
What the team takes away
- A summary of the team’s different views.
- A record of the decisions, owners and agreed risks.
- Actions for the next 30, 60 and 90 days.
Four decisions a firm can make about a task.
SCAN describes where a person is with a task today. SCAN-O is the firm’s decision about what each workflow must keep in human hands.
Complement
AI drafts, an expert checks
Someone with the expertise verifies the output and signs it off.
ExampleDraft follow-up questions from gaps in a client file.
Aid
Practise with it
A development zone. AI drafts and the person reworks it, because the firm wants them to build the skill.
ExampleGet up to speed on a product you rarely advise on.
Non-negotiable
Keep it human
Senior review and a person in the room, whatever AI can’t do.
ExampleA sensitive conversation about a client’s concerns.
Three things to act on.
A map of the work
The selected processes, the people responsible for them and where the delays and checks sit.
A decision for every task type
Which tasks AI takes on, which an expert checks, which people practise with and which stay human.
A prioritised plan
What to start, what to leave alone and who owns each change, with costs and potential returns estimated from the information available.
Where we’ve run this
A construction-services firm
Thirty people across two divisions. We interviewed staff in six departments, mapped how work moved between roles and systems, scored each opportunity and presented a prioritised roadmap to the leadership team.
Advisory
We have advised teams inside global banks and consultancies on where AI fits and where it does not.
Let’s talk
Tell us where you are undecided.
Describe the part of the firm you want to look at, who leads it and what you have already tried with AI. We will reply to discuss how strategy would run for you.
Meet the people you could work with ↗