ADVISORY / ROADMAP / CAIO
A budgeted AI plan tied to revenue — not a slide deck
Most AI pilots never touch the P&L. We help you pick the few use cases worth funding, understand what they'll really cost, and sequence them so they reach production.
The problem
The problem isn't ambition — it's sequencing
The widely cited number is that around 95% of AI pilots show no measurable business impact. They stall because they start from a model or a demo rather than a problem, skip the data and governance work, and never redesign the workflow around the tool. A good strategy reverses that order: it scopes the value, the feasibility and the data reality first, then sequences the build.
What's included
- 01
Prioritised use-case portfolio
Candidate use cases scored on value, feasibility and data readiness, so funding goes to what will actually land.
- 02
AI readiness assessment
An honest map of current-state gaps across strategy, data, skills, infrastructure and governance.
- 03
Operating model & build-vs-buy
Where AI capability should live, what to build, what to buy, and how the team works with it.
- 04
Phased roadmap with TCO
A 6–18 month sequence with KPIs, budgets and total-cost-of-ownership estimates — including the costs pilots usually hide.
- 05
Fractional CAIO (optional)
Senior strategic direction on a retainer when you need the steer without a full-time executive hire.
What you get out of it
- A defensible plan tied to revenue, cost or risk — and a budget to match
- Fewer stalled pilots, because data and governance are scoped up front
- Clarity on what to build, buy, or not do at all
How we work
The Qanz Loop, applied here.
- 01
Position
Decide what's worth winning
We start from the business problem, not a channel or a model. Positioning, audience, the use cases worth funding, and the data and governance reality behind them — so everything downstream points the same way.
- 02
Build
Ship the system, not a slide deck
Senior people build the working thing: campaigns wired to first-party signals, content and creative systems, or AI features that reach production. Scoped tightly, with human review where it matters.
- 03
Compound
Make the gains stack
We measure what's incremental, fix what isn't, and stay engaged after go-live. Visibility, pipeline and capability are meant to grow without resetting every time a budget pauses.
Costs on the table, not in the footnotes
Inference cost, data drift and governance overhead are the line items that stay invisible in a pilot and sink it at scale. We make total cost of ownership explicit from the start. In a market full of hype, naming what something really costs — and where AI isn't yet the right tool — is itself the credibility signal.
Questions
Worth asking.
We've already run pilots that went nowhere. Now what?
That's the common starting point. We look at why they stalled — usually data, workflow or governance, not the model — and rebuild the sequence so the next ones reach production.
Is a fractional CAIO a real engagement or just advice?
Real. It's a recurring, senior steer — typically a day or two a week — that owns the roadmap with you, rather than a one-off deck handed over at the door.
Do we have to commit to a big programme?
No. Most clients start with a focused assessment, get a costed roadmap, and decide what to fund from there.
More services
Often paired with this.
Start the conversation
Let's scope it — honestly.
Tell us the problem you're actually trying to solve. We'll tell you whether it's marketing, AI, or both — and whether we're the right people for it.