Strategic AI advisory
For the people who have to stand behind it. Frameworks, roles and the questions that belong in the boardroom.
- Who it is for
- Boards and management teams that want to start the AI conversation, or want a better grip on the one they are already having.
- Price
- Talks are charged per session. Longer engagements are agreed.
Most boards are past the question of whether AI is relevant. They are sitting with the next one, which is harder: what are we answerable for, and how would we know if it were going wrong.
Five questions an organisation should put to itself
These are the ones I put on the table, and they work better than a walk through the technology.
Who owns the model, and what are they answerable for.
What training data sits behind it, and what does the system get access to inside your organisation.
How do you test for bias, both before rollout and during operation.
Where is the limit on how independently the system acts, and how real is the human grip on it. Does the person have time to assess, the competence to judge, and permission to say no without consequence.
And what do you do if the model changes its behaviour, or if someone outside can manipulate it.
The question that moves things most
What happens in your business if you lose access to your AI tools for a week?
It sounds trivial until somebody tries to answer it. Then it turns out that more processes already depend on it than anyone had realised, and that there is neither a fallback nor an exit plan if the supplier changes prices or terms.
How it works
Usually a talk of about ninety minutes with close discussion. No question is too basic, and that is precisely why the hard ones get asked too.
Some groups want more than one session, and then we agree an engagement. But start with one conversation. It is rarely necessary to decide how far you want to go before you have had it.
Questions we get
- What is the first thing we should do?
- Do not ask whether AI is relevant to you. Ask what your people already use it for. The answer almost always surprises the management, and it is the quickest reality check available.
- Is this not an IT question?
- No. AI is a strategic dependency in the same way electricity is. What you do the day your supplier doubles the price, changes the terms or goes down for two days belongs in the boardroom, not only with IT.
- What can we get through in ninety minutes?
- More than most people expect. The format is close discussion around the table, where basic and difficult questions are equally welcome. That is often where disagreement inside the group surfaces, and that is worth more than a set of slides.
- We have no AI policy. Is that a problem?
- Not necessarily, and a policy is rarely the right place to start. Start by finding out what is already going on and what you are actually answerable for. The policy more or less writes itself afterwards.
Last updated 24 September 2026