An AI strategy you can point to
The best AI strategy for a team of 5 to 200 is usually one process, properly defined and actually used. Then the next one.
The problem with AI strategy decks
A strategy deck lists twenty places AI could help. It has a roadmap with phases. Everybody nods. Six months later, nothing on the list is running.
It isn't that the ideas were wrong. It's that nobody wrote down how any of that work actually gets done, so there was nothing for AI to run.
Smaller companies feel this most. In McKinsey's 2026 survey, only about one-third of respondents from organizations under $1 billion in revenue said they were scaling AI across the business, against 54% at larger ones (McKinsey, 2026).
What I do instead
My version of AI strategy has three questions, and the answers fit on one page.
- What work does your team repeat every week? List it. Reports, follow-ups, onboarding, call notes, approvals.
- Which of it is ready? Work that one person does well, with a clear finished result, and inputs AI can reach. The five readiness questions help here.
- Which one first? The ready job that would make the biggest difference if it ran on its own.
Then we build that one. What you learn from the first real process shapes the second far better than a plan written before anything ran.
What you get
- A short list of your repeatable work, marked ready or not ready, and why.
- The first process, defined with your team, built on your tools, and handed over.
- A clear next step, based on what actually happened.
Who it fits
Founders and team leads at companies of 5 to 200 who are tired of talking about AI and want one thing running.
Common questions
What does an AI strategy consultant do?
Helps a company decide where AI fits and what to do first. In my case, the strategy ends with the first process built and running, not a document.
Do we need a strategy before we start?
You need to know which job to start with. That fits on one page.
How is this different from big-firm strategy work?
Big firms are built for large programmes across many departments. I work with teams of 5 to 200 and build the first piece myself.
What comes after the first process?
The next one, chosen with what you learned from the first.