Advisory step 2
AI Strategy Engagement
A top-down answer to where AI changes how you operate, with written strategy, executive presentation, 12-month roadmap, and an investment case a CFO can defend.
Pricing on request
5–6 weeks
Card checkout and invoicing both available. Tell us which you'd prefer and we'll take it from there.
Who it's for Executives at 100+ people (or smaller with a heavy operational spine) with budget authority, a real forcing function, and a decision that has to be made.
Not a bigger Audit
The Audit works bottom-up: it maps processes and prices automations. This works top-down. It maps capability, org design, governance, and sequencing, and it produces a number your CFO can defend.
What you’re buying is not a document. It’s a decision you can take to a board, and a sequence you can fund.
The gate before we start
No work begins until one sentence is written down and confirmed by the sponsor:
This engagement informs [decision] by [date].
That single sentence prevents the most common failure mode in strategy work. A strategy nobody funds is a document nobody reads, however good it is. So if by the end of week two we can’t name the decision, we stop and convert this to an Audit plus a credit.
Why the interview cap matters
Twelve is the most important number here. Strategy scope creep is worse than build scope creep because “stakeholder alignment” has no natural bottom and no acceptance test, and every additional interview adds synthesis time, not just forty-five minutes.
If you need more, they’re priced above, and they go in the proposal as a line item rather than becoming an argument later.
On the numbers
The investment model ships as a live spreadsheet, not a static table in a PDF. Every projected effect is a range with a stated confidence rating, plus a sensitivity case at half the expected adoption.
No single-point ROI numbers. Ranges with stated confidence survive CFO scrutiny; point estimates invite one question nobody can answer. Every baseline is confirmed with you before it enters the model, because a number you dispute at the readout costs more than a number we left out.
How it runs
- 01
Week 1: Framing and access
Kickoff workshop with the sponsor and leadership. We confirm the decision, the constraints, the definition of success, and what is off the table. All twelve interviews get booked before the first one runs.
- 02
Week 2: Interviews
Twelve conversations across executives, department heads, individual contributors, and IT. Executives describe the process as designed; ICs describe it as run. The gap is where the findings live.
- 03
Week 3: Analysis
Capability assessment against a fixed maturity model, opportunity sizing, build-versus-buy per area, constraint mapping, and the investment model.
- 04
Week 4: Synthesis and validation
Draft strategy assembled, then a validation workshop that exists to surface objections before the room that matters. We ask what you would push back on if this went to your board.
- 05
Weeks 5–6: Delivery and close
Executive readout, two revision rounds, final files. The next-step proposal, priced and dated with an expiry, lands within five business days.
What you get
- Strategy document, 25–40 pages, including what was rejected and why
- Capability assessment across five dimensions, scored, with the evidence
- Findings organized by theme, with quotes attributed by role
- Build-versus-buy analysis per capability area
- Operating model covering who owns AI and how work gets requested and prioritized
- Hiring and skills plan, and a governance and acceptable-use policy
- Executive deck, 15–20 slides, built as an argument for a room
- 12-month roadmap, phased, with dependencies and decision gates
- Investment model as a live editable spreadsheet, with confidence bands and a sensitivity case
What it is not
- Not an implementation engagement; no builds are included
- Not a vendor selection or RFP process
- Not change management design or delivery
- Not training delivery
- Not an ongoing advisory relationship; that is Executive Advisory
- Not a data engineering assessment beyond what AI feasibility requires
Not included
Stated here rather than in fine print, so scope expansion is a line item and never an argument.
- No implementation, builds, integrations, or configuration
- No vendor RFP management or contract negotiation
- No change management program design or delivery
- No training delivery
- No data engineering, migration, or remediation
- No custom financial modeling beyond the included investment model
- No legal or compliance sign-off; governance recommendations are inputs to counsel, not a substitute
- No security audit or penetration testing
- No interviews or workshops beyond the stated allowance
- No participation in internal politics between stakeholders
Add-ons
Published prices. The call selects scope plus add-ons.
- Additional stakeholder interview $750
- Additional workshop (half day) $2,500
- Additional executive readout $2,500
- Additional revision round beyond 2 $2,000
- Additional business unit in scope $6,000
- Board-level presentation with rehearsal $3,500
- Written vendor comparison, per category $2,500
- On-site delivery, per day (plus travel) $2,500