Succesful method
AI Reality Check
You have the pilots, but you don't have a decision.
Only 26% of companies that start AI pilots ever get past proof-of-concept. Most stall exactly where you are: initiatives are being run in isolation, there no agreement on which one to build a broader organisation around, and the board is asking for ROI (that no one can answer).
In this half-day session your leadership team is forces to pick one domain, name what's blocking it, and leave with a 14-day plan and a personal 30-day commitment per participant. As a result you scale with purpose, not by accident.
You've done the pilots but the board still isn't buying it
Your AI initiatives work in isolation and nobody agreed on which one to build a broader organisation-model around
Your board wants to see ROI before it funds anything else
Ten pilots are running and you can't point to one that's actually scaled.
Everyone agrees something has to change but nobody agrees on what, or who owns it.
This session is built for leadership teams already past the starting line
The AI Adoption Reality Check is a half-day session for leadership teams at scale-up and growth-stage companies (tech, e-commerce, consumer goods) who already have multiple AI pilots or tools running, but nothing at enterprise scale. These are the teams that keep circling the same AI conversation without landing on a decision. Teams that can't yet explain, in one sentence, where AI is supposed to move the business next to.
But you need real focus and get stuck on:
Which domain do we actually scale first?
What's blocking the scaling: ownership, process, governance, or data?
Who owns the plan, the tracking and ensures completion?
You're probably not short on strategy. Most leadership teams I work with already have a strategy document in place. However, what they don't have is a decision made out loud, in the room, with a plan attached the strategic initiatives.
You don't need a training programme. You need a honest, sharp session with your team, not just the AI lead. Someone who forces the room to choose instead of staying comfortable. A 14-day plan you can hand to someone on Monday, with names and dates on it.
Not for companies who haven't started with AI yet, or have no pilots, no tooling, nothing running. This session is built for the chaos that comes after the first wave of activity, not before it.
After the AI Adoption Reality Check, you have:
01/ One domain chosen, out loud, as a leadership team
You plot your current pilots on value against feasibility and converge on a single domain to focus your scaling effort on. This is not by vote, not by whoever's loudest, but as a decision the room actually makes.
Result: everyone in the room knows what you're scaling next, and what you've deliberately put down for now.
02/ The real barriers named, not the polite version
You surface what's actually blocking that domain (ownership gaps, process, governance, data) sorted and prioritised by what would unblock work in the next 14 days, not what sounds most important in the abstract.
Result: you know exactly what's in the way, instead of a vague sense that "adoption is hard."
03/ A 14-day plan with names and dates on it
You leave with three to five actions, each with a named owner and a real date. Every participant also writes one personal commitment for the next 30 days.
Result: you're not walking out with alignment. You're walking out with a plan someone can pick up on Monday.
Four hours. One decision.
In four hours your leadership team decicides on one domain to scale, names what's blocking it, and builds a 14-day sprint plan to get it moving, followed by three check-in calls over the next six to eight weeks to keep it alive.
Practical:
4 hours
In person (virtual by request)
Fee on request
Leadership team, 5–10 people
3 check-ins calls
This is not:
a technical AI training that teaches you tools
a lecture on where AI is headed
a full business case or an operating model redesign
a workshop where everyone stays polite and nothing actually gets decided
This isn't another AI workshop
BCG's 2024 research backs the same split I use in the room: roughly 70% of what blocks AI from scaling is people and process, 20% is technology, and only 10% is the algorithms themselves (BCG, Where's The Value in AI, 2024). Most AI workshops spend all four hours on the 10%.
I spent years running exactly this kind of decisions inside Nike, Miele, PVH / Calvin Klein, and Sunweb Group. I was the person accountable for which initiatives got built, not just proposed.This session is that same discipline, and compressed into four hours.
Three things I do differently:
We force a decision, we don't facilitate a conversation
Most AI sessions end in alignment: everyone nods, nothing gets chosen. This sessions ends with a specific domain picked, because the rest of the plan depends on that decision actually being made.
2. We look at this as a business decision, not a technology rollout
We're not talking about which tools to buy or how to configure them. We're talking about which domain creates the most value with the least resistance, who owns it, and what stops it from scaling . This is the same lens I use building business cases that get through the board.
A fixed structure, not an open-ended workshop
Six blocks: a reality check on where AI adoption typically stalls, an individual readiness assessment, a value-versus-feasibility mapping of your pilots, a working session on barriers, the 14-day plan, and a personal 30-day commitment from every participant. No warm-up exercises. Every block builds into the next.
How the AI Reality Check works
/01
Before
Optional pilot inventory, sent 1-2 weeks before: a short form covering your current AI pilots and tools, who owns each one, and roughly where they stand. This step is optional but it means we start the session already knowing where the pilots are (instead of spending the first hour finding out)
/02
The session
Four hours with your full leadership team. We open with where AI adoption typically stalls and check it against your room, move into an individual readiness assessment, map your current pilots against value and feasibility, converge on one domain, name what's blocking it, and build the 14-day plan live. Every participant closes with one personal 30-day commitment.
/03
After
Within two to three days, you get a written summary: the domain you chose, the barriers you named, the 14-day plan, and every commitment made in the room. Three 30-minute check-in calls follow over the next six to eight weeks, spaced to keep the plan and the commitments alive instead of letting them fade the way most workshop outputs do.
Book now
Don't let your next AI decision get lost in another all-hands meeting
I run a handful of these a quarter, and I keep the group small on purpose because it's the only way the room actually converges instead of staying polite.
If this sounds like where your team is stuck, reply directly and we'll find a date. No deck, no sales call first: just tell me where your pilots are and I'll tell you if this is the right fit