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Engagement · 10–12 weeks · Draft vision in week 3

Board-Ready AI Vision

An AI vision that wins over your board, inspires your people and resonates with your customers.

A vision only matters if people act on it. People need to believe it's worth pursuing and that they can make it happen.

Format
Vision engagement, led by Phil
For
CEO, Chief of Staff, Head of Strategy
Delivery
Workshop · testing · board paper
Outcome
A board-ready AI vision
Start with a conversation

01The situation

Your board wants to know what AI means for the organisation, and you don't yet have an answer you'd put your name to. Everyone agrees it matters. Nobody has agreed what it's for.

The risk is a forgettable vision: one that could belong to any organisation, and that your people don't believe speaks to them. The ones that work are bold enough to inspire people and give them something worth striving for.

02Who it's for

  • A CEO, Chief of Staff or Head of Strategy who'll personally answer to the board on AI
  • A board that's asking what AI should mean for the organisation
  • A leadership team without a shared AI vision, or with one that isn't moving anyone
  • A leader who wants a vision people will act on — and that still makes sense when the technology moves on

03What it isn't

  • A slide deck of AI ambitions that sits in a drawer
  • A vision built around this year's tools
  • A list of AI use cases dressed up as a vision
  • Technical architecture, data strategy, security review or model selection
  • Implementation — the vision guides the choices; your teams and specialists carry them out

04What you walk away with

01

A board-ready AI vision. An ambitious, believable view of what AI should make possible for you, and the choices that should follow.

02

An executive team aligned behind one vision. Your leaders shape it together, so they back it in the boardroom and can explain it to their people.

03

A board recommendation written for directors — the case, the vision, the commitments and the risks — plus preparation for the hard questions in the room.

04

An honest read of where you are on AI, across ten dimensions, so the ambition starts from where you really stand.

Built to last

It fits who you are. The vision starts from what your organisation exists to do, why customers buy from you and why people work for you.

05Your ambition for AI

Together, we’ll develop an AI vision that answers these five questions about what you want your organisation to become. It sets out what AI should strengthen, what you want to preserve and what new possibilities you want to pursue, giving your people a future they can believe in and your leaders a clear direction for making it happen.

01

What sets your organisation apart, and how could AI build on those strengths?

How I think about AI in organisations

06How it works

  1. Weeks 1–2

    Current-state read

    Stakeholder mapping and an honest read of where you are on AI today, across ten dimensions — the ground the vision has to stand on.

  2. Week 3

    Vision workshop

    One or two days with your executives on the five questions, pushing past the obvious answers to a vision worth committing to.

    First resultDraft vision

  3. Weeks 4–8

    Validation sprint

    We test the draft with the people who'll live with it and refine it in response to their questions and concerns.

  4. Weeks 9–10

    Board recommendation

    The case, the vision, the commitments and the risks — written for your board, in language directors can act on.

  5. Weeks 11–12

    Board readiness

    Before your board meeting: how you'll present the vision, and a rehearsal of the hard questions, so you walk into the room ready.

After the board

Then it's yours. Carrying the vision out sits with your team. Where architecture, data, security, implementation or ongoing advice would help, those are separate conversations.

My promise

In 10–12 weeks, you'll have an ambitious, believable AI vision grounded in what your organisation exists to do, with a board-ready recommendation and clear choices for what comes next.

07Inside the board recommendation

A written recommendation built to carry a board decision:

  1. The case for acting now
  2. The recommended AI vision
  3. The commitments you're asking the board to back
  4. An honest read of where you are today
  5. The risks, named, and how they're managed
  6. What success looks like, and how you'll know

08Why work with Phil

I build your vision from the inside out — your purpose, your customers, your people — then push it until it's ambitious enough to give people something worth acting on.

My background is engineering and digital delivery, most recently leading digital project delivery across infrastructure for a global engineering consultancy, where new technology has to win over people who've heard every promise before. Part of that role was turning workshop input, stakeholder views and plenty of ambiguity into language senior leaders could act on.

I run an AI-native practice — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and agents I've built myself are part of how I work every day — so what I recommend comes from daily use. The current-state read uses a diagnostic I developed across ten dimensions of adoption, so the vision reflects where your organisation actually is.

From people I've worked with on similar challenges

“Phil is one of those rare people who changes the energy in a room the moment he steps into it. … His strategic, critical lens helped us frame AI in ways that were both practical and inspiring, and his enthusiasm made the conversation feel accessible rather than overwhelming.”

Marsha Brown, CTDPFormer colleague and AI session collaborator

“What makes Phil exceptional is not simply his knowledge of technology, digital transformation, or AI. It is his ability to help leaders make sense of uncertainty. At a time when organizations are inundated with competing priorities, emerging technologies, vendor promises, and constant disruption, Phil has a remarkable ability to cut through the noise and focus attention on what truly matters.”

Andy HaresFormer colleague at Hatch

Let's give your board an answer you'd put your name to.

Every engagement begins with a short call: where your board is, what vision you're weighing, and whether the timing's right. If it's a fit, we scope it. If it isn't, you'll get an honest read on what would help.

Start with a conversation

Fixed fee, quoted on enquiry