Capability 01

Know where AI actually pays before you buy anything.

Where AI pays in your business, where it doesn't yet, and what has to be true before it does. Sequenced into decisions, not a platform's release calendar.

Best fit: before you buy anything

Downloads

take it to the meeting

Service sheets follow one standard across all six capabilities. Engagement status on each sheet is taken from the live catalogue.

Free tool · same method Build a first-pass AI roadmap yourself Score your use cases on value, feasibility and data readiness, apply the risk gate, and get the Opportunity Grid and an 18-month sequence. Runs in your browser; nothing is submitted. Open the AI Roadmap Builder →

The problem

what goes wrong

Most AI strategies start from the wrong end: a vendor demo, a board question, a competitor's press release. The roadmap ends up shaped by someone else's calendar. The pilots never had a route to production.

The second mistake is starting from the intended stack. Every organisation can describe the one it approved. Far fewer can describe the one that exists. A plan built on the licence list inherits every gap in it.

The hard part is deciding what not to do. Which processes have the volume, the clean data and a named owner to justify the spend? Which don't, yet? Both answers belong in the plan.

What we do

four pieces

Current-state assessment

Where data, identity and infrastructure actually stand, taken from telemetry. Including the constraints nobody wrote down.

Opportunity mapping

Use cases scored on value, feasibility and data readiness. Each has a named owner. None is scored on how well it demos.

Sequenced roadmap

Decision points across 6–18 months, each with the conditions that must hold before it unlocks.

Build-vs-buy position

What to build, what to buy, and what to leave alone for now — written down with the reasoning, so it can be revisited rather than re-argued.

Tools & resources

how this service uses them

Engagement 1.2 · 6 weeks AI Opportunity Map The full engagement: downloads, the week-by-week plan, Shadow Scanner as step one and the AI Roadmap Builder, on one page. See the breakdown → Free tool AI Roadmap Builder The self-serve version of this engagement. Bring your scored list and Roadmap Score to the first workshop, and we start from it instead of a blank wall. Build your roadmap → Assessment Shadow Scanner Finds the AI already in use, so the roadmap starts from what is running rather than the approved list. Open → Free tool AI Readiness Scorecard Sets the posture score we track from kickoff to the final readout. Open →

Downloads for this service are above. All free tools run in your browser and need no email.

In the news4 stories

1 Sep 2026Gartner
Only 22% of organisations have scaled AI across more than one business unit
Why it matters here. Most AI never leaves its first team. Choosing and sequencing use cases is where it stalls.
21 Aug 2025Fortune
MIT report: 95% of AI pilots fail, and the reason is how companies use the technology
Why it matters here. The failures come from execution and fit with the workflow, not the models. That is a sequencing problem.
12 May 2025Fortune
IBM CEO study: only a quarter of AI initiatives delivered the return expected
Why it matters here. Value has to be worked out before the build, with finance, not hoped for after it.
14 Mar 2025CIO Dive
S&P Global: 42% of companies scrapped most of their AI initiatives
Why it matters here. Firms abandoned nearly half their proofs of concept. A short, scored list beats a long, hopeful one.

Picked for this service and checked against the source. More each Monday in The Weekly Brief.

What good looks like

6 of 6 covered

What buyers are increasingly measured against here, taken from the frameworks doing the measuring. Each line names the engagement that covers it. Where nothing does yet, the row says so.

Capability	What done properly looks like	Covered by
A current-state inventory before any roadmapNIST AI RMF · Map	Applications, models and owners are documented from telemetry, not from a survey that people fill in from memory.	1.2 AI Opportunity Map
Use cases scored on value and feasibility togetherPortfolio practice	Every candidate carries a value estimate, a data-readiness score and a named owner before it enters the plan.	1.2 AI Opportunity Map
Explicit build-versus-buy positionsProcurement practice	The decision is written down with its reasoning, so it can be revisited when the market moves rather than re-argued.	1.2 AI Opportunity Map
A measurable baseline you can re-measureNIST AI RMF · Measure	A posture score taken at the start, repeated on a fixed cadence, so progress is evidenced rather than asserted.	1.1 AI Readiness Scorecard
Board-level reporting in business termsISO/IEC 42001 · Leadership	Spend, exposure and sequencing framed so a non-technical director can interrogate them.	1.3 Board Briefing Pack
A review cadence tied to the budget cycleISO/IEC 42001 · Improvement	The roadmap is revisited quarterly against what actually shipped and what changed in the market.	1.4 Quarterly Roadmap Review

Sample report: 808 Opportunity Grid

808 demo dataset

Lakeshore Example Co. · Fictional demo company · sample data, not a client

Fictional demo company · sample data, not a client

Lakeshore Example Co.

A fictional 1,200-person distributor we use to show what our reports look like. Every number below is invented for the demo.

34 candidate use cases collected in two workshops
9 shortlisted and plotted: 3 go now, 3 prepare, 2 not yet, 1 drop
Posture score 52 / 100 at kickoff
First decision point: support-ticket summarisation, target Q3

Engagements & products

status shown

The deliverables behind this capability. We publish what is live and what is still being built rather than implying a bench we don't have.

1.1 Entry Available

AI Readiness Scorecard

Free assessment

A short self-assessment across data readiness, identity, governance and skills. You get a banded score and the two or three constraints most likely to stall a first deployment — before anyone writes a business case.

Start it →

Shadow Scanner The scorecard is self-reported. A scan is the verified version of the same picture, which is usually a sharper conversation.
1.2 Anchor engagement Planned

AI Opportunity Map

Fixed-fee engagement · 6 weeks · 5 workshops

We assess where you actually are and score candidate use cases on value, feasibility and data readiness. You get a sequenced roadmap of decision points across 6–18 months. Each one lists the conditions that must hold before it unlocks.

Full breakdown, downloads & tools →

Engagement brief (PDF) ↓

Shadow Scanner The scan is step one, so the roadmap starts from your live footprint rather than the licence list.
1.3 Anchor engagement Planned

Board Briefing Pack

Fixed-fee add-on

The roadmap translated for the people who have to approve it. A short deck and a one-page summary framing spend, exposure and sequencing in business terms rather than technical ones.

Shadow Scanner Posture grade and exposure counts give the board a number to track, not an assurance to take on trust.
1.4 Continuing Planned

Quarterly Roadmap Review

Retainer

A standing quarterly session: what shipped, what moved in the market, and what the roadmap should now say. Keeps a plan from quietly going stale between budget cycles.

Shadow Scanner A re-scan each quarter shows whether the posture actually moved, which is the cleanest evidence a programme is working.

Status is kept in one place and shown as it stands. See the full catalogue across all six capabilities.

How Shadow Scanner helps

platform intelligence & risk telemetry

Strategy starts with an inventory, and most organisations don't have an accurate one. Shadow Scanner runs a zero-knowledge assessment and returns what is actually in use: distinct applications, which AI models are called, and by which teams. That lands before the first roadmap decision, not after.

More about Shadow Scanner

What you walk away with

the outcome

A roadmap your team can act on and your board can follow, with the reasoning attached. When the market moves, you can see which decisions still hold and which need revisiting.

The trade-off. Starting from an inventory takes longer than starting from a vendor shortlist. It also means some of the use cases you came in with will be marked "not yet".

The five stages

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