Get your stalled AI rollout back on track.And your agenda back with it.
You spent big on AI. It hasn’t delivered. Your team keeps saying it’s on track, the board wants to know when it pays off, and you can’t see where it’s going wrong. I find out exactly what’s broken, what it’s costing you, and what to fix first.
The Silent Tax
Your AI looks fine on the reports. So why isn’t it making money?
Three things quietly break an AI rollout. You’re probably paying for at least one. Each one leaves a bill, and I’ve put a name to all three.
Playing it safe.
The Hedging Tax
Your team buys the same AI everyone else buys. It works, but it never gives you an edge. You end up stuck in the middle of the pack.
Unregulated Adoption.
The Shadow AI Tax
Your people use AI on the quiet, no protocol, no oversight, no alignment. 49% of workers admit it, and 51% have wired unmonitored tools straight into work systems. Every link is a liability, easily a leak in compliance, data security, and intellectual property.
All gas, no speed.
The Deceleration Tax
You paid for fast AI, but your decisions still crawl at the old pace. The tools are quick. The business isn’t.
The 60-Second Friction Scan tells you which of the three you’re paying.
Take the free 60-Second Friction ScanThe Silent Tax, in pounds
Same £50m business. Same £1.5m AI bet. Four very different endings.
I built one reference business and ran it through the friction states I see most. Only the behaviour changes. Three of them quietly drain it. One pays for itself.
Hedging Tax−£200ka yearEveryone agrees, nobody adopts. The £2m boost never arrives, the spend lands anyway, and dual-running becomes a permanent drag.Read the case study
Shadow AI Tax−£630kprofit hitStaff feed client data into tools nobody approved. One client finds out and terminates. A £4m account and a reputation gone in a call.Read the case study
Deceleration Tax−£460kEBITDAAlways nearly ready, never live. A faster rival ships first and poaches £3m of revenue while the firm runs one more readiness workshop.Read the case study
Stewardship Dividend+£2.5mEBITDAAligned and free to push back. That’s Productive Friction. The rollout goes live in 90 days, frees £1m of capacity, and lifts the top line to £55m. The only ending that pays.Read the case study
It’s not just you
You’re not the outlier. The whole market is stuck here.
The stall is the norm. Naming why yours stalled, in pounds, is not.
- 95%
- of AI pilots show no clear return yet
- 74%
- of CEOs feel their own job riding on AI paying off
- 1 in 6
- rollouts blows past budget by 200%
What better looks like
Picture the next board meeting going your way
This is what you get back once the stall is fixed.
A diary that’s yours
Your week pointed at growth, not firefighting other people’s crises.
Lead with influence
The numbers in front of you, in pounds, and answers you can defend without flinching.
AI that finally pays
The spend turning into return on the P&L, instead of leaking away unseen.
Three ways I can help
Start wherever it hurts most.
Three problems quietly drain a rollout. Wherever yours is bleeding, there’s a way in.
Find out what’s going wrong.
I map your business and tell you where your AI money is leaking and what to fix first.
See The Friction Diagnostics™The Clarity Sprint™Get your time and authority back.
Your week is firefighting and the board hears a story you didn’t write. I hand back control of your diary and your boardroom.
See the Clarity Sprint™The Capability Protocol™Keep it from happening again.
I build an early-warning system into the reports you already use, so the next problem shows up before it costs you.
See the Capability Protocol™Straight talk
This isn’t for everyone, and that’s the point
I’m not the right call if you think the problem is just team morale, or if you want to pay by the hour.
I work with mid-market CEOs who’ve spent real money on AI, need it to pay off, and want one senior person across the table, not another project to manage. If that’s you, we’ll get on.
The technology has changed. The flaws breaking it are the same, and I’ve been dismantling them for two decades.
The tools are new. The way smart companies break themselves on them is not. The same human flaws and the same gridlocks have stalled many rollouts I’ve worked on.
That’s 25 years across nine industries, from pharma and financial services to tech and FMCG. So whatever’s gone wrong with yours, the odds are it already sits on a map I’ve seen before.
Most advisors panic with you. They rip out good systems, chase the hype, and bury the week in firefighting. I do the opposite. I read how your leaders actually behave, find the real fault, and hand you the plan your own team runs. No junior analyst pools. No six-figure decks left to collect dust. Me, across the table.
Start here
The 60-Second Friction Scan tells you which of the three you’re paying
Four yes-or-no questions. You’ll see your biggest problem straight away. No sign-up, no sales call. If it’s all healthy, I’ll tell you to carry on.