NeWTHISTle Consulting
42% of Companies Scrap Most of Their AI Initiatives
I've sat in the CEO seat. I help PE owners and portfolio leadership make the AI adoption decision deliberately, price the dependency before it's accepted, and build so a vendor problem can't take the business down with it.
62%
PE respondents unable to link productivity gains to AI
42%
Up from 17%. Companies scrapping most AI initiatives before production
80%+
AI projects that fail
EY
S&P Global - 2025 Survey
RAND
The Exit Narrative
At exit, every serious buyer asks three questions
Is AI Being Used?
Full transparency of intelligence integration across the value chain.
Is it Working?
Validated efficiency metrics and measurable margin expansion data.
What is it Worth?
Valuation anchored in defensible, proprietary intelligence workflows.
An AI native business answers these with evidence, not intentions. Your intelligence asset becomes quantifiable, your cost structure improvement becomes auditable, and your compounding lead becomes a structural differentiator.
A CLEARER APPROACH TO A COMPLEX REALITY
Deterministic by default.
AI by advantage.
Resilience by design.
Every use of AI buys a capability and creates a dependency on a model, a provider, and infrastructure the business doesn't control. The scarce skill right now isn't AI fluency. It's judgement: knowing where that trade is worth making, and building so the dependency can fail without the company failing with it.
This isn't an argument against AI. The businesses that win the next decade will use it aggressively. It's an argument against adopting it by default instead of by decision.
01
Position
Before any plan is made, you need an honest picture of where you stand and a clear view of where you are going. A diagnostic of your AI maturity, a map of the gap, and the strategic case for why the journey starts now.
02
Align
Conviction at the top is not enough. This step prepares the extended leadership team, aligns mental models across functions, and addresses the conditions that determine whether adoption takes hold or stalls. The step most programmes skip.
03
Create
A governed, structured approach to AI adoption that connects directly to value creation. Not a pilot programme looking for a use case — a designed system with clear ownership, decision rights, and a direct line to the metrics that matter at exit.
04
Evolve
The intelligence asset compounds over time, but only if someone is actively managing it. This step establishes the measurement framework, adapts the operating model, and turns adoption activity into a story that holds up at exit.
Strategy & Value Creation
MY BOOKS
The AI Fix Field Guide
The AI Fix for Private Equity explained where AI can create value across the deal lifecycle. The AI Fix Field Guide is the follow-up: a practical guide to making that value real inside portfolio companies.
AI adoption does not fail because the models are weak. It fails because the business is not ready to absorb them. Processes are unclear. Ownership is diffuse. Data is fragmented. Governance lives in policy rather than workflow. Measurement tracks activity instead of outcomes.
This book is for CEOs, chairs, operating partners, transformation leaders, boards, and investors who need to move beyond AI theatre. It shows how to identify where AI can change an outcome, govern the work it performs, build the infrastructure it needs, fund the right initiatives, redesign human roles, and measure value the board can trust.
This is not another argument for becoming “AI-first.” It is a field guide for building the operating model that lets intelligence compound.
A simple yet powerful process
ReSCUED - A Value Creation Framework
Break through growth barriers and create lasting value with proven strategies that deliver measurable results
