Does it only cover AI?

No. Every opportunity worth doing goes in the portfolio, AI or not, ranked on the same terms.

What do you need from us?

Nothing to prepare. We facilitate the whole engagement through workshops with the relevant leaders and team members, covering what you're already doing and what's new. If you have documents, strategies or plans you think are relevant, share them. You decide what's relevant.

What happens after the roadmap?

The $15,000 covers the roadmap, and you own everything we produce. If you want help delivering it, you can engage us separately: we lead delivery with your teams and partners until the benefits are measured, scoped and priced once the roadmap is set. Or take it to your own team or another partner.

A fixed fee of AUD $15,000, excluding GST.

AI STRATEGY TO DELIVERY ROADMAP

Your AI strategy and roadmap, built around your customers.

A fixed-price engagement where we assemble your leaders and key team members to draw out their ideas and knowledge, set the strategy, and reimagine how your business serves its customers. Every opportunity, AI or not, and every running pilot is then ranked with an owner and a payback measure, and the top priorities become your roadmap.

BOOK A 30-MINUTE CONVERSATION →

Fixed fee AUD $15,000, excluding GST. You own everything we produce.

WHO WE'VE WORKED WITH

How it works

Discovery

We run workshops with the relevant leaders and team members to draw out what your people already know about the business, its customers and its market, and add focused research where it sharpens a decision.

YOU GET What your business knows, in one place.

Strategy

We help you define the strategy clearly, building on what you already have and the market, customer and other opportunities that come up along the way: where you're going, how you'll win, and the reasoning behind each choice.

YOU GET The strategy.

Reimagine

We map how your business serves each type of customer today, from the first contact through to the operations and systems behind it, and reimagine how it should serve them in future, with AI as the way in. We also explore the market opportunities open to you.

YOU GET How your business serves customers today, how it should, the gap between them, and one page on where AI can take the business.

Ranked portfolio

Every opportunity, AI or not, and every running pilot goes into one ranked portfolio. Each line has a short business case, an owner in your team and a payback measure. Each existing initiative gets a verdict on whether to start, stop or continue.

YOU GET The ranked portfolio.

Roadmap

The top priorities become a portfolio of initiatives and the roadmap to deliver it: what starts now, what follows, the milestones and the measures your leadership team will track.

YOU GET The portfolio of initiatives and its roadmap.

What you get

WORKED EXAMPLE

A worked example for a hypothetical homewares retailer: 38 stores across Australia and New Zealand, flat growth and two AI pilots running. Here is what you get, in order.

1 · THE RANKED PORTFOLIO

#OPPORTUNITYTYPEPOTENTIALCHALLENGEWORTH BY YEAR 3OWNERPAYBACK MEASURE

AI-assisted customer serviceCustomers with order, delivery and returns queries, and the contact centre teamGOLD MINE

COST OUT

High

Low

$2 to 3mHead of CustomerCost per contact and resolution without a second contact

AI content production for range and campaignsMarketing and ecommerce teams producing product imagery, copy and campaign assetsGOLD MINE

COST OUT

High

Mid

$2 to 3mHead of MarketingCost per asset against the agency baseline

Demand forecasting and replenishmentMerchandise and supply teams managing 38 stores and the online warehouseGOLD MINE

COST OUT

High

Mid

$4 to 6mHead of Supply ChainWorking capital in stock and markdown rate

Personalised recommendations online and in emailOnline shoppers and the loyalty baseQUICK WIN

GROWTH

Mid

Low

$3 to 4mHead of DigitalConversion rate and average order value

Trade and designer accountsInterior designers, stylists and small builders fitting out whole homesGOLD MINE

GROWTH

High

Mid

$7 to 10mCommercial ManagerGross margin on trade orders

Two-hour click and collectShoppers who want it today and live near one of 38 storesQUICK WIN

GROWTH

Mid

Low

$3 to 4mHead of StoresSame-day orders collected in store

Potential and challenge rated Low, Mid, High, Super high. Worth is cost out or gross margin, estimated with your team from your own trading data. Ranking weighs potential against challenge and fit with your current strategy, with cost out first so the early savings fund what follows. Every opportunity has an owner in your team and a payback measure to check it against.

2 · THE PILOT VERDICTS

Every AI initiative already running or funded goes in the portfolio with a baseline, and gets a verdict.

PILOTBASELINEOWNERPAYBACK MEASUREVERDICTWHAT WOULD CHANGE IT

Product copy generator, live in the ecommerce teamAgency cost per product description, and time to publish a new lineHead of DigitalCost per description and days from range sign-off to liveCONTINUEFolds into opportunity 2 so one owner runs all content production

Customer service chatbot on the websiteNone set at launch. Deflection claimed, never measured against contact volumesHead of CustomerCost per contact and resolution without a second contactSTARTA baseline from three months of contact data, and a redesign of the handover to a person. Folds into opportunity 1

3 · ON THE MAP

POTENTIAL →

Gold mine

Moon shot

Quick win

Questionable

123456

CHALLENGE →

The map shows where to invest first.

Cost out comes first: it proves the method, it is the easiest return to prove, and it funds what follows. For this retailer the first wave is the three cost-out gold mines: customer service, content production and forecasting in one category. The growth opportunities follow from the savings. For higher-potential ideas that land in Questionable, the work is to strip out complexity until they move left.

4 · ONE OPPORTUNITY CARD

RANK 1 · GOLD MINE$2 TO 3M COST OUT BY YEAR 3

AI-assisted customer service

FOR: Customers with order, delivery, returns and product questions, and the contact centre team that answers them.
NEED: Answers at the moment of the question, in any channel, with a person available the moment the answer isn't good enough.
OFFER: An AI assistant that resolves the routine queries end to end (where is my order, change my delivery, start a return, is it in stock near me), connected to the order, stock and delivery systems, with a designed handover to a person for everything else.
WHY US: The routine queries are an estimated two-thirds of contact volume and are answerable from systems the retailer already has. The existing chatbot proved the demand and never had the connections or the baseline.

Potential · High

Compelling reason to buyHigh

Customers told us they want the answer now and a person when it matters, and the current queue delivers neither. Test it: what share of contacts resolve without a second contact?

Cost outHigh

Contact volume and cost per contact are known. The saving is the share of routine contacts the assistant resolves, at the current cost per contact.

Economic viabilityHigh

Platform and integration cost is modest against the contact centre run rate. This is the number the pilot has to prove.

Challenge · Low

Implementation obstaclesLow

Order, stock and delivery data are already exposed to the website. The handover to a person needs designing and the team needs training on the new queue.

Time to revenueLow

A bounded release on one query type can start on the current platform.

External risksMid

Customer trust if the assistant gets an answer wrong. Human review of the assistant's answers stays on until the measures hold.

Where to start. A bounded release on order and delivery queries, with the handover designed and the baseline set before go-live. No new platform until the resolution rate holds.

Owner. The Head of Customer, with the contact centre manager.

Payback measure. Cost per contact against the current baseline, and the share of contacts resolved without a second contact. Checked at the end of the bounded release.

5 · THE ROADMAP

NowSTART NOW

1GOLD MINE

AI-assisted customer service: bounded release

OWNER: Head of Customer
DONE WHEN: Order and delivery queries resolved by the assistant with a designed handover
PAYBACK: Cost per contact

2GOLD MINE

AI content production

OWNER: Head of Marketing
DONE WHEN: One range produced on the new workflow with the copy generator folded in
PAYBACK: Cost per asset

3GOLD MINE

Demand forecasting: one category

OWNER: Head of Supply Chain
DONE WHEN: Forecast live for one category across all stores
PAYBACK: Working capital in stock

NextONCE THE GATE BEFORE IT IS MET

1GOLD MINE

AI-assisted customer service: all query types

OWNER: Head of Customer
DONE WHEN: Every routine query type resolved by the assistant
PAYBACK: Cost per contact and resolution without a second contact

Gate: resolution rate holds on the bounded release.

3GOLD MINE

Demand forecasting: all categories

OWNER: Head of Supply Chain
DONE WHEN: Forecast live across all categories
PAYBACK: Working capital in stock and markdown rate

Gate: the markdown rate moves in the pilot category.

4QUICK WIN

Personalised recommendations

OWNER: Head of Digital
DONE WHEN: Live on the site and in email
PAYBACK: Conversion and average order value

Funded from the first wave's savings.

LaterREVISIT AT THE NEXT REVIEW

5GOLD MINE

Trade and designer accounts: national

OWNER: Commercial Manager
DONE WHEN: Trade accounts in every store and online
PAYBACK: Gross margin on trade orders

A manual pilot runs in the Now wave to prove the margin holds.

NOT NOW6Two-hour click and collect. A quick win that does not need AI. Scheduled once the first wave has freed the stores team.

Every priority has an owner, a milestone that marks it done, and the measure that shows it is paying back. Work moves from Next into Now only when the gate before it is met, and the roadmap is reviewed at a rhythm agreed with your leadership team.

6 · THE POTENTIAL, ON A PAGE

One page on where this business can go, with AI as the way in: a store team that knows every customer's room, a supply chain that orders before the shelf empties, content made in-house for every range, and service that answers before the customer asks. Shown in the retailer's own terms, with the roadmap above as the first steps towards it.

What it costs

A fixed fee of AUD $15,000.

Pricing excludes GST.

You own everything produced, whether you progress it with us, your own team, or another partner. We're independent of every technology vendor, so the roadmap is built around your business and the partners you choose.

Delivery is a separate engagement. Once the roadmap is set, you can engage us to lead it with your teams and partners until the benefits are measured, or take it to your own team or another partner.

BOOK A 30-MINUTE CONVERSATION →

Questions

Does it only cover AI?: No. Every opportunity worth doing goes in the portfolio, AI or not, ranked on the same terms.
What do you need from us?: Nothing to prepare. We facilitate the whole engagement through workshops with the relevant leaders and team members, covering what you're already doing and what's new. If you have documents, strategies or plans you think are relevant, share them. You decide what's relevant.
What happens after the roadmap?: The $15,000 covers the roadmap, and you own everything we produce. If you want help delivering it, you can engage us separately: we lead delivery with your teams and partners until the benefits are measured, scoped and priced once the roadmap is set. Or take it to your own team or another partner.
What does it cost?: A fixed fee of AUD $15,000, excluding GST.

Thirty minutes on where AI can take your business

Nothing to prepare. Tell us what you're working on and where you want to get to, and we'll bounce some ideas around together.

BOOK A 30-MINUTE CONVERSATION →