AI strategy and board advisory

Decide the AI plan before you buy the tools.

For owners, CEOs and boards of established businesses who have to answer "what is our AI plan?". In four to six weeks you have a written position, the three moves that matter, who owns them, how they are measured, and the first build defined.

Book a 30-minute strategy call

We work across both US and Israel business hours, so a question sent at the end of your day usually has a written answer by your next morning.

Who this is for

Established companies with a working business to protect.

FOR

Owners, CEOs and boards

Established businesses, roughly $5M to $250M in revenue: founder-led, family-owned, or backed by private equity. Also operating partners and new executives in their first hundred days who need an AI position quickly.

NOT FOR

Startups and tool-shopping

Startups building AI products, and anyone who wants a tool installed or a deck with no owner and no first build.

The definition

What we mean by "AI-native"

An AI-native company is the same company, with the same customers and people, in which AI does the routine preparation (gathering, checking, drafting, matching), named people make the decisions, and the rules between the two are written down. What you get from it: when a board, a lender or a buyer asks what the company is doing about AI, the answer is already on paper, and the time the team gets back goes where the owner chose.

Same functions, different division of work Today one person gathers, checks and decides in each function. With AI doing the preparation: in quotes and orders, AI drafts the quote from the price book and order history and a person approves price exceptions and sends it; in billing and collections, AI matches invoices to orders and flags disputes and a person decides credit holds and write-offs; in management reporting, AI assembles the weekly numbers with the source beside each and a person decides what to do about them. Who decides, what needs approval and how to stop it are written down. Today, in each function below: one person gathers, checks and decides. Quotes and orders AI Drafts the quote from the price book and order history. Person Approves price exceptions and sends the quote. Billing and collections AI Matches invoices to orders and flags disputes. Person Decides credit holds and write-offs. Management reporting AI Assembles the weekly numbers, with the source beside each. Person Decides what to do about them. Written down for every workflow: who decides, what needs approval, and how to stop it.
The functions stay the same. The division of work changes, and the rules between people and AI are made explicit.

  1. AI prepares the work; people make the decisions.

    Routine preparation moves to AI. Judgment, relationships and sign-off stay with named people.

  2. The company record answers management's questions.

    Contracts, orders, invoices and reports become usable by management, with the source visible behind each answer.

  3. Decision rights and approvals are written down.

    Who decides, what needs approval, what counts as an exception, and how to stop a system.

  4. The team gains capacity, not a second job.

    Which roles change, which gain time, and how the team is trained, so nobody becomes a full-time tool minder.

  5. Success is measured as business change against a baseline.

    Margin, response time, cash, errors or capacity, measured before and after.

The questions a board must answer

Eight questions a board will ask about the plan.

Each answer is in plain language and owned by a named person.

  1. Where does AI change the economics of our industry: price, cost, speed, or who wins the customer?
  2. What would our company look like with AI doing the routine preparation, and how far are we from it?
  3. Which three moves matter most in the next twelve months, and which can wait?
  4. What should we build, buy, partner for, or skip?
  5. Who owns the plan, and how will the board see progress?
  6. What may a system do on its own, what needs a person's approval, and how do we stop it?
  7. What information leaves the company, to whom, and under what terms?
  8. What will it cost, and how will we know it worked?

Three ways to work with us

Three ways to work with us on strategy.

The Strategy Sprint ends in a board decision and a defined first build; the Briefing ends in a written brief; the Fractional Lead reports to the board each quarter.

  1. AdviseBoard Briefing, Strategy Sprint, Fractional Strategy Lead
  2. Diagnose013BI readiness, Workflow Fix Review
  3. Build and runFirst Build Sprint, ongoing improvement, pilots, products
One path: Briefing, then Strategy Sprint, then First Build Sprint, then ongoing improvement. The diagnostic offers feed evidence into the sprint.
Advise · the first conversation with the board

AI Board Briefing

from $2,500
90-minute sessionWritten briefBoard or leadership team

A working session with your board or leadership team, followed by a written brief they can keep.

You leave with

  • Where AI changes the economics of your industry, and where it makes no difference
  • What your company would look like with AI doing the routine preparation
  • The three moves that matter and the three traps to avoid
  • The questions to ask any vendor before you sign

Credited in full against a Strategy Sprint ordered within 30 days. It is a working session, so there is no technology demonstration and no pitch for a build.

Advise · the full plan

AI Strategy Sprint

from $15,000
Four to six weeksFixed scopeEnds in a board decision

From leadership interviews to a board decision and a defined first build, in four to six weeks.

You leave with

  • A map of how work, money and information move today
  • A written view of what your company should look like with AI doing the routine preparation
  • A twelve-month roadmap with owners and measures
  • Build, buy, partner or leave-alone calls, with reasons
  • A control and risk position the board can review
  • A capital and vendor plan
  • A board decision and a defined first build

The sprint defines the first build; the First Build Sprint delivers it.

Advise · ongoing

Fractional AI Strategy Lead

from $9,000/month
Three-month blocksSits with leadershipReports to the board

A senior strategy lead who sits with your leadership team, prepares the roadmap, runs the vendor and build evaluations, and brings recommendations; your leadership decides.

You get

  • A standing seat in leadership meetings
  • The roadmap and its measures, prepared and kept current
  • Vendor and build evaluations, documented with a recommendation
  • A written report to the board each quarter

Blocks are three months and continue only when your leadership decides to renew.

Pricing and timing are confirmed in writing; a request does not create an engagement.

Darren Weiss, founder of 013 Labs

Who you work with

Darren Weiss has run the P&L and still builds the systems.

  • Operator. Helped scale a regional company into a major participant in a highly regulated national industry, leading operations, growth, and mergers and acquisitions.
  • Counsel. A lawyer by training who led the legal and regulatory work; on your engagement he works alongside your counsel, not replacing it.
  • Builder. Designs, builds and runs AI systems every day. 013 Labs runs on the systems we recommend, approved by a named person, so we test the advice before we give it.

More about Darren and how 013 Labs runs itself →

How an engagement runs

The Strategy Sprint, week by week.

The sprint is built to end in a decision. This is the usual shape; your scope letter fixes the details.

  1. Before we start
    Scope in writingA short call, then a scope letter: the questions, the people, the documents, the price and the dates.
  2. Week one
    ListenLeadership interviews and a document request. We learn how the business makes money and where the work slows down.
  3. Week two
    MapA map of how work, money and information move today, and where decisions sit.
  4. Week three
    DirectionWhat the company should look like with AI doing the routine preparation, where the value is, and which traps to avoid.
  5. Week four
    PlanThe roadmap, with a named owner and a measure for each move, the build, buy or partner calls, the controls, and the capital and vendor plan.
  6. Weeks five and six
    DecideA board session, a written decision, and the first build defined with its owner, its measure and a way to stop it.

What we will not do

Four things we refuse to sell.

Slides without owners

Every recommendation names who owns it, how it is measured, and what happens first.

Selling you a vendor

We recommend what fits your business. When one of our own products fits, we say so and show you the alternative.

Unchecked figures

Any figure we put in front of your board comes with the baseline and the way to check it.

Advice we are not hired to give

We do not give legal, tax, accounting or investment advice. We tell you when you need it and what to ask.

Fair questions

What owners ask before the first call.

Who does the work?

Darren leads every engagement personally. Research, document review and first drafts are prepared by the systems 013 Labs runs and are reviewed by him before you see them. If a build needs more hands than one, that is agreed in the scope letter before it starts.

We already have an IT team.

Good. IT keeps systems running and secure; this work decides what the business should change and in what order. We work with your IT lead from the first week.

We tried a chatbot and nothing changed.

That is useful evidence. A tool added on top of unchanged work rarely moves a number. The plan starts from the work and the decision, then chooses the tool.

Our data is a mess.

Most company records were written for people to read, so part of the work is deciding which records matter, what to fix first, and what can be used as it is. A messy record is where the work starts.

We are in a regulated industry.

Then controls come first. We map what information may leave the company, what needs approval, and what a regulator would expect to see, and we design the plan inside those limits, working alongside your counsel.

How will we measure it?

Before anything is built, we agree the baseline and the measure: margin, response time, cash, errors or capacity. If a change cannot be measured, it does not go into the first build.

Is this a big transformation program?

No. The sprint has a fixed scope and runs four to six weeks, and it ends in a decision and a first build defined in writing.

Start with thirty minutes.

Tell us the question your board is asking. We will tell you whether a briefing, a sprint, or nothing yet is the right next step.

Book a 30-minute strategy call