Stage 2 · Define · where it pays

AI Strategy

We work with your leadership team to decide where AI should be used, where it should not, what will pay back first, what to build versus buy, and what your business looks like when it works. You leave with a prioritised roadmap and a business case, not a vision statement.

Talk to an AI architect See the packages

Four to six weeksOpportunity mapPrioritisationRoadmapBusiness caseFixed fee

Five questions

The questions an AI strategy has to answer

Where should we use AI? The processes where it creates measurable value in your business, not in general.
Where shouldn’t we? The places where the risk, the data or the customer relationship says no, written down so nobody has to relitigate it.
What will deliver the highest return first? Ranked, with the assumptions shown.
What should we build, and what should we buy? Use case by use case. It is usually less building than the supplier told you.
What does our AI future actually look like? The three-year picture that the 90-day plan is a first step toward.

Four deliverables

What you receive

AI Opportunity Map

Every plausible use case across your business, described in one line each, with the process it touches and the data it needs. Usually ten to twenty-five candidates. On one page.

AI Prioritisation

Each candidate scored on impact × feasibility × risk × cost. Impact and feasibility are scored from the assessment; risk and cost are scored and inverted. The product ranks them; the discussion decides. The formula is shown because you should be able to argue with it.

AI Roadmap

30 days, 90 days, six months, twelve months, three years. Each horizon has one owner, one measure, and the decision point that unlocks the next.

Business Case

Investment, savings, productivity, revenue opportunity and payback period, built on your figures, with the assumptions listed so finance can test every one.

Build or buy

Most AI should be bought. Some should be built. The strategy says which.

Most AI capability should be bought: a licence, an add-on, a feature of a platform you already pay for. Some should be built, because it is your process and your data and no product does it. The strategy says which is which, use case by use case.

Getting this wrong in either direction is expensive. Building what you could have bought wastes a year. Buying what needed to be built leaves you with a tool nobody uses and a subscription nobody cancels.

How it runs

Four to six weeks with your leadership team

Week 1
Inputs and opportunity workshopReadiness findings, leadership interviews, and a working session that produces the first version of the map.
Weeks 2–3
Map, sizing and checksEvery candidate sized. Data and systems checked for the top ten so feasibility is a fact, not a guess.
Week 4
Prioritisation workshopLeadership ranks the map with the formula on the wall. The roadmap is drafted in the room.
Weeks 5–6
Business case and architecture directionBoard-ready presentation. The hand-off to Design, if you continue with us, or to whoever builds it if you do not.

Questions

What people ask about AI Strategy

We already have a list of ideas. Do we still need this?

A list is the input. The strategy is the ranking, the sequencing, the build-or-buy call and the business case. Most lists we see have the right ideas in the wrong order and no numbers behind them.

Will the roadmap lock us into your build team?

No. Every roadmap is written so another supplier could deliver it, and every architecture direction names the platform, not a Be AI dependency. We would like to build it; you do not have to let us.

How long is a strategy valid?

The three-year direction holds. The 90-day layer is re-planned every quarter, which is what the AI Managed service does. AI tools change monthly; your strategy should not.

Do we need the Readiness Assessment first?

It helps, because feasibility scores rest on it. If you have not done one, the first week of the strategy includes a lighter version.

Decide on purpose what AI does in your business.

Talk to an AI architect about a strategy engagement, or start with the free AI Opportunity Score to see where the value probably sits.

Start your AI journey →Get my AI Opportunity Score Or call 0800 23 3444