Anne James

Ways to work together

Strategy & insight

AI governance

Marketing leadership

Research

Strategic insight research

Before a major bet, find out how your customers and your own teams really work, and where a new product, market or AI tool will fit or fail.

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Format
Interviews, observation and short surveys, on-site and remote
Duration
6 to 12 weeks
Participants
Customers, frontline and operations teams, and leadership sponsors, depending on the question
What you get
  • A findings report with clear implications for the decision in front of you
  • Customer or employee journey maps based on observed behaviour
  • Baseline measures you can track after launch

The program includes

  1. Frame the decision and the questions whose answers would change it.
  2. Design the research: who to hear from, where to observe, and how personal data is protected.
  3. Listen and observe: interviews, and time alongside people where the work actually happens.
  4. Analyse and benchmark: code and count what you heard, compare groups, and set it against market data.
  5. Turn findings into recommendations, present them to leadership, and close the loop with the people who took part.

Advisory

AI strategy and portfolio priorities

Decide which AI initiatives to back, which to pause and which to stop, based on value, risk, and what your organisation can actually absorb.

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Format
Facilitated engagement, on-site and remote
Duration
8 to 12 weeks
Participants
Executive sponsors, and product, data, risk and business-unit leads
What you get
  • An inventory of AI initiatives, scored on value, risk and readiness
  • A prioritised roadmap with clear owners and success measures
  • A board-ready account of where you stand on AI, and why

The program includes

  1. Map current and planned AI work across products, operations and vendors.
  2. Interview sponsors and teams on what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s been promised.
  3. Score each initiative on value, risk, data readiness and the change it asks of people.
  4. Set priorities with leadership in facilitated sessions, including what to stop.
  5. Hand over the roadmap and board narrative, with a light process for reviewing them each quarter.

Policy and standards

Build an AI governance framework

Define the principles, roles and review steps that guide how your organisation builds, buys and uses AI, then show customers and regulators where you stand.

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Format
Embedded engagement, on-site and remote
Duration
8 to 12 weeks
Participants
Product, engineering, data, legal, security, HR and communications leads
What you get
  • A framework your team can apply on a normal Tuesday
  • Named decision owners, a review process and an AI inventory
  • A public statement of your AI standards, including how you’ll tell customers when AI is involved

The program includes

  1. Map current and planned AI use across products, internal tools and vendors.
  2. Assess the risks to customers, employees, data protection and your contracts, mapped to the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001 and the NIST AI RMF.
  3. Draft principles and decision rules with your leadership team, including who signs off and when.
  4. Publish your standards: turn your key decisions into a plain-language statement for customers, partners and regulators.
  5. Set up a lightweight review process for new models, features and vendors, and hand over the framework with a plan to revisit it as regulation and practice change.

Workshop

AI vendor procurement workshop

Learn what to ask before you buy or renew an AI-enabled tool, and how to read the answers.

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Format
Facilitated workshop with your procurement, legal, security and IT teams
Duration
Half day
Participants
Procurement, legal, security, IT and the teams requesting tools (max. 12 people)
What you get
  • A reusable vendor question checklist
  • A simple approach to comparing vendors
  • A short decision record template

The program includes

  1. Frame the decision: what problem the tool should solve, and what could go wrong.
  2. Walk through the vendor questions: data use, training on your data, security, hosting and exit terms.
  3. Read real vendor claims and terms together and spot the gaps.
  4. Score a live example from your own shortlist.
  5. Agree on your review steps and who signs off.

Training

Critical AI skills for staff

Your teams are already using AI. I teach where general-purpose AI fails, how to protect company and customer data, and how to check accuracy and apply oversight.

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Format
In-person or live online workshop
Duration
Half day or full day
Participants
Sales, marketing, customer support, product and operations teams, by department (max. 15 people)
What you get
  • A shared vocabulary and confidence with AI tools
  • Rules of thumb for everyday use
  • Clear points to escalate risky cases
  • Training that supports the AI literacy expectations of the EU AI Act

The program includes

  1. How AI tools work, and how they fail, with examples from your industry.
  2. Hands-on exercises in the tools your team already uses.
  3. Spotting risks: hallucinations, confidential data, copyright and privacy.
  4. Working with your policy: what is allowed, what needs review, and who to ask.
  5. A take-home guide tailored to your organisation.

Embedded leadership

Interim marketing leadership

Cover the gap between CMOs, or lead a launch or turnaround your current team doesn’t have room for.

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Format
Part of your leadership team two to four days a week, on-site and remote
Duration
3 to 9 months
Participants
The executive team, marketing leadership and agencies
What you get
  • A steady marketing function while you hire, with clear priorities and reporting
  • A review of team, agencies, tools and spend, with recommendations
  • A brief for your permanent hire, and a clean handover

The program includes

  1. Take stock in the first two weeks: team, pipeline, budget, agencies and open commitments.
  2. Set priorities for the period with the executive team.
  3. Lead the team and agencies week to week, and report to leadership.
  4. Fix what’s blocking you: process, tooling, messaging or measurement.
  5. Help hire your permanent CMO, and hand over cleanly.

Go-to-market

Launch an AI product without overclaiming

Position a new AI product so it sells, and make sure every claim in the launch stands up to customers, regulators and your own legal team.

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Format
Working sessions alongside your product marketing team
Duration
6 to 10 weeks
Participants
Product, product marketing, sales, legal and communications leads
What you get
  • Positioning, messaging and a launch plan grounded in customer evidence
  • A claims review: what you can say about accuracy, safety and data use, and how to back it up
  • Customer-facing disclosures and FAQs on how the AI works and where its limits are

The program includes

  1. Test the value with target customers before the launch copy is written.
  2. Set positioning and messaging with product and sales.
  3. Review every claim against the evidence, the risk of “AI-washing”, and transparency rules such as the EU AI Act’s.
  4. Plan the launch: channels, sales enablement and customer communications.
  5. Measure early results and adjust the story.

“Where do we stand on AI?”

Boards, customers and regulators are all asking, and “we’re looking into it” won’t hold for long. I can help you reach a position you can explain and defend.

Get in touch