Insights

Where AI becomes revenue, in practice

Field notes on AI adoption, the pilot-to-production gap, and the revenue discipline behind both, written by the executives who lead our engagements.

An operating team reviewing an automated finance dashboard on a boardroom screen Featured · Agentic AI in the portfolio

Agentic AI is already doing four jobs in your portfolio

83% of operating partners report at least one agentic AI use case deployed or piloting. Most are scaling it with no playbook.

Matthew Firth · July 16, 2026
A workflow diagram connecting several business systems on a whiteboard Operations

Business process automation: what you’re buying, what it costs, and what breaks

A real cost anatomy from discovery to retainer, the five ways these projects fail, and a buy-vs-build framework you can use yourself.

Matthew Firth · August 30, 2026 A bookkeeper comparing QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online reports on two monitors Operations

QuickBooks Desktop to Online: what breaks, what won’t migrate, and when you shouldn’t switch

Intuit's documentation covers the how. It cannot cover the whether. The full list of what does not convert, the failure modes that hurt, and a straight decision framework.

Matthew Firth · August 30, 2026 A signed compliance binder beside a laptop showing security settings Compliance

Your WISP is signed. Now what?

A signed plan is not a program. The nine required elements sized to a 3 to 30 person firm, and the evidence auditors and insurers actually ask for.

Matthew Firth · August 30, 2026 An annotated compliance checklist and cost worksheet on a desk Compliance

The FTC Safeguards Rule checklist, annotated, with real costs

All nine elements of 16 CFR 314.4 in one table: what satisfies each at 5 and 50 seats, honest costs, and the evidence to keep.

Matthew Firth · August 30, 2026 An operating partner arranging one-page portfolio scorecards on a boardroom table Private Equity

The operating team's playbook for portfolio AI readiness

Operating teams are getting leaner while AI demands get louder. A standardized, per-portco readiness module is how sponsors keep pace without adding headcount.

Kenneth Lim · July 15, 2026 Hands annotating a printed KPI dashboard beside a laptop Revenue

Define success before you build: the metrics-first rule

AI projects with quantified success metrics set up front succeed about 54% of the time. Without them, about 12%. One discipline, four times the odds.

Kenneth Lim · July 14, 2026 A single lit desk in an open-plan office after hours Governance

Shadow AI is already inside your company

In IBM’s 2026 breach study, 68% of breached organizations lacked AI governance, and 92% of those attacked through AI had no access controls on it. Company data. A ban won't fix it. A policy that channels the demand will.

Matthew Firth · July 14, 2026 An executive reviewing printed pilot reports alone in a meeting room Revenue

Why AI pilots never reach the P&L

Nine in ten organizations use AI. Six percent get 5% or more of EBIT from it. The gap between the pilots that stall and the ones that scale is organizational, and it is closeable.

Matthew Firth · July 13, 2026

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