I've spent the last four years building AI operations functions across dozens of companies including manufacturers, marketing rollups, professional services firms, and holdcos. Before that, I ran marketing agencies and worked in startups.
The pattern I've seen over and over: teams that want to move faster with AI can't because their foundation isn't ready. Disconnected tools. Tribal knowledge. Operational debt compounding under every new hire and every new growth push. You can't automate chaos.
What I do is fix the foundation, then build automation and AI where it actually compounds. The framework is documented in my book "Digital Operations Playbook: AI Readiness for SMBs" (Amazon, 2025).
The wins compound when you stop patching and start building from a solid foundation.
