Applied AI field guides

All four field guides. One download.

The hard part of AI was never the technology. It is the people and leadership work underneath it.

These four pocket guides come from BTS teams working alongside clients building AI innovation right now. Struggles, successes, failures, and trial and error. Each one is written to be marked up, argued with, and carried into meetings. A clean field guide is one that never left the office.

Here is what the complete set covers.

Field guide 001: How to work with your AI consultant

When to hire outside help, and when to save your money.

• The napkin math. On traditional digital transformation, consulting runs three to 10 times the cost of software. On applied AI, it should run under 1x the cost of your licenses and tokens.
• Red light and green light words to listen for in a pitch. Default to no on assess, gap-fit, and program office. Default to yes on build, coach, and hands-on.
• The exit question to ask after six months: do you trust your people to take AI from here?

Field guide 002: The Gameplan, AI innovation

Turn scattered experiments into an operating rhythm, using flywheels and diamonds.

• How to run a flywheel: go narrow, go fast, get results, communicate. If a team says an innovation needs six months, narrow the scope.
• An eight-point checklist for deciding whether an innovation is a diamond worth mandating company-wide.
• Ten steps to institutionalize a diamond, including setting a cutover date and shutting down the old way of working.
• Three things to skip: readiness assessments, 2x2 prioritization matrices, and multi-year plans.

Field guide 003: Ten leadership sparks to accelerate AI innovation

Ten deliberate moves to create the conditions for success.

• The full set, grouped into build (coach, workshop, simulate), cheer (inspire, applaud, accelerate), and equip (staff, tool, budget, secure).
• Acceleration benchmarks to reset what you ask for. A website prototype in four hours instead of a month. QBR prep in three hours instead of 40.
• The four teams every AI innovation needs, and who belongs on the core team.
• Three spark-o-meters to diagnose a stalled program.

Field guide 004: Toughest leadership moments, AI innovation

Eleven crises you will face, with the mindset and the moves for each.

• What to say when an intern asks in a town hall whether people will lose their jobs.
• What to do when your AI puts an invented number in front of a client.
• How to handle the CFO's AI cost review when token spend runs over budget.
• The four-move loop, listen, learn, level, lead, for the moments no guide predicted.

Download all four guides below.