Strategy · Technology · Organizational Change
Find the value.
Build the capability.
Prove the result.
We help leadership teams find where the business can create measurable value, then decide whether AI is the best way to capture it.
THE GAP BETWEEN INVESTMENT AND READINESS
AI spending is accelerating.
Business readiness is lagging.
More investment creates more pressure to answer three questions: Is it delivering value? Is it under control? Is the business learning?
Investment is rising
All organizations surveyed are increasing their agentic AI budgets.
Costs are measured
About half track what each agent outcome costs at scale.
Governance is established
Report substantive governance arrangements and operational controls.
Learning is systematic
Show strong capability to turn operational experience into improvements.
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value with Microsoft, Winning on the agentic frontier (November 2026). Survey of 1,000 C-suite executives across 17 geographies and 19 industries, at organizations with $500m+ in annual revenue or budgets. Fieldwork: August–September 2026. Measurement question: n=494.
That is the gap PACE is designed to address.
Set the business priority. Prepare the organization. Deliver under control. Learn from the result.
The PACE system
A complete framework for lasting change.
START HERE
A useful route through the Newthistle site.
Follow the ideas from business ambition to practical action, or go straight to what you need.
Journey 01 →
Understand PACE
The framework for applying AI in the organization. Not only what is needed but how to do it.
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Journey 02 →
Find the value
A core component of PACE. Finding value creation opportunities. Connect the business priority to the process, the owner and the constrained workflow.
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Journey 03 →
Value tracing applied
Follow SiteWorks Cloud, a fictional worked example of finding the real constraint.
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Journey 04 →
How we can help
Set up a no pressure free consultation about your current, or examine what courses, briefings or structured engagements.
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Journey 05 →
Use the guides & tools
Practical guides and tools that open without a form.
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Journey 06 →
Articles & Insights
Read the articles behind the framework, from AI strategy to leadership and culture.
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Private equity owners and portfolio companies
Oversight tools for owners, operating partners, diligence teams and bankers assessing AI in software companies. Understand what AI can do, measure how each portfolio company is performing and ask better questions. The page also sets out the evidence buyers and lenders look for, and where PE software is heading.
AI Valuations
How investment banks view AI and software valuations.
Read the brief →
Our operating principles
What is AI native?
Using AI where it enables materially superior capability the organization cannot otherwise create. That capability must convert into validated business value and acceptable ROI, and be achievable without unmanaged dependency risk.
Deterministic by default.
AI by net advantage.
Resilience by design.
Choose the right intervention. Keep the business in control.
AI by net advantage.
Test AI against the best non-AI alternative, not against doing nothing. Use it only when the extra capability is worth the full cost and dependency risk.
Build a business that learns.
Use evidence from each deployment to improve decisions, strengthen controls and reuse what works. The learning your business retains becomes a capability that buying another model cannot provide.
Read the thinking behind the method.
Three books on value creation, from air traffic control lessons to AI adoption for private equity owners and the leaders who run their companies.
The AI Fix for Private Equity
A practical playbook for investors and portfolio leaders assessing AI from pre-deal to exit.
The AI Fix Field Guide
The what and how of AI adoption, for boards and leaders who must make it an accountable program.
The Accidental Strategist
Air traffic control stories that carry lessons in strategy and business value creation.
Ways to work together
Work with Newthistle
What result are you trying to change?
Start with the business outcome. We can work backwards from there.