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A UK multi-brand operator scaling toward 5,000 units by 2030 was running critical operations across spreadsheets, disconnected SaaS, and informal vendor relationships. No single owner held the technology surface area, and growth was beginning to expose it.

I joined as the first strategic technology hire to map the existing stack end-to-end, set a vendor and build-versus-buy policy, stand up an internal automation capability, and put governance around AI use across the group. Decisions were sequenced against the operating model, not the tooling roadmap.

Within twelve months the group has a documented technology operating model, a working internal automation platform, an AI policy with live workflows in production, and clear ownership of every system on the critical path. Procurement decisions now run through a single review.

Client demand for AI-led delivery had outpaced the agency's internal capability. Teams were experimenting in isolation, producing impressive demos but few repeatable patterns, and leadership had no clear view of what was production-grade versus exploratory.

I led the internal AI and automation programme: capability assessment across practices, an internal RAG and LLM workflow architecture shared between teams, and an adoption framework that paired senior practitioners with case-led training rather than generic enablement.

The result was a small portfolio of AI-driven internal tools used across client engagements, a shared technical baseline that cut ramp-up time on new AI work, and a governance posture that let commercial teams quote AI capability with confidence.

Editorial and broadcast teams across multiple divisions depended on specialist design and motion expertise for routine assets. Throughput was capped by a small pool of senior creatives, and turnaround times made same-day social and on-air work difficult.

I designed and shipped a pair of internal platforms — a templated graphics system for editors and a browser-based motion automation tool that imported After Effects projects — built directly against the existing newsroom and broadcast workflows.

Over a hundred editors across four divisions moved to self-serve asset creation. Creative leads reclaimed time for high-value work, output volume rose substantially, and the platforms became the default path for routine on-air and social production.