The situation

A global ecommerce agency with 40+ staff was already exploring AI. Teams across the business were using large language models for individual tasks: drafting content, summarising data, answering one-off questions. The interest was there, and the curiosity was genuine.

What was missing was the bigger picture. AI was being used as a point solution for isolated tasks, not as infrastructure that could connect workflows, automate processes, or produce tools the team could use every day. The leadership team knew there was more potential. They just hadn't seen what that looked like in practice.

What changed

We introduced the agency's founders and senior leadership to Claude Code. Not through a slide deck or a product demo. Through a working session that showed what AI could actually build when given the right context and direction.

01 Show, don't pitch

Instead of presenting AI capabilities in the abstract, we demonstrated Claude Code working on real problems from their business. The founders could see code being written, tools being built, and outputs being produced in real time. That direct experience did more than any strategy document could.

02 Leadership adopted immediately

Both founders and the wider C-suite started using Claude Code straight away. Not as a novelty, but as part of how they were thinking about the business. That top-down engagement is rare. Most AI adoption stalls because leadership delegates it to a single team. Here, the people making strategic decisions were using the tools themselves.

03 Build something real

To prove the value beyond exploration, we built a custom sales pitch tool: a browser-based application that ingests third-party data sources and produces tailored pitch materials for new business conversations. Not a prototype. A working tool the team uses in their sales workflow today.

04 Think in systems, not tasks

The real shift was in how the team started thinking about AI. Instead of asking "what can AI help me write?" the conversation moved to "what workflows can we redesign?" and "what custom tools should we build?" That reframing opened up possibilities across sales, marketing, operations, and client delivery.

Where it's heading

The agency has now launched a formal AI project to accelerate adoption across the business. The vision goes beyond individual tools. The team is building the foundations to connect their data, systems, and workflows in ways that make AI a core part of how the agency operates.

We're leading the sales and marketing workstream, with more areas of the business coming online in the weeks ahead. This is an ongoing engagement with new capabilities being delivered regularly.

What's been delivered so far

01

Sales pitch tool

Custom browser application that digests third-party data and produces tailored pitch materials. Built and in use by the sales team.

02

C-suite AI adoption

Both founders and the leadership team actively using Claude Code in their day-to-day work. Top-down engagement driving company-wide momentum.

03

Internal AI project

Formal project launched to embed AI across the business. Structured roadmap with workstreams covering sales, marketing, and operations.

04

Data infrastructure planning

Groundwork underway to connect the agency's data sources and systems, giving AI tools the context they need to deliver real value.

Why this matters

Most businesses explore AI by giving a few people access to ChatGPT and seeing what happens. That approach produces scattered experiments, not transformation. What makes this engagement different is that the catalyst was practical, not theoretical. Leadership saw what was possible through a working demonstration, adopted the tools themselves, and committed to building AI into the fabric of the business.

The shift from "AI helps with individual tasks" to "AI powers our workflows and tools" is where the real value sits. That's the shift we helped make happen.

Further reading