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It’s become almost a cliché to talk about the impact of artificial intelligence on the business world – or indeed the world in general. The wealth of opportunity and the potential impact on business value is vast and truly world-changing, but how do you stay ahead of the curve with such fast-moving technology when your company exists specifically to help other organisations use AI to become more efficient and competitive?
That’s why speaking with Michael Chalmers is so fascinating, because, as CEO of data and AI consulting start-up Mesh-AI, his focus is very much on how they are working with enterprises to enable them to capitalise on their data and reap the benefits of AI. Indeed, the general sense of confusion and lack of capabilities around AI in the market has created a clear opportunity for Mesh-AI, which has grown at a startling rate in its 20-month existence.
AI isn’t new, but its current potential is enormous
Really, the key to leveraging the power of AI begins with your data, as Michael explains: “While artificial intelligence is not new, without solid data foundations and a strategy aligned to your business goals, enterprises will never be able to see real ROI. Any AI application is only worth the data it’s built on. Without that, it’s difficult to get business buy-in to make ambitions a reality, the investment into AI could be wasted and any expectations are unrealistic.”
Large enterprises have been underserved by traditional consulting firms when it comes to leveraging the true power of their data, Michael believes. The result now, with the likes of Open AI’s Chat GPT and Google’s Bard becoming popularised, is that organisations will need to go through an AI-driven digital transformation as quickly as they adapted to remote working through the pandemic.
For large enterprises, the transformative potential of AI is now huge, and could be a significant competitive advantage for early adopters.
What’s creating demand for AI-driven transformation
When it comes to demand in the market, Michael shares that Mesh-AI is seeing similar trends industry-wide.
“Many of our customers understand that when AI is implemented correctly, it can boost operational efficiency, unlock the ability to innovate, increase profit margin, reduce risk and give their customers a better experience” he states.
“As an example, regulatory compliance is a fantastic driver for adopting better data usage – and particularly AI and machine learning techniques,” Michael says. This is valuable for organisations in all regulated industries, from banking, capital markets and insurance to energy and utilities.
How does Mesh-AI add tangible value to clients?
One of Mesh-AI’s defining principles is being “outcome-focused”. But what puts them in a better position to support their customers, compared to their competitors?
Michael explains “A major pattern that we see across all of our enterprise customers, is that they struggle to define a strategic link between AI use cases and business outcomes. We ensure that our work with them consistently revolves around achieving tangible results such as revenue growth, cost savings and risk reduction. Simply embracing AI for the sake of innovation is not enough; we must focus on how AI can become a powerful driver for sustainable success.”
He cites one example when Mesh-AI helped a financial services company to strengthen their operational resilience, leveraging a digital twin and knowledge graph capabilities which has allowed them to report in minutes rather than months.
“We put this capability into their hands so they’re more informed and can mitigate fines from the regulator,” Michael says, adding that this project helped save the client “tens of millions” from mitigating regulatory fines.
Part of why Mesh AI has been able to be so successful is the company’s deep focus: in its people and its clients. As Michael explains it, Mesh-AI takes a different approach to a traditional consultancy, “our approach is entirely outcome led. We focus on specific use cases to solve real business challenges enabling our customers to unlock the value of their data, quickly and at scale.”
This focus gives Mesh-AI its competitive edge, as Michael sees it, and its ability to create tangible value at a rapid pace. Michael has spent the last decade working with enterprise customers to transform them into digitally enabled organisations.
However, it became clear that their data was holding them back – despite presiding over a wealth of data, many struggled to harness it for real business value.
“That’s why Mesh-AI stood out to me,” he says. “I saw that the Mesh-AI team has the expertise to transform enterprises through people, process and technology, turning them into data rich organisations ready to unlock AI at scale.”
How Mesh–AI stays ahead of the curve
“Investment in our people’s knowledge and skills is key to how Mesh AI keeps ahead of the curve”, as Michael explains.
He believes the key to the company’s success is fostering a culture of continuous learning and development, while making Mesh-AI a great place to be. “As the people we recruit are world-class, it’s really important to me that as a business we don’t stop and stand still. We offer a really generous training budget, with plenty of opportunity for people to step up and make an impact. We’re doing some amazing things within the data and AI space for our customers and that really keeps it interesting!”
Of course, it’s important to recognise the competitive advantage of simply being a player in a much-hyped space that many people know little about. Michael himself says this lends the company an element of recession-proofing even in today’s challenging market and shrinking budgets.
Again, however, this is where Mesh-AI’s outcome-focused approach comes in useful. It’s widely discussed that the tech industry needs to work hard to attract talent from different backgrounds. Michael agreed, stating “Building a diverse workforce, in all senses of the word, continues to be one of our top priorities as we continue to grow and make sure our culture is one where people feel respected and valued, while also able to make a real impact with their work. In fact, one of the first things we did when I joined the business was revisit our values to make sure they properly reflected who we are and want to be”.
How Michael became a CEO
When Michael became CEO, it was his first experience in the role and felt “a bit different” to his previous Managing Director role at Contino, a cloud and DevOps consultancy, which he saw through to an acquisition by Cognizant.
“If you can get the right culture, the right attitude, and the right values in place, everything else will go well because you’ll attract the right people and talent.”
Yet, there are several differences between the organisations. “This is a very different business, a different market opportunity, with different market conditions, and different problems we’re trying to solve with our clients.”
At the same time, running a smaller business makes it easier to influence the culture, and one of the first things Michael did when he joined the company was to review its organisational values and aspirations.
“If you can get the right culture, the right attitude, and the right values in place, everything else will go well because you’ll attract the right people and talent,” he says.
The story of how Michael became a CEO is interesting too. It offers a few potential lessons for others wishing to develop their leadership careers. As he tells it, around seven years ago he was working as a chief technologist and thought he would enjoy running his own business. So he started by looking at his skills and experience gaps.
“I needed financial management experience and people management experience” he says, “and while I’d already had sales experience, I thought I probably needed to broaden my experience internationally.”
At that time he was working at HP, so was able to move into a role as a global client lead managing people across the globe. This experience taught him a lot, from which he joined Contino. “I had the opportunity to run the sales team and grow that internationally”
So the key to success in developing Michael’s leadership skills? Insatiable curiosity and willingness to learn – “Not just sales, growth, and consulting, but the people, the legal, financial, marketing aspects as well.”
From there, and the bond he had developed with founders from their time at Contino, he leaped at the chance to work with them again at Mesh-AI: “When they came to me at the end of last year with this opportunity I just thought it would be really exciting to go after.”
The company’s progress will certainly be exciting to watch in the months ahead.
