I help owners of established Sonoma, Napa, and Marin businesses find the AI opportunities that create real value — and, when it's worth it, build the first one so you can see it work before you invest further.
Four technology transitions since 1982. AI is the fifth — and the one that decides the next decade.
Fifteen-question survey, with an optional free 30-minute conversation about the results. No obligation.
“Ken uses AI in a way that goes far beyond simply asking it questions. He combines it with decades of business experience to explore issues deeply, challenge assumptions, and evaluate alternatives. AI expands what he can see and consider; Ken's experience determines what actually makes sense for the business.”
Bob French — CEO, Yoga Health Center
Ken built the Demand Response Mobile App for Southern California Edison, 2019–2021.
“The app has grown to more than 50,000 downloads with over 35,000 active users, and it has become an important part of SCE's demand response program. For Southern California Edison, the DR Mobile App has been huge.”
Bob Gravley — Honeywell
It's knowing which of the many possible things actually matters for your company — and which will cost you money, attention, and credibility with your team.
You know AI matters. What you don't know is where it would create real value in your business, what to pursue first, and what to deliberately ignore. Disconnected experiments aren't a strategy.
Employees are using AI whether it's been discussed or not. The open questions are whether they're using it well, what company information is going into it, and who is accountable for the output.
Every option seems to require a significant investment before you learn whether it works. So the safe move becomes waiting, and nothing gets learned.
The expense isn't a bad AI purchase. It's the year spent deciding, while the work that could have been automated stays manual, the people who could have been more productive stay stuck, and the decision gets no easier for having been postponed.
Schedule a ConsultationI started working in business technology in 1982, when the personal computer was still a radical idea for most companies. In the years since, I've helped businesses evaluate and adopt several generations of technology — and watched which promises held up and which didn't.
I founded and led The Power Store, an IT consulting and custom software company, for 17 years — growing it to 55 people. Since then I've worked as a technology executive, business owner, and advisor to small and midsize companies.
AI may be the most consequential shift yet. But the questions leadership has to answer are the ones I've been helping people answer for more than 40 years: what creates real value, what introduces unnecessary risk, and what should we do first.
More About My BackgroundUnderstand the business first, the technology second.
Separate lasting value from hype.
Prepare the people who will be affected.
Invest only where it produces a meaningful result.
AI will affect your entire company. The response should start with the whole picture — not with whichever department happened to ask first. Both reviews look at the business as a whole; they differ in how much of it I examine before I tell you anything.
Working sessions with you and your senior team, plus a review of your systems and how information moves between them. Ten days to two weeks.
You get an opportunity inventory across the company, a prioritized shortlist with the reasoning shown, and specific first-30 and first-90-day moves.
Everything in the Leadership Review, plus structured interviews with the people doing the work across four to six functions. Three to four weeks.
You get findings from the work itself, not just leadership's view; a full 30, 90, and 180 day roadmap; and training and responsible-use recommendations.
Every plan says what to pursue first, what to defer, and what to avoid — including what I recommend against, and why. Scope, deliverables, and schedule are agreed before we begin, and the Leadership Review credits in full toward the Whole-Company Review within 90 days.
Compare the ReviewsMost AI consulting ends with a document. Mine doesn't have to.
When the review surfaces an opportunity worth testing, I can build a focused working application — internal tool, dashboard, client-facing service — in weeks, so you learn whether it delivers before committing to a larger investment.
An advisor who never implements bears no cost for a bad recommendation. I might have to build what I recommend, which is a useful discipline — it keeps the plan grounded in what can actually be delivered.
Every plan I write includes what I recommended against — and it's often the most valuable section. I don't resell software and I'm not anyone's partner, so when the answer is "defer all three vendors who approached you," that's what the plan says.
Prepare owners, managers, and employees to use AI confidently and responsibly. Start with practical foundations, then train specific teams against their actual workflows.
Learn more →Turn the highest-value opportunity into working software your people or customers can actually use — built fast, scoped tightly, and tested with real users before you scale it.
Learn more →Optional monthly access to an experienced advisor as tools and priorities change — without creating an internal AI leadership position you don't need yet.
Learn more →Five minutes, with no call or obligation required. You'll get a readiness summary with a first read on where you stand and which next step, if any, fits.
Your responses also feed an anonymized study of how North Bay businesses are actually adopting AI — which I'll share with everyone who participates.
Take the SurveyWhere AI is already being used in your company
Which workflows consume the most manual effort
How prepared your team is to adopt new tools
What information needs protecting
Where the clearest early opportunities sit