Services / For established companies

An audit by the
people who actually build.

A working read of your AI position, by builder-operators behind a studio of AI-native ventures that ships product weekly. We tell you what to build, what to buy, what to kill, and where the real defensible value sits.

Book a discovery call See what the audit covers 30 minutes · no obligation · founder-led

Human-led by the founder of Podium VS. With an on-call bench of AI-native operators when the work needs it.

The audit doesn’t end at the report.

Every AI Audit includes a monthly Briefing for twelve months after the engagement ends. We use the intelligence we gathered during the audit to produce a tailored monthly read on what’s happening in AI that matters for your business specifically.

Not a generic newsletter. A brief written for you, building on what we already know about how your firm operates.

A read on your position, not a deck on the market.

You do not need another presentation explaining that AI is going to be big. You need someone to sit with your team, look at how the business actually runs, and tell you which parts of it are about to be rewritten and which parts are safe.

The audit produces an actionable written report. It says what to build, what to buy, what to kill, and what to defend. It tells you where the real defensible value sits in your sector, which is usually not where consultancies think it is. It identifies the two or three moves that will actually shift the business in the next twelve months, without hiring an army.

The credibility is the work. Podium VS runs a studio of AI-native Ventures and ships product weekly across a wider portfolio. Fourteen AI agents in place of conventional headcount, running on under 10% of what equivalent traditional roles would cost. We do this every day. That is the experience we bring to your audit. For clients who want it, the relationship continues after the audit ends as a Fractional Chief AI Officer engagement, including a tailored monthly Briefing on AI developments relevant to their business.

Seven questions, answered.

i.

Where AI changes your unit economics

We map your cost base against what current models can actually do reliably. Not theoretical futures. The places where margin is about to compress, and the places where it will not.

ii.

What you should build and what you should buy

Almost everyone over-builds. Some things genuinely warrant a proprietary stack. Most do not. We will tell you which is which for your business, with a clear reason for each.

iii.

Where your real defensible value sits

Foundation models commoditise capability. They do not commoditise regulated positioning, professional networks, audit trails, or accountability. We identify the parts of your business that are defensible, and the parts that are not.

iv.

The two or three moves that matter

Not a list of forty initiatives. The moves you can ship in the next twelve months with the team you already have, ranked by impact.

v.

What to stop spending on

The vendor renewals to question. The consultancy engagements that produce nothing. The pilot projects that should be killed. The hires you are about to make that you do not need.

vi.

How to structure your AI capability

Whether you need a Head of AI, a small in-house team, an outside partner, or some combination. We tell you what works at your scale, and what is just expensive theatre.

vii.

Your AI footprint, in the operating decision

Energy and water are now strongly correlated with cost. We tell you which workloads are oversized, which vendor regions are routed through dirtier grids, and where the run-rate decision and the footprint decision are the same decision. Our environmental position →

Audit. Build. Ongoing relationship.

Weeks 1 to 3

The AI Audit

Three weeks of focused work culminating in one actionable written report. The diagnostic that names the highest-value AI moves for your business: what to build, what to buy, what to kill, and where the real defensible value sits.

Following month

Build, where it makes sense

Because we own all our underlying platform components across legal, finance, and AI workflow infrastructure, bespoke AI solutions for clients cost a fraction of what a from-scratch build would cost. Most audit clients commission at least one build directly off the back of the audit report.

Ongoing

Fractional Chief AI Officer

Monthly tailored Briefing on AI developments relevant to your business, regular access for specific questions as they arise, and ongoing oversight of any builds in flight. The relationship continues as long as it is useful to both sides.

Four steps. Three weeks. One written report.

Step 0130 min

Discovery call

A direct conversation about your business and what you actually want to know. No sales process. If it is not the right engagement, we will tell you on the call.

Step 02Week 1

Discovery and access

Working sessions with your operating team. Light access to your data, vendor contracts, and tooling. We do the homework. You carry on running the business.

Step 03Week 2

Build and analyse

We model the economics, prototype the recommended moves where useful, and pressure-test our recommendations against what we know works in production.

Step 04Week 3

Written report and read-out

An actionable written report you can take to your board. A two-hour read-out with your team to land the recommendations. Follow-up access for thirty days.

Four things this is not.

  • i.Not a market study. We assume you know your sector better than we do.
  • ii.Not a sales process for a long implementation engagement. The audit stands on its own.
  • iii.Not a hundred-page deck. The deliverable is short and clear because that is what gets acted on.
  • iv.Not staffed by junior consultants. The work is led by Sanjay Wadhwani, founder of Podium VS.

Two short lists.

A good fit

This is right for you if:

  • You run an established business in the UK or EU, typically with material revenue and a real cost base.
  • Your board is asking you for a credible AI position, and you want a defensible answer.
  • You suspect the consultancy proposals on your desk are over-priced and under-specific.
  • You want to hear from someone who actually ships AI products, not someone who advises about them.
  • You are prepared to act on the recommendations, not file them.
A poor fit

This is not right if:

  • You want a long, glossy report that confirms what you already plan to do.
  • You are looking for someone to write your AI marketing copy or run your AI press cycle.
  • You are a pre-revenue startup. Our companion service for that lives on the Build page.
  • You expect the work to be done by a team of analysts you have never met.
Led by
Sanjay Wadhwani
Founder, Podium VS · Fractional Chief AI Officer
  • 2022→Founder, Podium VS. AI-native venture studio: ventures live, many products shipping, 14-agent operating model.
  • 2015→Founder, Podium Ventures. Venture studio advising and launching startups across wearable tech, fitness, wellbeing, and content marketing.
  • 2012→Founded Ascension Ventures, the UK’s first SEIS fund. Sold his stake in 2015.
  • 2010→Founded Ascension Media, one of the UK’s earliest venture studios.
  • 2006→CEO of Ingenious Ventures. Managed a £150m media venture fund.
  • 2000→Director, Ingenious Corporate Finance. M&A and ventures in media and entertainment.
  • PriorArthur Andersen. ICAEW Fellow. Chartered Tax Adviser.

Three decades of building, financing and selling companies. Building with AI as the team since 2022.

The audit is not delegated. Sanjay leads the work end to end, backed where useful by the AI-native operators he works with day to day in the studio. You speak to the person responsible for the recommendations, not to an account manager.

Founder-led · UK based · Confidential
Next step

What happens next.

A thirty-minute call. We will ask about your business and what you want to know. If the audit makes sense, we will tell you what it looks like. If not, we will tell you that too, and point you in a useful direction.

Or write to hello@podiumvs.com