Exclusive: Teneo, Thoughtworks launch C-suite AI venture
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Teneo, the CEO advisory firm, and Thoughtworks, the software engineering consultancy, are launching an AI-focused joint venture.
Why it matters: AI is advancing faster than many companies can adopt it. This partnership aims to help large corporations turn AI ambition into working tools.
Zoom in: The venture combines Teneo's boardroom access with Thoughtworks' 10,000+ engineers to build custom AI tools for executives during "one of the most consequential technology upheavals in their careers," Paul Keary, Teneo's CEO, told Axios.
- The AI-powered tools will help businesses with product development, investor relations, regulatory changes and mapping geopolitical issues.
- The effort begins operating immediately with major tech partners including AWS, Google, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Databricks, taking their offerings and helping "companies understand how to apply it effectively," said Mike Sutcliff, CEO of Thoughtworks.
What they're saying: "We are in the boardrooms with the CEOs as they're struggling to turn their AI ambition" into reality, Alex Pigliucci, Teneo's global head of enterprise clients, who will lead the venture, told Axios.
- There's "this ocean between them and their IT executives" that the joint venture aims to address, he added.
Zoom out: Pigliucci has already developed best practices for executives looking to embrace AI:
- CEOs need to be the ones ensuring that workers adopt AI, instead of asking another employee to encourage or oversee adoption.
- Show quarterly, or monthly progress on use cases, not just one-off partnerships with AI labs.
- Don't commit to one tool at this phase of the AI buildout. Experiment.
- For every AI license you have, companies should look for measurable business outcomes specific to their operations, not generic use cases.
Threat level: The partnership comes after both Anthropic and OpenAI have announced partnerships with consulting firms, indicating the AI may in fact still need humans to teach and encourage corporates on how to use it effectively.
- That goes both ways: "We don't need to displace the Anthropics... the hyperscalers. Indeed, we fit neatly within that ecosystem," Keary said.
The bottom line: "You've got to have your secret sauce to help build and defend your business," Pigliucci said.
- Learning to evolve alongside AI may be key to that success.
