Fractional AI Executive
Driving Strategy,
Governance & Results
I partner with owners and leadership teams to understand how work really happens, identify where AI fits, and guide its rollout into everyday operations.
MIT Sloan Executive Program
Artificial Intelligence: Implicationsfor Business Strategy
25+ Years
Business Leadership& Entrepreneurship
International AI Speaker & Trainer
U.S., Canada, and Europe
Two Time National AI Award Winner
Coldwell Banker andInman News
What You Can Expect
A Clear Path Forward
A current, prioritized view of where AI can serve your business, what it requires, and the value it can create. Every decision begins with a clear next step.
Decision Support You Can Trust
I bring the analysis, options, and recommendation; you bring the knowledge of your business. Decisions move forward without taking focus from running it.
Implementation People Adopt
I stay through rollout, working with your leaders to make change practical and safe to try. What is decided becomes part of everyday work.
Momentum That Compounds
Every decision records its reasoning, giving the next one a stronger starting point. Over time, AI becomes a consistent business capability, not a series of disconnected conversations.
Start with Understanding the Work Before Applying AI
First principles means setting aside what is available and starting from the work itself.
What is the goal of your process? What has to be true for it to succeed. Which steps are essential, and which have simply been carried forward from earlier years without anyone revisiting them. Where the work is really happening, and where assumptions distort the picture.
Once the work is clear, it becomes much easier to see where AI can genuinely help, producing a better outcome than beginning with a product.
Applying AI to a process you have not examined amplifies whatever is already there. Understand it first, and the technology has something solid to work with.
This is also why the result is a system rather than a collection of tools. When the fundamentals of a process are clear, you can define how it should run, who owns it, what good performance looks like, and how you will know it is working. That definition gives your team a clear standard to build and operate against and makes the result a repeatable system.
Practical Judgement Amid The AI Noise
There is no shortage of claims about what AI delivers. Fewer of them hold up under examination.
What separates businesses seeing real returns from those simply spending on technology is not budget and it is not tooling. It is whether the work itself has been reconsidered, and whether the decisions receive sustained attention at a leadership level. Businesses achieving meaningful results are roughly three times more likely to have done both.
I work to that same standard inside your business. Before something changes, I establish where it stands today. Afterward, I measure against that baseline. Where the evidence is incomplete, I say so plainly and identify what needs to be tested or adjusted to meet the intended metrics.
How I Work With Your Business
Understand How Work Really Happens
I learn how work moves through your business, where effort is spent, and what your people already do well. Everything else is built from there.
Identify Where AI Adds Value
I rank the opportunities where AI can improve how you operate, balancing value against effort, risk, and time to results.
Choose Tools That Fit
I assess options against your needs, total cost, and long-term implications, then provide a clear recommendation and the reasoning behind it.
Design The New Way Of Working
I define the workflow, ownership, human review, success criteria, and measures of value. Your team works from a practical plan, not an idea.
Lead The Rollout
I guide adoption across roles, learning, sequencing, and friction. Your process owners manage the schedule; I stay involved until the approach is working in practice.
Create The Conditions For Adoption
I work with leadership to make change safe and worthwhile: visible commitment, permission to experiment, and recognition for useful progress. Governance sets the boundaries; culture drives action.
Establish Practical Governance
Clear guidance for using AI with business, client, and employee information that is practical enough to follow and sound enough to withstand scrutiny.
Build A Record You Can Use
Each decision captures what was considered, what was chosen, and why. Over time, this becomes a repeatable way to make AI decisions.
AI Strategy & Activation Engagement
A focused initial engagement that moves from understanding your business to putting practical AI changes into use.
Days 1–30
Understand & prioritize
Build a clear picture of how work operates and where AI can add value.
You receive: a written 30-, 60-, and 90-day plan.
Days 31–60
Design & activate
Turn the highest-priority opportunities into defined initiatives and begin rollout.
You gain: designed workflows, clear ownership, and initiatives in motion.
Days 61–90
Embed & advance
Strengthen adoption, review early results, and set the direction for what follows.
You have: a current decision record, evidence of progress, and practical next steps.
Throughout The Engagement
Recurring executive sessions, practical governance guidance, ongoing analysis, and support for your process owners as the work moves forward.
What Your Business Gains
A Complete View Of Your AI Landscape
A current inventory of existing tools, subscriptions, and uses covering cost, ownership, data, and governance. Plus ranked opportunities assessed for value, feasibility, risk, and time to results.
A 30-60-90 Day Plan
Clear priorities, process owners, milestones, dependencies, and decision points.
A Path From Decision To Daily Use
Each approved initiative has clear requirements, workflows, ownership, human review points, learning needs, success measures, and next stage decision points.
Practical AI Governance
Responsible use guidelines, approved tools and use cases, human review and data use requirements, and a record of risks and exceptions designed for leadership approval and everyday use.
Regular Reporting
Ongoing detailed analysis and reference documents to track initiative status, decisions, open items, and record updates.
A Complete AI Decision Record
At the end of the engagement, you have a current record of decisions, open items, risks and their owners, capability gaps, and recommended priorities for what comes next.
Is This Right For Your Business?
For businesses of roughly 50–500 employees where AI is a sustained leadership priority, not an occasional topic.
This is a strong fit if you:
- See competitors adopting AI and want a strategic approach for your own business.
- Have decisions about tools, providers, or workflows and want clear analysis before committing.
- Want AI embedded in everyday work, not operating alongside it.
- Are ready to set priorities and move adoption forward with focused leadership.
- Can provide an open view of current tools, costs, and risks.
- Want to build lasting AI capability within your team.
When a Different Approach May Be Better
An ongoing engagement is not the best starting point for every business. It is useful to establish that early.
A different approach may be better if:
- You have one defined question or workflow. The AI Opportunity Assessment may be a better fit: a three-week review of one workflow, with a clear path forward and focused investment.
- The need is primarily a custom technology build. I help design requirements, ownership, and success measures; a technical specialist completes the build itself.
- You need formal specialist advice. Legal, security, privacy, tax, and compliance matters require qualified expertise. I identify the questions, connect you with the right specialist, and help you move forward with confidence.
Why Work With Kanani
For more than twenty-five years I have led corporate teams, strengthened operations, overseen Hawaiʻi's largest real estate brokerage, and built businesses of my own.
That history is the reason I work the way I do. Time in an operating seat teaches you that the hardest part of a significant decision is rarely the technology. It is understanding what the work genuinely requires, who it affects, and what will still hold true a year from now. I came to AI through that lens rather than the other way around.
I studied artificial intelligence for business strategy at MIT Sloan. I speak, train, and advise on this work across the United States, Canada, and Europe. And I keep current research on how businesses adopt AI close at hand, so that what I recommend rests on evidence rather than momentum.
What my clients tend to value is that I am measured about this. The market is loud and it moves quickly. My interest is in what will still be serving your business a year from now.
FAQs
Start With a Conversation
A 30 minute conversation to discuss your business, the decisions ahead, and what kind of support is right for you.