AI Strategy & Roadmap

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Every company wants to “use AI.” Fewer have a plan that actually works. 

At Queen City AI, we help businesses across the Carolinas move from experimentation to execution, mapping out a 90-day and 12-month roadmap that ties AI directly to performance, margin, and growth. 

Our approach is grounded in one simple idea: roadmap before tools. The fastest path to AI success starts with clarity — knowing what to automate, what to ignore, and how to measure impact. 

Why Most AI Initiatives Stall 

Across industries — from manufacturing to finance to logistics — leaders are discovering that AI isn’t just a plug-and-play technology. It’s an ecosystem shift. Without a strategy, companies waste months testing tools that never make it past the pilot stage. 

Here’s what we see most often: 

• Unclear business objectives — no alignment between leadership, IT, and operations. 
• Weak data readiness — poor structure, missing integrations, or lack of governance. 
• Tool-first decisions — teams pick a platform before identifying the use case. 
• No ROI metrics — success is measured in “activity” rather than value created. 

According to Gartner, fewer than 20% of enterprise AI pilots ever reach full production. In our experience, the issue isn’t technical — it’s architectural. A roadmap creates the connective tissue between intent and execution. 

What a Queen City AI Roadmap Delivers 

Our AI Strategy & Roadmap service is designed to help Charlotte-based organizations create a structured, actionable plan that prioritizes value and momentum. 

Deliverables include: 

• AI Readiness Snapshot — assessment of your data, systems, and culture. 
• Top Use Cases Identified — scored by Impact, Confidence, and Effort (ICE framework). 
• 90-Day Sprint Plan — clearly defined owners, KPIs, and quick wins. 
• 3–12-Month Expansion Roadmap — sequence for scaling and budgeting. 
• Executive Readout — final deliverable that aligns leadership on priorities, costs, and ROI expectations. 

Every roadmap is co-created with your leadership and functional teams. That collaboration ensures the plan is actionable, not theoretical. It's a guide your teams can immediately implement. 

Our Process: From Discovery to Decision 

1. Discovery Session 

It all begins with an on-site Discovery Session in your office. We sit down with your team — across operations, IT, finance, and leadership — to map processes, goals, and pain points. The objective is to surface where automation, agents, or analytics can deliver tangible outcomes within 30–90 days. 

Output: A shared understanding of priorities and constraints. 

2. Readiness & Capability Review 

Next, we evaluate your data health, system integrations, team skill sets, and overall AI maturity. This identifies dependencies that must be addressed before large-scale deployment. 

Output: A readiness scorecard with recommendations for data, governance, and process alignment.

3. Use-Case Discovery & Scoring 

We then collaborate to generate and score 15–25 candidate use cases using the ICE framework: 

• Impact: Potential value creation (revenue, savings, time). 
• Confidence: Likelihood of success based on data and process quality. 
• Effort: Complexity and resources required to execute. 

Output: A ranked use-case list and recommendations for pilot sequencing. 

4. Roadmap Development 

We design your phased AI roadmap, starting with a 90-day sprint of high-impact, low-risk initiatives, followed by medium-term projects that build on those wins. Each phase includes KPIs, budget guidance, and governance checkpoints. 

Output: A full 90-day sprint plan and 12-month expansion roadmap. 

5. Executive Readout & Next Steps 

Finally, we present your AI Strategy & Roadmap to leadership, aligning your stakeholders on what to fund and when. The plan becomes your blueprint for transformation — ready to execute through your team, your vendors, or with our continued partnership. 

Output: Executive-level presentation with ROI models and implementation options. 

After the Roadmap: Flexible Engagement Models 

Once your roadmap is complete, you’ll know exactly what to build — and how to justify it. From there, we offer multiple engagement paths depending on your goals and internal capabilities. 

1. Retainer Model
For companies ready to scale AI gradually, we act as your external AI strategy partner — tracking KPIs, refining workflows, and supporting deployment. 

2. Project-Based Engagements
We take ownership of specific roadmap items, such as process automation, data integration, or AI agent development. 

3. Software or App Development
For teams pursuing proprietary advantage, we develop internal GPT-powered tools, copilots, or specialized agents using your private data and stack. 

4. Training & Enablement
We train your teams on how to use, govern, and extend the AI systems we design — ensuring long-term adoption and value. 

Why Charlotte Businesses Partner with Queen City AI 

We’re not just consultants — we’re operators.
Our team blends deep experience in strategy, marketing, and operations with hands-on AI development expertise. Based in Charlotte, we understand the realities of regional enterprises: tight budgets, lean teams, and the need to see ROI fast. 

That’s why we emphasize: 

• On-site collaboration — real conversations with the people doing the work. 
• Actionable deliverables — no slide decks that sit on a server. 
• Local accountability — we’re part of the same business ecosystem. 

Our clients choose us because we deliver clarity first — then help them build at the pace their organization can sustain. 

Ready to Build Your AI Roadmap? 

If you’re exploring how AI fits into your business, start with a session that pays for itself.
Our Discovery Session is an intensive, on-site workshop that reveals your top AI opportunities and delivers a decision-ready plan within days — not months. 

Book your Discovery Session
Turn exploration into execution.