From AI Readiness to AI Realisation – Reflections from the ANS Frontier Event

Yesterday we had the pleasure of joining the ANS Frontier event - a day focused on a question many organisations are now asking themselves: how do we move from experimenting with AI to actually realising value from it?

Hosted at the incredible Londoner Hotel in Leicester Square and bringing together leaders from across technology, public sector, financial services and industry, the event created space for honest stories, practical lessons, and thought-provoking conversations about what it really takes to become an AI-enabled organisation.

It was also great to spend time with the wider ANS team – whose energy and openness set the tone for the day.

ICS.AI CEO, Martin Neale, joined a panel discussion on the future of work, sharing insights from ICS.AI’s experience helping organisations move beyond pilots and into real transformation.

Here are a few reflections from the day.

AI transformation isn’t about technology – it’s about organisations

A consistent theme across the sessions was that AI success isn’t driven by tools alone. It requires changes to operating models, culture and leadership.

Several speakers made the point that many organisations get stuck in an endless loop of experimentation – running pilot after pilot without translating them into real operational change. The organisations moving fastest are the ones that treat AI as a business transformation programme, not an IT project.

That means rethinking workflows, operating models and decision-making processes - not simply layering AI on top of existing ways of working.

As Jason Earnshaw, Practice Lead at ANS put it: “It’s not about the toolset you use. It’s about reimagining your business models and processes.”

This resonates strongly with what we see across the organisations we work with. AI becomes transformative when it changes how work gets done, not just how quickly tasks can be completed.

Leadership ambition sets the ceiling for AI impact

Another recurring message throughout the day was the role of leadership. If senior leadership sees AI as a small productivity initiative, the outcomes will remain incremental.

But when leadership aligns around becoming an AI-native organisation, the transformation becomes structural.

As Kyle Hill, CTO at ANS, highlighted: “Leadership buy-in and direction is critical. What are we anchoring on as a leadership team and what direction are we giving our organisation?”

During the panel discussion, Martin reinforced a similar point – emphasising that the starting point is ambition: Organisations need alignment between leadership ambition and the operating model they deploy - otherwise transformation simply won’t happen.

In sectors like local government, this ambition is often driven by necessity. Financial pressure and increasing service demand mean organisations must find new ways to deliver outcomes. The result? Some of the most ambitious AI transformations today are happening in the public sector.

Adoption matters more than access

Another powerful insight from the day was the distinction between usage and adoption. Many organisations are now rolling out AI tools across their workforce. But access alone doesn’t guarantee impact.

As Kyle put it: “Everybody could have a licence for AI tools… but are they really adopting it? Are they changing the way they work?”

Real transformation happens when people change their habits and ways of working - integrating AI into daily workflows rather than treating it as an occasional tool.

This requires leadership, training, community learning and a culture where experimentation is encouraged.

Data foundations still matter (perhaps more than ever)

Another key takeaway was the importance of getting the foundations right. AI can only be as good as the data it learns from. If data is fragmented, inconsistent or poorly governed, AI doesn’t solve the problem - it amplifies it.

Martin Brierley, Practice Lead for Data & AI at ANS, and Simon Blewitt, CTO at Makutu, used a great analogy during their data session: “AI is like a loudspeaker. If the underlying data is messy, AI simply makes the noise louder.”

That’s why organisations that are successfully scaling AI have typically invested in:

• Strong data platforms

• Clear governance and ownership

• A shared understanding of key data assets

  
  

Only once those foundations are in place can AI operate reliably at scale.

Trust is the real accelerator

If there was one word that kept appearing throughout the day, it was trust.

Trust between employees and leadership. Trust in the data, and trust in AI outputs. Without it, adoption stalls.

Several speakers highlighted that governance isn’t a barrier to innovation - it’s actually an enabler of it. When people know the guardrails are in place, they feel safe experimenting and building new solutions. “Governance isn’t a brake. It’s an accelerator”.

The future of work will be human-led, AI-enabled

The panel discussion on the future of work explored how roles and organisations will evolve as AI becomes embedded in everyday operations.

One comment suggested that: “This may be the last generation of managers who manage only humans”.

In the near future, many teams will include AI agents working alongside people, helping automate tasks, analyse information and support decisions. But across every conversation, one principle remained constant: AI works best when humans stay firmly in control.

The goal isn’t replacing people - it’s freeing them to focus on higher-value work.

What this means for organisations today

Many of the themes discussed at Frontier mirror what we’re seeing across organisations we work with at ICS.AI. The shift from AI experimentation to AI realisation requires more than deploying tools or running pilots.

It requires:

• A clear AI operating model

• AI embedded into front-door services, staff productivity and back-office processes

• Governance and trust designed into the platform from the start

• And leadership alignment around real organisational outcomes

In other words, AI has to become part of how the organisation operates, not simply another piece of technology. That is why the conversation is rapidly shifting from “how do we try AI?” to “how do we run an AI-enabled organisation?”

Final reflections

It was a genuinely inspiring and thought-provoking day. Huge thanks to the ANS team for hosting and for bringing together such a diverse group of organisations exploring how AI will reshape the way we work.

The conversations reinforced something we strongly believe at ICS.AI: AI transformation is not about deploying technology. It’s about reimagining how organisations operate in an AI-enabled world. And the organisations that succeed will be the ones that bring people, leadership, and technology together in the right way.

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