RousseauAi

Industry Redesign for the AI era

Don’t automate the old company. Design the next one.

Most companies were built around the cost of human labor. AI changes that cost for routine cognitive work, and that changes how the work should be organized. I help CEOs, COOs and investors redesign how their businesses work, so people spend their time on judgment and systems handle the rest.

Discuss a redesign Read The Next Company
Every piece of work has one of four destinations
The Work Allocation Map All current work, every task, handoff, approval and decision, goes to one of four destinations. Eliminate: duplicate steps, obsolete approvals, reports nobody reads. Automate: predictable work run by rules and ordinary software. Delegate: AI carries the work within set limits, people own exceptions. Keep human: judgment, ownership, relationships; AI assists, never owns. Then score the result on cost per transaction, cycle time, capacity released, error rate, quality and margin. All current work Every task, handoff, approval and decision Eliminate Duplicate stepsObsolete approvalsReports nobody reads Automate Predictable workrun by rules andordinary software Delegate AI carries the workwithin set limits,people own exceptions Keep human Judgment, ownership,relationships.AI assists, never owns Score the result Cost per transaction · cycle time · capacity released · error rate · quality · margin The Work Allocation Map All current work Every task, handoff,approval and decision Eliminate Duplicate steps, obsoleteapprovals, reports nobody reads Automate Predictable work run by rulesand ordinary software Delegate AI carries the work within setlimits, people own exceptions Keep human Judgment, ownership, relationships.AI assists, never owns Score the result Cost per transaction · cycle timecapacity released · error ratequality · margin

The broken assumption

Your org chart is a workaround.

Departments, handoffs, status meetings, weekly reports. Much of it exists to coordinate scarce human capacity. That was the right design for a world where every task needed a person.

For a growing share of work, that is no longer true. Adding AI to the old design makes the old design faster. It does not make it better.

Read the full argument in The Next Company

The question is no longer which tools to buy. It is what your company would look like if you built it today.

The method

Redesign the work before you automate it.

The RousseauAi Work Redesign Model asks one question of every task, handoff and decision: where should this work go?

  1. Strip

    Remove work that should not exist.

  2. Sort

    Decide what needs a person, what needs ordinary software, and what AI can carry.

  3. Shift

    Rebuild the workflow around that split.

  4. Supervise

    Set authority, controls and the points where people step in.

  5. Score

    Measure what changed in cost, speed, capacity and quality.

See the Work Redesign Model

The proof

I have redesigned an industry before.

I helped scale Gazelle.com past $100M by building around an assumption the rest of the industry missed. Outerwall acquired it in 2015.

Add the one-line Gazelle insight: what assumption did the industry miss? Add a source for the $100M figure, which the stat block repeats.

Today I build AI systems inside operating companies myself: in logistics, energy and supply chain. I also run my own ventures on a small human team and a synthetic one.

Gazelle.com

Scaled past
$100M
Acquired by Outerwall
2015

Launch gate: these three cards go live only once the Evidence stories behind them are finished and verified. Logistics and jewelry clients stay unnamed until they agree.

  • Logistics.

    AI across a national moving company to get more from its people and fleet.

  • Energy.

    AI monitoring, reporting and dashboards for Nexus Green, a solar company.

  • Supply chain.

    AI supply chain management for a jewelry manufacturer supplying Target and Kohl’s.

See the evidence

Advisory

When you are ready to build it.

  • 4 weeks

    Redesign

    A four-week diagnostic. Your redesigned operating model, the economics, and a 90-day plan.

    From $25,000

  • 90 days

    Build

    Puts the first redesign into production, with a 90-day target.

  • Monthly

    Operate

    Ongoing leadership to run, measure and extend the new model.

Discuss a redesign

See how engagements work

Strategy is human. Execution is increasingly hybrid.

Read Industry Redesign.

One essay a month on how AI changes the way companies are built.

Discuss a redesign.

Tell me where growth is costing you the most.

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