About us

Built on real delivery, not theory.

We are a small team of practitioners who have spent over two decades inside enterprise software organisations. Our AI work grew from direct operational experience. We saw where the manual work was, understood what it cost, and built the systems to eliminate it.

Founder

Lee Grieve

I spent 23 years in enterprise software professional services and customer success, working across implementation, onboarding operations, and post-sale delivery for B2B software companies. That time inside the delivery engine is where I saw the real cost of manual work: skilled people spending hours on processes that followed a predictable pattern every single time.

The automation work grew directly from that frustration. Not from a theoretical interest in AI, but from knowing exactly where the hours go, what it costs the business, and what those people could be doing instead if the repetitive work was handled by something that never gets tired of doing it.

I built and governed 100+ AI initiatives across 10+ software companies, presented our portfolio model to private equity investors, and have deployed automation that has freed over 40,000 hours of operational capacity in production. Everything on this site is something I have personally built or governed.

AI should do the repetitive. Your people should create the value.

Every engagement I run is built on this principle. We are not here to reduce headcount. We are here to free your team from the work that machines should be doing, so they can focus on the work that only humans can do: building relationships, solving complex problems, and delivering the kind of service that keeps customers for life.

The businesses that win with AI are the ones that use it to elevate what their people do, not replace them.

Experience

23 years of enterprise software delivery.

My background is in enterprise software professional services and customer success: the kind of work where configuration decisions have real consequences, where customers go live on schedules that cannot slip, and where you learn very quickly what manual processes actually cost.

I have worked across the full implementation and post-sale lifecycle (professional services, customer success, onboarding operations, data migration, and product configuration) across industries including hospitality technology, enterprise SaaS, and B2B software. That breadth is why the automation I build fits how delivery teams actually work, not how a vendor assumes they work.

The AI and automation programme I built has been presented to private equity investors and used to shape the automation strategy of multiple software businesses. I have governed 100+ AI initiatives and built a tracking and governance model that operates at division scale.

23 years enterprise software delivery
102+ AI initiatives tracked and governed
Presented to HG Capital PE investor roundtable
Adoption IQ live with 100+ users in production
Hub-and-spoke scaling model proven at division level
Zero production configuration errors across all deployments
Our approach

We build, not just advise.

The distinction matters. We design and deploy working automation. Our work ends with code in production, not recommendations in a document.

Practical AI

We use AI where it creates the most value: interpretation, classification, extraction, and generation. Layered on top of reliable workflow automation. Not AI for its own sake.

No rip-and-replace

We work within your existing infrastructure and tooling. Automation connects to what you already have: your CRM, your cloud tenant, your processes. No expensive platform migration required.

Measured from day one

We agree success metrics before build begins. Every deployment is tracked against hours saved, error rate, and throughput. If it is not working, we know early and we fix it.

People first, always

We do not displace teams. We free them from the work that machines should be doing so they can focus on the work only humans can do: building relationships, solving complex problems, and delivering the service that earns loyalty. AI handles the repetitive. Your people create the value.

Our frameworks

Tested approaches, not off-the-shelf methodology.

We have developed original frameworks through direct implementation experience. These are not theoretical models. They come from running AI programmes in practice.

Agent as Employee

A model for treating AI agents as accountable members of a team: defined roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and escalation paths. This framing helps organisations adopt AI without losing accountability.

AI Maturity Model

An assessment framework for understanding where your organisation sits on the automation maturity curve (from ad-hoc experiments to managed portfolio) and what to prioritise at each stage.

Initiative Scorecard

A consistent evaluation framework for prioritising AI initiatives by estimated ROI, implementation effort, strategic alignment, and risk. Used to govern 100+ initiatives and inform executive reporting.

Skills Marketplace

A three-gate governance model for managing AI capability development across teams, covering InfoSec review, commercial approval, and production deployment criteria. Prevents ungoverned AI proliferation without creating bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Get on the Bus

A cross-division rollout framework for scaling AI adoption from early adopters to mainstream teams. Designed to sustain momentum without mandating participation, built around voluntary engagement and visible wins.

Six-Agent Architecture

A modular AI implementation model that structures complex automation into six defined agent types, each with a specific function, handoff protocol, and quality gate. Reduces implementation risk and improves maintainability.

Technical capability

We work with your stack, not ours.

We are tool-agnostic. The right platform depends on your infrastructure, your data, and the problem being solved. We have production experience across all of the following.

AI & Language Models

Claude API OpenAI Azure OpenAI Gemini Mistral LangChain

Workflow & Automation

n8n Power Automate Zapier Make Workato

CRM & Customer Platforms

Salesforce HubSpot Dynamics 365 Zendesk Intercom

Data & Analytics

Databricks Power BI BigQuery Snowflake dbt Python

Cloud & Infrastructure

Microsoft Azure AWS Google Cloud Microsoft 365 SharePoint

Delivery & Integration

Azure DevOps GitHub REST APIs Webhooks SQL
Location

Based in Kent. Serving businesses across the UK.

We are based in Kent, in the South East of England. Our engagement model is remote-first. All programme work to date has been delivered without requiring clients to host us on-site, and our clients are spread across the UK.

For clients in Kent and the surrounding area, we are happy to meet in person where it adds value, particularly for discovery conversations and programme kick-offs.

Get in touch

Who we typically work with

  • SME and mid-market software companies in the UK
  • Operations directors and customer success leaders
  • MDs and CEOs who want measurable ROI on AI investment
  • Businesses in Kent, London, and across the UK
  • Organisations ready to move beyond pilots to production

Work with a team that has done this before.

Every figure we quote comes from a live system. Book an AI Opportunity Session and we will tell you what is realistic for your situation.

Book an AI Opportunity Session

Or email hello@operait.co.uk