AI CONSULTANCY · BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Move AI into
measurable impact.

You know AI matters. The next step needs to improve the business and work for your people. I’m Don Graham, a Buckinghamshire-based AI consultant and CTO helping SMEs and SaaS teams turn experiments into operational and commercial progress.

Choose the right work. Prove the value. Bring your people with you.

Don Graham, Buckinghamshire-based AI consultant and technology leader
Don GrahamChief Technology & AI Officer
CRB Cunninghams
EXPERIENCE ACROSS

Fintech / Wealth technology / EdTech / SaaS

FROM “WE SHOULD” TO “HERE’S HOW”

Where are you
getting stuck?

Pick the situation that feels familiar. Get a practical starting brief you can keep, share with your team or discuss with me.

01 / DIRECTION

“We need to start.
But where?”

You want one sensible move, with a clear reason to invest time and money.

02 / RESULTS

“We’re experimenting.
What’s the value?”

You need evidence that useful work is improving before you scale it.

03 / PEOPLE

“We have the tools.
The team isn’t there yet.”

You need people to feel involved, capable and supported in a new way of working.

01 / WORK WITH ME

For SME owners, SaaS founders
and their leadership teams.

AI consultancy for SMEs
and SaaS businesses.

Whether you’re running an SME or growing a SaaS business, we’ll find practical ways to free up your team, improve customer workflows and strengthen delivery.

01

FIND YOUR DIRECTION

AI opportunity
& strategy

Find where AI can help your business, from time-consuming administration to customer support and software delivery. Choose a starting point that fits your resources.

  • Leadership discovery workshop
  • Data, systems and workflow review
  • Use cases ranked by value, effort and risk
You leave with

A prioritised roadmap and a clear brief for your first pilot.

Explore AI strategy
03

BUILD WITH CONFIDENCE

AI governance
& leadership advisory

Put clear rules and ownership around AI use, with oversight that fits the size of your team and the needs of your customers.

  • AI usage inventory and risk review
  • Acceptable use and oversight practices
  • Executive guidance and adoption planning
You leave with

A practical governance plan with clear owners and review points.

Explore AI governance

Each engagement is scoped around your objectives, team capacity and budget, with a clear starting point and practical deliverables.

RESULTS NEED PEOPLE

Tools are the beginning.
Habits make the difference.

If people don’t trust the change, have time to learn or see how it helps their work, another licence or training session won’t fix the problem on its own.

“Will this actually help me—or just change what’s expected of me?”

A question worth answering before a rollout.

Explore team enablement
  1. Listen before prescribing

    Understand the work, the frustrations and the concerns. Involve the people affected in deciding what a useful change looks like.

  2. Make room to learn

    Agree manager support and protected practice time. Use real tasks, clear boundaries and someone colleagues can turn to.

  3. Build confidence through evidence

    Test with a small group. Make it easy to challenge outputs, report problems and suggest improvements.

  4. Give the change an owner

    Track useful adoption alongside quality and business outcomes. Agree who supports the workflow when the pilot ends.

Honest conversations matter.

If responsibilities may change, leaders need to explain that openly. Technology and training cannot substitute for trust or management decisions.

WHY THIS IS DIFFERENT

AI ambition needs
operational control.

I lead AI adoption inside a regulated, customer-facing SaaS business. That means protecting customers, supporting teams, shipping products and defending the investment at the same time.

IN PRACTICE AT CRB CUNNINGHAMS

AI has to earn its place in the business.

As CTO, I lead AI adoption, product innovation, data and security across a 40-person R&D function. The work spans engineering, support, product, sales, finance and operations.

We focus on redesigning real workflows, removing avoidable work and turning insight into better products and decisions—not simply using more AI.

1,000+

estimated hours saved per month across key functions, reported by CRB

282

hours of released engineering capacity indicated by coding-assistant data in one measured period

HOW I MEASURE VALUE

Separate the signal
from the story.

  1. Observed usageWhat people are actually doing with the tool.
  2. Estimated valueThe assumptions behind time or capacity released.
  3. Forecast costImplementation, model and operating costs before scaling.
  4. Realised ROIWhat can genuinely be attributed after the change.

CRB figures are employed-role evidence, not consultancy client outcomes. Estimated time or capacity is not presented as realised cash saving or ROI.

A PRACTICAL FIRST 90 DAYS

Move with purpose.
Learn before you scale.

A 90-day adoption plan turns pressure into a manageable sequence. The exact scope depends on the workflow, team capacity and risks involved.

  1. Days 1–30

    Focus the opportunity

    Choose the business outcome, map the workflow and involve the people affected. Review existing tools, data, risks and the baseline.

  2. Days 31–60

    Test in the real world

    Run a bounded pilot with clear ownership, practical training, human checks and feedback from the people doing the work.

  3. Days 61–90

    Decide what earns scale

    Review value, quality, adoption and total cost. Agree whether to refine, extend, hand over or stop—and what governance is needed next.

Talk through a 90-day adoption plan

02 / EXPERIENCE THAT INFORMS THE ADVICE

Built in real businesses.
Accountable for results.

My consultancy approach draws on leading technology teams, modernising platforms and enabling practical AI adoption.

CRB CUNNINGHAMS / PLATFORM MODERNISATION

Stronger foundations.
Lower operating costs.

Led modernisation of the core platform to create a clearer upgrade path and a foundation for future AI capabilities.

~30%

lower hosting costs

~25%

lower support overhead

Approximate year-on-year reductions reported in my role.

CRB CUNNINGHAMS / AI ENABLEMENT

Helping people build
tools they actually use.

Coached colleagues without coding backgrounds to deliver internal tools, including engineering administration and reporting, and school network diagnostics.

CURRENCY HOLDINGS / TEAM BUILDING

From 0 to 20 developers.

Built the development team and helped grow the wider IT organisation to approximately 45 people, with around 95% departmental retention.

Selected outcomes from employed leadership roles. Individual consultancy outcomes depend on scope and business context.

IN THEIR WORDS

Good work starts
with good relationships.

What people I’ve worked with say about my approach to leadership, ideas and delivery.

His creativity entwined with a practical approach to delivery and reliability is a rare combination. As time has gone on his diverse experience has added to these qualities to offer a level of expertise I would highly recommend to others.

Richard MarettWhizz Education

Don is extremely personable and very creative. I feel completely at ease with his way of working. His brainstorming techniques are very beneficial and would recommend his services to anyone.

Paul Bristow

Excerpts from testimonials previously published on my website, reflecting earlier professional work.

03 / THE PERSON BEHIND THE WORK

A builder’s mindset.
A leader’s perspective.

People first.
Commercially grounded.
Curious by nature.

I’m Don. I bring technology strategy, hands-on delivery and a belief that lasting progress comes from helping people do their best work.

As Chief Technology & AI Officer at CRB Cunninghams, I lead AI adoption, product innovation, data and security across a 40-person R&D function. My remit spans strategy, product roadmaps, budgets, delivery and board-level reporting.

I’ve built teams in fintech, modernised wealth technology and helped take SaaS and education products from idea to market. That experience shapes how I approach consultancy: understand the business, bring people with you and deliver something useful.

Outside technology, I’ve coached grassroots girls’ football and served as Vice Chair of Compassion Direct UK. Living in Spain and Colombia for five years each has shaped how I work across cultures and teams.

Connect on LinkedIn

04 / TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

The experience
behind the approach.

For CTO and technology leadership conversations, here’s the path that brought me here.

Explore my CTO and technology leadership experience

Nov 2023 — Present

CRB Cunninghams

Chief Technology & AI Officer

Technology, data and AI strategy; a 45-person function; platform modernisation, governance and business-wide AI enablement.

Mar 2021 — Nov 2023

My Wealth Cloud

Director of Technology

Technology strategy, onshore and offshore teams, AWS migration, product delivery and ISO 27001 certification.

2018 — 2021

Currency Holdings

Head of Development

Team building, online trading platforms, onboarding automation, data and business intelligence.

Earlier leadership

Broker-Backoffice & I’m Learning Online

SaaS entrepreneurship & EdTech CTO experience

Bootstrapped a brokerage administration platform and led an education platform MVP rollout to more than 500 students.

Discuss a CTO opportunity

AI CONSULTANCY / YOUR QUESTIONS

Practical answers.
A clearer next step.

The questions behind the decision: money, time, trust, people and what happens next.

Do you offer AI consultancy in Buckinghamshire?

Yes. I’m based in Buckinghamshire and offer AI strategy, practical implementation, team enablement and governance support for SMEs and SaaS businesses. Contact me with your location and objectives so we can discuss a suitable way of working.

How can AI help a small or medium-sized business?

Potential opportunities include reducing repetitive administration, improving internal reporting and helping teams find and use business information. The right starting point depends on your workflows, data and capacity. I help you assess the opportunity before committing to implementation.

How do you help SaaS businesses with AI?

I help SaaS leaders assess internal productivity opportunities and potential product use cases, review data and delivery readiness, and define focused pilots. My CTO experience brings product roadmaps, engineering leadership and operational considerations into the decision.

Can you help if we have no AI strategy or specialist team?

Yes. We can start with your business objectives and a review of existing workflows and systems. The first step is to identify a manageable opportunity and any skills, data or ownership gaps, then agree the support needed.

What does an AI consultancy engagement cost?

Fees and timings are scoped around the objectives, complexity and support required. Share your priorities and budget context, and we can discuss a defined starting point and deliverables before you commit.

How will we know whether an AI pilot is working?

We agree success measures before the pilot, including a baseline for the current process. Depending on the use case, we can review time spent, quality, rework and adoption alongside implementation and running costs. The results guide whether to refine, scale or stop.

What if my team is worried about AI or resistant to change?

Start by understanding the concern. It may be job security, unreliable output, workload or an earlier change that went badly. I work with leaders and the people affected to choose a useful workflow, make expectations clear and build practice into the day. Training is part of the work; listening and manager support matter just as much.

Is this about replacing people?

The starting point is the work and the business outcome, not an assumed headcount reduction. AI can change tasks and responsibilities, and leaders need to be honest about their intentions. We can measure reduced rework, better service, useful capacity and quality without pretending that every hour saved becomes cash or that roles can never change.

We bought AI tools, but people barely use them. Can you help?

Yes. We can look at whether the tools fit real workflows, whether people have access and time to practise, and whether managers are supporting the change. A focused team pilot can help distinguish a capability gap from an unsuitable tool or an unclear purpose.

How much time will my team need to give this?

That depends on the workflow and scope. Before starting, we agree a sponsor, a person who understands the work, access to appropriate examples and time for testing and feedback. A pilot needs real participation; I will not describe it as effortless or agree a rollout without discussing capacity.

Will we need new software or a custom AI build?

Not necessarily. We review what you already have and compare configuration, process improvement and a custom build where appropriate. The decision should consider integration, quality, running costs, support and ownership. Sometimes a simpler automation or process change is the better choice.

What happens to our data, and who checks the AI’s output?

We agree what information can be used, which tools and permissions are appropriate, and where human checks are needed before implementation. Testing should include exceptions and failure cases. The specific safeguards depend on the use case; no tool or pilot makes risk disappear.

Will we be dependent on you afterwards?

Handover is part of the scope discussion: documentation, access, ownership, training and maintenance responsibilities should be agreed before building. The aim is to give your team a workable capability. Any ongoing support or specialist dependency should be explicit.

What if a pilot does not show enough value?

We review the evidence against the original success criteria and the costs of continuing. The decision may be to refine the approach, choose a different opportunity or stop. A well-bounded pilot can support a decision not to invest further.

What happens in the first conversation?

We discuss the workflow or business goal, what you have already tried, who is affected and what would count as progress. We then decide whether there is a useful next step. Scope, fees and the people needed are agreed before any paid engagement; there is no need to send confidential business data with your first message.

Discuss your business needs

LET’S MAKE SOMETHING USEFUL HAPPEN

What could
move you forward?

Bring one business challenge. We’ll talk through what you’ve tried, who is affected and what progress would look like—then decide whether there’s a useful next step.

Talk through your first move

Scope, fees and team involvement are agreed before work begins.

Buckinghamshire-based · AI consultancy · CTO opportunities