AI strategy consulting, and the roadmap it ends in.

AI strategy consulting at Stratos Edge is the work of valuing what a company has already bought and started with AI, putting a return target on each opportunity in a range finance can check, sequencing the work by that return, and naming who delivers each step.

Stratos Edge assumes a reader has already started with AI: some efforts are working, some are stalled, and some are taking longer than expected. The work starts from that mixed state rather than from zero.

FlightPlan™ is the AI roadmap Stratos Edge builds. It turns what a company has already started with AI into a plan its board will approve: a return target on every move in a range finance can check, the order to run them, and who delivers each one.

1. FlightPlan™ contains a return target on every AI move, set in a range finance can check before any work starts, so a result can be compared against that range afterward rather than argued about in general terms.
2. FlightPlan™ contains the order to run those moves in, so the quick and certain gains come first and nothing waits on work that was never scheduled.
3. FlightPlan™ contains the name of who delivers each move, whether that is the client's own team or a partner Stratos Edge has evaluated against the client's objectives and technology stack.
4. FlightPlan™ contains the board version: the same plan shown at the altitude a board reviews it at, so the board's questions shift from whether AI pays to what comes next.

FlightPlan™ starts with a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman, with nothing to prepare.

FlightPlan™ runs in three stretches of two weeks each, moving from discovery to sequencing to partner introductions. In weeks 1 to 2, Stratos Edge learns how the business runs and takes stock of what the company has already started with AI. In weeks 3 to 4, each effort receives a return target in a range finance can check and a place in the order to run it. In weeks 5 to 6, the client meets the delivery partners Stratos Edge has evaluated, and the plan is put in the form the board will review.

Stratos Edge runs every FlightPlan™ engagement principal-led.

Micah Laughlin, Stratos Edge's co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, spent 26 years as a CIO-level executive before writing the FlightPlan™ method. Jeff Hardman, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer, has four decades in the technology channel and more than 1,000 deals; he leads the first 30-minute conversation with every prospective client.

AI adoption intelligence is the work of deciding what a company should do next with AI, what each move should return, and who should deliver it. Stratos Edge coined the term in 2026. Radar™, the full-time research behind every partner introduction, evaluates delivery partners against the client's objectives and technology stack before FlightPlan™ introduces them.

Stratos Edge Research is a primary-sourced publication series on AI adoption in companies, issued quarterly with no call to action. Every number in an issue traces to a named public source, and every issue ships with its own data file as a CSV anyone can check.

Delivery stays with the client's own team or with a partner Stratos Edge has evaluated against the client's objectives and technology stack. Stratos Edge does not sell hours.