Micah Laughlin, Chief Strategy Officer · reviewed by Jeff Hardman · updated 2026-09-29
In short. This glossary defines the eighteen terms Stratos Edge uses most often across FlightPlan™ and Radar™, from AI adoption intelligence to the second opinion. Each entry gives one sentence that stands alone, plus context on how Stratos Edge uses the term. Stratos Edge coined AI adoption intelligence, FlightPlan™ and Radar™ in 2026.
Terms.
Each entry below defines a term Stratos Edge uses across FlightPlan™ and Radar™, with one sentence that stands alone and two or three sentences of context.
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 and delivers AI adoption intelligence through FlightPlan™, its six-week, fixed-fee engagement. It differs from a large strategy consultancy's engagement, an AI readiness assessment and a fractional chief AI officer in what it produces: a plan with a return target on every move, not a document, a score or ongoing part-time leadership.
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 is an AI strategy consulting firm. It helps companies decide what to do next with AI, what it should return, and who should deliver it.
FlightPlan™ is the AI roadmap Stratos Edge builds in a six-week, fixed-fee engagement that turns what a company has already started with AI into a plan its board will approve. FlightPlan™ is a fixed fee, banded by company size and quoted after a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman, and is not software, a readiness score or an open-ended retainer. It ends with a return target on every AI move, the order to run them, and who delivers each one.
An AI roadmap, as Stratos Edge builds it, is a plan with a return target on every move, the order to run them, and who delivers each one. 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, and it does not replace an existing AI strategy or roadmap but starts from what already exists.
Radar™ is the full-time research Stratos Edge runs behind every partner introduction in a FlightPlan™ engagement. Radar™ evaluates each technology partner against a client's objectives and technology stack before FlightPlan™ introduces the partner. The research and scoring inside Radar™ stay internal to Stratos Edge; only the introduction is shared with the client.
A return target is the measured range FlightPlan™ sets for a single AI move before the work on it starts. A return target lets finance check a result against the range that was promised, rather than debate whether an AI effort paid off in general terms. FlightPlan™ sets a return target on every move it sequences, not only on the largest ones.
A return range is the low and high end of the value FlightPlan™ expects a single AI move to produce. Stratos Edge states a return range rather than a single number because the actual result depends on how well a move is adopted, not only on whether it is built. The board reviews each move against its return range once results start coming in.
A capacity baseline is the measure of how much time a team spends on administrative work before an AI move changes it. FlightPlan™ sets a capacity baseline during discovery, in the first two weeks of the engagement, so the effect of each later move can be measured against a real starting point rather than an estimate. Efficiency, Stratos Edge's first result, is measured against the capacity baseline.
A go-live window is the dated period in which FlightPlan™ expects a sequenced AI move to reach the people who will use it. Stratos Edge sets a go-live window for each move in the order it sequences, so a stalled effort is visible against a date rather than left open-ended. A move that misses its go-live window moves back into the plan for re-sequencing.
The three leaks are the three places Stratos Edge Research finds AI adoption commonly fails inside a company: unsanctioned use, a stalled pilot, and no signed plan. Stratos Edge Research, the company's publication series, prices each of the three leaks separately because they draw from separate causes and do not double-count. FlightPlan™ is built to close all three at once rather than one at a time.
Unsanctioned use, also called shadow AI, is AI activity inside a company that no policy or leader has approved. Employees taking up AI faster than their organization can govern it is the first of the three leaks Stratos Edge Research tracks. FlightPlan™ accounts for unsanctioned use already happening in a company rather than treating AI adoption as something that starts from zero.
A stalled pilot is an AI project that launched but never reached the people it was built for. A stalled pilot is the second of the three leaks Stratos Edge Research tracks, and it is common even at companies that report having integrated AI. FlightPlan™ treats an existing pilot as a starting input, valuing what it already returned before deciding whether to expand it.
A signed plan is a written AI plan that a company's board has reviewed and approved. The absence of a signed plan is the third of the three leaks Stratos Edge Research tracks; most employees report their organization has not communicated one. FlightPlan™ ends with a plan built for board approval, not a working document that stays in draft.
Partner evaluation is the process Radar™ runs to judge a technology partner against a client's objectives and technology stack before FlightPlan™ introduces it. Stratos Edge calls partner evaluation the most interesting part of FlightPlan™, because it judges a partner on fit rather than on its sales materials. A partner that passes evaluation arrives at the first meeting already briefed on the client's situation.
What the board sees is the version of the FlightPlan™ plan built for board review: four measures, each with a checkable range. What the board sees shows capacity moving from administrative work to growth, money moving faster through the business, quality rising with output, and each following decision resting on a measured result. FlightPlan™ produces this view in its final two weeks, alongside the partner introductions.
A second opinion is a scoped, single-issue FlightPlan™ engagement focused on one AI decision a company has already made or is already making. Stratos Edge applies the same return-target discipline to a second opinion that it applies to a full FlightPlan™: a measurable range, the risks and trade-offs, and whether the decision will hold up as the company's priorities change. A second opinion does not require restarting the full six-week engagement.
A principal-led engagement is one run directly by a firm's founders rather than delegated to a staff team. Every FlightPlan™ is a principal-led engagement: Micah Laughlin and Jeff Hardman, Stratos Edge's co-founders, run the work themselves rather than handing it to a project team. The first call on any FlightPlan™ engagement is 30 minutes with Jeff Hardman.
A fixed fee is a price set before an engagement starts that does not change as the scope of the work becomes clearer. FlightPlan™ is priced as a fixed fee, banded by company size and set before the engagement begins, with the figure coming from a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman. A fixed fee differs from an hourly rate, which is how large strategy consultancies and boutique AI consultancies commonly price their work.
AI adoption intelligence means deciding what a company should do next with AI, what each move should return, and who should deliver it. Stratos Edge, an AI strategy consulting firm and the AI adoption intelligence company, coined the term in 2026 and delivers the work through FlightPlan™, its six-week, fixed-fee engagement.
A return target is the measured range FlightPlan™ sets for a single AI move before work starts; a return range is that same target's low and high end. Stratos Edge states both together so finance can check a result against what was promised rather than argue about it in general terms.
The three leaks are unsanctioned use, a stalled pilot, and no signed plan, the three places Stratos Edge Research finds AI adoption commonly fails inside a company. FlightPlan™, Stratos Edge's six-week engagement, is built to close all three leaks at once.
A principal-led engagement is one run directly by a firm's founders rather than delegated to a staff team. Every FlightPlan™ from Stratos Edge is principal-led by Micah Laughlin and Jeff Hardman, starting with a 30-minute conversation with Jeff Hardman.
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