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Your AI pilot worked. Nobody uses it.

Most AI projects start with a tool and go looking for a use. We start with the people who will use it, your teams or your customers. We test their use cases on a prototype, drop the ones nobody asks for, and Forward builds the ones they come back to.

For the leader asked for AI results this year, who has already watched one pilot die in silence.

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Why AI pilots die quietly

The demo was impressive. Licences got bought, a pilot ran, the launch email went out. Three months later the usage curve is flat, and nobody can say which task the tool was meant to fix. Or a new AI feature ships, sales mentions it in every pitch, and customers never click on it. Both stories start with the technology. We start with the person whose working day or buying decision has to change.

Two places AI can be pulled from

For your teams

The AI your teams open every morning

We sit with the people who do the work: the planner who rebuilds the same spreadsheet every Monday, the support agent answering the same question for the fortieth time. They tell us where their hours go, and they test the prototype first.

The evidence is usage: they still open it once the pilot is over.

In your offer

The AI feature your customers pay for

We put the idea in front of your customers before anyone writes a line of code: what they would pay for, what they would ignore. What they pull becomes the product.

The evidence is commercial: signed purchase orders and committed pilots.

How the plan runs, from user interviews to deployment

  1. Step 1

    Interview 20 to 30 future users

    Before anyone picks a tool or a model, we interview the people who will use the AI. Franck sits in the interviews himself.

  2. Step 2

    Put each use case in their hands

    A quick prototype, on their real task. Does it remove a real pain, will they use it, can it run on your data. What nobody pulls stops here, before the budget goes in.

  3. Step 3

    Forward builds what survived

    The people who ran the interviews build the solution, so nothing gets lost between what users said and what gets built. Each iteration goes back to the same users.

  4. Step 4

    Measure the pull

    Usage for your teams. Purchase orders and pilots for your customers. If the numbers stay flat, we say so.

What you walk away with

The method in practice

These engagements were product launches, not AI projects. They show the customer-pull method our AI work runs on.

How Nissan's Lab builds with customers

Nissan Europe 12 weeks

4 strategic options with no product.

6 MVPs with users.

Ivan Ollivier, General Manager, Innovation Lab

See all client transformations

Questions buyers ask

Why start with users rather than with the technology?
Because most AI projects start the other way round: a tool is chosen after a demo, a pilot runs, and nobody uses it afterwards. Starting with the people who will use the AI is the same customer-pull method Forward applies to every new product.
Who builds the AI solution?
Forward builds it, for the use cases your users pulled. The people who ran the interviews are the people who build, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.
Internal tools or customer-facing AI?
Both. The method is the same. Only the evidence changes: usage for your teams, purchase orders and pilots for your customers.
Who does the work?
Franck Debane sits in the user interviews himself. There is no handoff to a junior consultant.
How many companies do you work with?
Forward takes on four to six engagements a year, so each team gets the time it needs.

Launching a product rather than an AI use case? See how we work.

Already paid for an AI pilot nobody uses?

We need a leader who owns the result, a real use or a real offer at stake, users willing to talk to us from week one, and the commitment to drop what nobody pulls. If you don't meet these, we'll tell you.

Book a 30-min discovery call