Many Branches Consulting
Articles
Plain-language writing on AI governance, fractional technology leadership, and how we run our own shop, for organizations whose reputation is the product.
Article 1 of 7
You can’t govern what you can’t see
Nobody in your firm decided to adopt AI. Twelve people decided quietly, one tool at a time. The first governance move is an inventory, and it takes an afternoon.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 2 of 7
Verbal norms don’t survive a dispute
The two most popular AI policies are a blanket ban and a shrug. Neither is written down, and both fail the same way. What holds up is a rulebook tiered to the risk of the work.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 3 of 7
Where the prompt goes
Training, retention, and human review are three different risks that firms collapse into one fear. Pulling them apart is most of the literacy this subject requires.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 4 of 7
The AI clause you already signed
Long before your firm wrote an AI policy, it signed a stack of contracts with opinions about AI. The audit is reading your own paper, and it takes an afternoon.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 5 of 7
Your liability policy may already exclude AI
Insurers have started writing generative AI out of standard liability policies, one renewal at a time. The safety net many firms assume is there may already be gone.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 6 of 7
The tool is never the one who is responsible
Fabricated citations now draw sanctions, and the sanctions now draw discipline. Human oversight counts for something only when “reviewed” is defined, budgeted, and signed.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 7 of 7
“How do you use AI?” is now a normal client question
The firms that dread the question are the ones without an answer. A prepared, consistent disclosure turns AI from something you hope nobody raises into evidence that the firm runs on decisions.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 1 of 4
A roadmap is not a wish list of tools
Most technology roadmaps are shopping lists with dates on them. A real one is a set of decisions, tied to business goals, sequenced so that each phase earns the next.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 2 of 4
A CTO’s judgment, a fraction of the cost
The decisions are already arriving weekly, whether or not anybody in the building is equipped to make them. Fractional leadership rents the judgment without the executive payroll.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 3 of 4
Supervised transformation, on subscription
After the roadmap is written comes the unglamorous part, which is running it. Tooling, vendors, security, and reporting as a flat monthly engagement instead of a permanent scramble.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 4 of 4
Built so you can stop
Read a consultancy’s exits before its entrances. Our engagements are staged with real decision gates, deliverables you keep, and a credit mechanic that puts our money where the plan is.
Nick Layman · August 2026
Article 1 of 3
Open tools, closed systems
The AI your staff chat with and the AI that should touch confidential work are different machines. Bounded inputs, schema-checked outputs, and a human gate nobody can skip.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 2 of 3
Opens lie, clicks lie less, visits tell the truth
We built our own outreach tracking rather than buy a marketing suite. The honest reading of engagement data is the most useful thing the build taught us.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 3 of 3
Nothing leaves the tools it lives in
How we gave AI working memory over a firm’s knowledge without indexing a single document: live federated search, read-only scopes, and answers that cite their sources.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 1 of 2
How these articles were made
A library arguing for AI disclosure owes you its own. Here is the machine that helped draft these pages, the linter that polices its voice, and the humans who sign.
Adam Simon · August 2026
Article 2 of 2
Could a stranger run your firm?
The real AI-readiness test has nothing to do with picking tools. If a competent stranger could not operate your firm tomorrow morning from what is written down, no assistant can either.
Nick Layman · August 2026