What Does “AI-Ready” Actually Look Like?
What Does “AI-Ready” Actually Look Like?
AI is everywhere right now, copilots, agents, automation, but most leadership teams are still asking the same question:
Where do we actually start, and what does “good” look like for our business?
We’re hosting an evening at OpenAI’s London office to dig into exactly that, bringing together senior operators for an honest, practical conversation about what AI adoption really looks like inside organisations today (not just the headlines).
At Dragonfly, we’ve learned that successful AI adoption doesn’t start with tools. It starts with understanding how work really flows through your organisation, where context breaks down, and how your software stack supports or blocks that work. That’s why we’ve been developing an AI Readiness Framework; a practical way for businesses to evaluate their current tooling ecosystem and move from scattered experimentation to structured, confident adoption.
The Panel
We’re bringing together three people who have a very different perspective to AI adoption:
Orian English (OpenAI)
Working at the frontier of AI capability, Orian has a front-row seat to how fast the landscape is evolving and what’s becoming possible sooner than most companies expect.
Hector Mason (Episode 1 Ventures and Onstage)
As an early-stage investor backing breakout technology companies, Hector sees which AI approaches are creating real business leverage and which are just noise.
Karen Lee Rigg (Just Eat)
Operating inside a large, complex organisation, Karen is navigating the messy reality of AI adoption at scale; from governance and risk to driving real usage across teams.
What We’ll Actually Talk About
Not hype. Not theory. Not a list of shiny tools. We’ll get into the stuff leaders are actually wrestling with:
Why most AI initiatives stall after the pilot phase
Why most companies don’t have an AI problem, they have a workflow problem
Where AI is already delivering real operational leverage (and where it isn’t)
What separates companies experimenting with AI from those actually changing how they operate
What “AI-ready” looks like at 50 people vs 5,000 people
What You’ll Leave With
A clearer mental model of what AI readiness actually means in practice
A way to gauge where your organisation is today (beyond vibes and tool lists)
Real examples of how companies are balancing autonomy, governance, and risk
Insight from an operator, an investor, and a frontier AI builder in one conversation
A room full of peers who are all trying to figure this out for real
Agenda
6:00 pm — Doors open, food & networking
6:30 pm — Welcome & opening remarks
6:45 pm — Dragonfly AI Readiness Assessment launch
7:00 pm — Panel discussion: What does "AI-ready" actually look like?
7:30 pm — Audience Q&A
7:45 pm onwards — Drinks & conversations
(Yes — we’re giving the panel proper time. This won’t be a rushed fireside.)
Who This Is For
Senior technology and operational leaders responsible for how AI is introduced, governed, and scaled across product, engineering, data, and business operations.
We’re keeping the group intentionally small to make the discussion candid and interactive.
If you’d like to join us, let us know and we’ll share the full details.
Spaces will be limited to keep the discussion high quality and interactive. If you’d like to attend, let us know and we’ll share the full details.
Looking forward to seeing you there
Sean, Sven and the rest of the Dragonfly Team