Author: David Royle

David Royle is the founder and CEO of Tanhill.ai, an AI consultancy for financial services and mid-market firms. A former equity partner at Grant Thornton in financial services consulting, he has also worked at Navigant, served as programme director at Old Mutual Skandia and worked on the Henderson and Gartmore integration. His data and AI work includes Nationwide's data hub, which won a British Bankers' Association award, and the Lloyds data lab. David is a regular AI trainer for the CISI and has trained more than 100 executives through the Estu AI bootcamps.

The conversation feels private. The record is not.

Workplace AI conversations are often retained and searchable. Why that matters for managers, and how better prompts make better thinking and records.

Too little AI governance, or too much?

The Bank of England says firms lack AI governance. In the firms I work with, the problem is often the reverse: so much detail nobody can use it.

Three layers of AI, and the one that got me home

Three days at Dublin Airport showed three layers of AI: optimisation, judgement and everyday automation. Most of the return sits in the least glamorous.

What actually justifies three thousand pounds a day?

AI can now do much of what a strategy consultant is paid for, if set up properly. Why CEOs should build an executive strategy framework.

AI-enabled or AI-centric? The question underneath the obvious one

The difference between AI-enabled and AI-centric thinking: speeding up a process, or asking whether the process needs to exist at all.

AI has a seat at the Cabinet table. Does it have one in your boardroom?

The new Prime Minister gave AI a seat at the Cabinet table. In most organisations AI still reports to IT. When does AI earn a seat in your boardroom?

Copilot is switched on. Almost nothing has changed.

Copilot is switched on in most organisations, yet little has changed. Why mid-market AI stalls when it lands on IT, and who should own the decision.

If the AI tool your business depends on disappeared overnight

In June a US export-control order cut off access to Anthropic’s newest frontier models overnight, worldwide. Why AI contingency planning can’t be an afterthought in financial services.

Vibe coding doesn’t produce rubbish. Undisciplined development does.

AI has removed the barrier to entry for software development. Why discipline, not the technology, is now the differentiator. Lessons from our bootcamps.

Why AI is stalling in your organisation: meet the suspects

AI rarely stalls because of the technology. Meet the people behind the stall, from the Anxious Leader to the Builder, and why nobody owns the whole.