Private Equity AI Strategy
Breakfast Briefings
Real insights & valuable connections to deliver successful AI outcomes
Our breakfast briefing, carefully crafted to cut through the hype, provide accessible and actionable insights for Private Equity professionals. Dive deep into real case studies, engage in hands-on workshops, and develop valuable connections with experts.
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Next event in London: 3 March 2026
Delegates
Agenda & Speakers to be confirmed
Here's what we covered last time...
Pilots to Profit: How to Build AI that Scales
8-11am | Thursday 4 December 2025 | London
Our Partners
Visionary Partner
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Innovation Partners
Network Partners
Speakers
Agenda
Case study
Turning AI Experiments into Scalable Products
Moderator: Athena Peppes, Director, Beacon Thought Leadership
Jesper With-Fogstrup, Group CEO, Moneypenny
Liz Lohn, Director of Product, AI & EdTech, Financial Times
Many firms struggle to move from AI pilots to scalable, revenue-generating products. This session features two companies that have successfully integrated AI into their core offerings. Each will share how they identified business needs, aligned AI with strategic goals, designed and tested pilots, measured impact, and scaled to deliver tangible results.
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Through two contrasting case studies and moderated discussion, attendees will gain a practical roadmap for turning AI experimentation into sustainable value creation, with lessons they can apply immediately across their own portfolios.
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Case study 1
Liz will share how the FT moved from an early attempt to automate processes, which didn’t land, to an internal AI playground that let the newsroom test ideas quickly and feed a pipeline to product, leading to growth as well as efficiency. She’ll also outline a practical change framework and why peer groups beat mandates for adoption. Framed by the FT’s 2022 stance - engage with AI while fiercely protecting human-led quality - the FT thoughtfully innovates where it matters.​
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Case study 2
Jesper will give a candid look at how Moneypenny is building with AI. He’ll cover what it really took to reach product market fit (technical and commercial lessons), the expected learnings vs the left-field surprises, and what business model and culture leads to greater chance of success. Jesper will outline where they’ve leveraged off-the-shelf components and where they’ve added their own guardrails and IP, plus why “AI with humans” remains their superpower.
Expert view & case study
Fireside chat: Standing Up Agentic AI in the Enterprise
Chair: Patrick Corcoran, Head of Market Enablement & External Affairs, Hitachi Digital Services
Rajat Mathur, Head of Portfolio & Deliver, DS Smith
Vitor Domingos, Principal Architect & Technologist, Hitachi Digital Services
A practical conversation about scaling with AI using agents. From DS Smith’s side: the context, the problem they needed to solve, the options they weighed (build/buy/agent platforms), why they chose their path, the early use cases, and the results so far. From Vitor’s side: the architecture patterns and governance that made it safe and repeatable (agent libraries, management/observability, ROI checkpoints), plus common pitfalls to avoid. The focus is on how to make agentic AI real at enterprise scale, including clear steps, lessons learned, and what to do next.
Strategic roundtable
Talent for the AI Operating Model
A fast, facilitated small-table discussion on the people and process side of AI adoption, the part with the longest lead times. Under Chatham House Rule, delegates compare what they’re seeing across their firm and portfolios and what’s realistic in the next 24 months, then go deep on 2–3 prompts (e.g., roles & skills, org design vs “just tools”, capability without over-hiring, culture shift). We’ll finish with clear takeaways and next moves- signals of readiness and a shortlist of credible capability bets for the next two board cycles. (Our recent network survey shows people are at the centre of the adoption challenge.)
Who is AI Pathfinder and why launch a quarterly AI Breakfast Briefing for Private Equity?
In my journey of building expert networks around transformative business concepts - from the strategic evolution of procurement to the burgeoning subscription economy - I’ve always been at the forefront of dynamic shifts. My interest with transformation led me to the potential of AI following the landmark arrival of ChatGPT.
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As Mustafa Suleyman (CEO, Microsoft AI) points out, "The risk isn’t in overhyping it; it’s rather in missing the magnitude of the coming wave. We really are at a turning point in the history of humanity." This resonates with me, where I believe that now is the moment to act, not just to participate but to actively shape the future.
Why focus on Private Equity? The reason is crystal-clear. In an era where every investment can be dramatically influenced by AI - either as a potential risk or as an accelerant - PE firms are perfectly poised to capitalise on this change. Initial trepidations have evolved into a strategic urgency to harness AI, not just for operational efficiency or competitive leverage but as a fundamental value driver.
My mission is to empower you with unique insights and valuable connections that will help you leverage AI to redefine investment success and set new industry benchmarks. Join me at the forefront of this transformation. Not only to understand but master the wave of AI, ensuring your investments not only survive but thrive.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time researching your needs. I’d like to thank the firms who opened their doors.
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I look forward to meeting you.
Steve Budd
Founder, AI Pathfinder
steve@aipathfinder.co | 07838 200054
