The AI revolution deserves better than broken consultancy models

The world is in an AI arms race. Business leaders who want to remain competitive must derive real value from AI now, not in five years. But there's a problem: the traditional consultancy model is failing enterprises at the exact moment they need expert guidance most.

UK businesses are pouring billions into AI projects, with consultancies collecting massive fees along the way. Yet half of these projects fall short of expectations. The reason? Legacy consulting firms are stuck in outdated practices that prioritise billable hours over measurable outcomes, driving up costs whilst creating waste instead of value.

This is why Valliance exists.

The £66 Billion Problem

Recent data from 1,000 senior leaders at the UK's largest enterprises reveals the scale of the challenge. Businesses spent an average of £39.2 million on AI in the last year, with consultant fees accounting for £8.4 million of that total per business. Across the UK's 8,335 large enterprises, that adds up to a national AI bill of £326.8 billion, with more than £66.1 billion going to consultancies, mostly without demonstrable ROI.

The statistics get worse. Just 45% of AI projects have success metrics defined from the start, meaning true success is nearly impossible to measure for more than half of all initiatives. When leaders were asked why AI projects fail, the most common answer was being too focused on technology over business outcomes.

For the biggest firms spending over £100 million on technology annually, the problem is even more acute. They spend an average of £53.08 million on AI projects, paying out £11.30 million to consultants each year. That's more than a third of all enterprises spend on any technology at all.

These aren't just numbers. They represent billions in wasted investment, missed opportunities, and initiatives that will never deliver production value.

Why Traditional Consultancies Can't Solve This

The problem runs deeper than individual project failures. Traditional consultancies operate on a fundamentally misaligned model. Their advice is never truly impartial because you can't be certain whether their guidance serves your business or theirs. They sell licenses, push preferred vendors, and build business cases around technologies that may not fit your actual needs.

More concerning is the knowledge gap. Most legacy firms lack the deep technical expertise to truly understand the AI revolution. When you hire them, you're effectively paying for their transformation whilst trying to manage your own. They're learning on your time and your budget.

The billable hours model compounds these issues. It creates perverse incentives where projects expand, teams bloat, and timelines stretch because that's what generates revenue. There's no structural motivation to move quickly, work efficiently, or focus ruthlessly on outcomes.

Add to this the outdated practices many firms still rely on: waterfall methodologies, science projects that never reach production, solutions that don't integrate with existing IT estates, and strategies disconnected from operational reality.

A New Model for the AI Era

Valliance was built to solve these problems. We're an AI-native consultancy that charges based on value delivered, not hours logged. Our model is simple: customers pay us when we've created value in production, with no billable hours and no bloated teams. Just a relentless focus on the end goal and how we implement AI to get there.

This approach changes everything. When payment depends on delivering measurable value, every decision gets filtered through a single question: will this help our client achieve their business objectives? There's no incentive to extend timelines, expand scope unnecessarily, or recommend solutions that don't fit.

We're independent by design. Our team of experts has one aim: helping businesses reduce time to AI value. We don't sell licenses. We deliver solutions that work for your business and integrate with your existing technology estate.

Built by People Who've Seen Both Sides

Valliance's founding team brings together entrepreneurs who have witnessed legacy consultancy failure firsthand whilst building successful digital transformations across global enterprises.

Tarek Nseir led groundbreaking work for clients including ASOS, Allianz, Aston Martin, and JK Rowling through his consultancy TH_NK. He knows what world-class digital transformation looks like because he's delivered it repeatedly at scale.

Anita Rajdev spent her career shaping high-value deals for companies like EPAM Systems and Gemalto. She brings deep expertise in building trusted partnerships with major enterprises and will be instrumental in defining Valliance's value-driven client relationships.

Rad Parvin, previously founder of Just-BI, led global data strategies for Nike, Shell, Heineken, and Vodafone. His focus is using that expertise to build customer trust in agentic systems, the next frontier of AI implementation.

Together, they've assembled a team of 15 experts including Dom Selvon, one of the founders of the composable architecture movement and longtime MACH Alliance board member. The team combines industry-leading capabilities in system architecture, data strategy, and product design.

Backed to Scale

Valliance launches with $15 million in private equity backing from Siguler Guff & Company, LP, a multi-strategy private markets investment firm with approximately $18 billion in assets under management. Shaun Khubchandani and Justin Eskind from Siguler Guff have joined Valliance's board, advised by Stephen Treloar, who held senior roles at global insurance companies including Aviva and Allianz.

This backing reflects conviction in both the team and the model. As enterprises face increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable returns on AI investments, outcome-based consulting aligned with technical depth is how the market must evolve.

We've already signed three clients and we're just getting started.

What This Means for Your Business

If you're a business leader trying to cut through AI hype and deliver real value, Valliance offers something fundamentally different. We help you understand what's possible, separate signal from noise, and implement solutions that work in production with your existing technology.

We don't sell you a dream on paper before moving to the next project. We stay invested until we've created measurable value. Our success is directly tied to yours.

The AI revolution is happening now. Leaders who derive value from this technology in the next twelve months will define the competitive landscape for the next decade. Those who waste time and resources on failed implementations will struggle to catch up.

The question isn't whether to invest in AI. You're already doing that. The question is whether those investments will deliver returns or become part of the £66 billion problem.

Valliance exists to make sure it's the former.