Lead your business into the AI era

Whether you're cutting costs, improving customer outcomes, modernising operations or managing risk, we help you see where AI creates real value and build a plan to get there.

We call them oxygen bubbles: strategic deliverables that give your business the space to breathe, transform and grow.

Let's Talk See how we work ↓
By sector 01

AI strategy for businesses that know it's time to change

We work with leadership teams in businesses with 100 to 2,000 people who are navigating AI adoption in complex, regulated and high-trust environments.

Whether you're a standalone business or part of a portfolio, we bring the governance discipline and strategic clarity your sector demands, and we sit where the work is too small for a Big Four engagement and too important for a junior team.

  • Insurance and underwriting
  • Financial services and banking
  • Legal and professional services
  • Higher education
  • PE-backed portfolios
By role 02

Every seat at the table has a different question

Why it matters 03

Getting AI right takes more than good intentions

Most businesses know AI matters, and the question is where it actually fits and how to build it in a way that lasts.

AI reshapes what businesses need to look like

The businesses pulling ahead aren't buying more tools, and they're rethinking their operating model instead: automating what should be automated, reducing costs where AI does it better and freeing their people to focus on what creates value.

Most AI initiatives stall between ambition and action

Leadership teams have the conversation and the slide decks get produced, and then the initiative sits in a backlog for months, because the gap between conversation and capability is where most AI programmes stall.

Strategy leads and technology follows

We start with what your business needs to do well: your capabilities, your data and your operating model, and AI is then selected and sequenced to serve that strategy, not the other way around.

Services 04

How we work with you

We offer three ways to engage, designed to meet you wherever you are and to grow with you as your AI programme develops.

  1. Breathe

    Find your starting point Typically 5 to 10 working days

    A focused sprint that maps your business capabilities, scores AI opportunities and delivers a clear, prioritised roadmap. You'll know exactly where AI fits and what to do first.

    Explore Breathe → Get in touch

  2. Flow

    Build something real Typically 4 to 8 weeks

    We take the highest-priority opportunity and build a working AI capability, with governance, measurement and an operating model designed from day one: a real, deployable tool (not a proof of concept).

    Explore Flow → Get in touch

  3. Grow

    Senior AI leadership, on your terms Ongoing, flexible

    Ongoing fractional Chief AI Officer support, embedded in your business 1-3 days a week and covering strategy, governance, vendor oversight, team mentoring and board-level reporting, without a full-time hire.

    Explore Grow → Get in touch
Approach 05

The same disciplined approach, every time

Whether it's a five-day sprint or a twelve-month partnership, we follow the same structured method, because rigour is what separates good strategy from slide decks.

  1. Listen

    Your business first: strategy, capabilities, data estate and where the AI conversation has already happened.

  2. Map

    A structured capability map of your organisation, overlaid with your current technology, data and integration estate.

  3. Analyse

    Each capability scored against five dimensions (strategic importance, maturity, data readiness, AI opportunity and effort) to find where AI creates real value.

  4. Design

    A prioritised roadmap with quick wins, transformation initiatives and strategic bets. Each with a clear business case.

  5. Deliver

    We stay with you through execution, building working capabilities, embedding governance and making sure what we plan actually gets done.

Track record 06

The experience behind the advice

Oxygen Bubbles was founded in 2026, and these are engagements our founder led as a CTO and CIO before that, in regulated and high-trust environments where getting it wrong was not an option.

  1. Insurance & E-commerce Portfolio Group CTO

    Technology Value Creation Plan for PE-backed group

    Challenge. A PE-backed insurance and e-commerce portfolio with UK and European operations. Multiple operating companies, no coherent technology strategy and investor Value Creation Plans that needed technology to deliver on.

    Outcome. Built the Group technology overlay, aligned it to each OpCo's priorities and oversaw 100+ change initiatives. One major strategic partnership alone drove significant growth in policies in force.

    • 100+ initiatives delivered
    • c.£50m IT budget governed
    • 260+ person function
  2. Higher Education CIO

    Enterprise IT modernisation and governance reset

    Challenge. A Russell Group university with a 400+ technology function. The operating model, governance and delivery performance all needed resetting, and a failing £7m cloud programme needed rescuing.

    Outcome. Secured £104m strategic investment, achieved ISO 27001, turned the cloud programme around and restructured the leadership team. Delivery confidence went from crisis to credible.

    • £104m investment secured
    • ISO 27001 achieved
    • 400+ function restructured
  3. Legal & Professional Services CIO

    IT separation and operating model recovery

    Challenge. A 2,500-person law firm entering administration. Complex IT separation, a Transitional Services Agreement to deliver and operational continuity to maintain, all under extreme time pressure.

    Outcome. Ran the full IT separation, kept services running throughout and delivered every TSA obligation on schedule. Zero disruption to ongoing operations.

    • 2,500-person firm
    • Zero service disruption
    • TSA delivered on schedule
About 07

Strategy that comes from experience, not theory

Oxygen Bubbles is a UK AI strategy consultancy based in West Yorkshire, founded in 2026 by Dan Simms, a CTO of over 25 years leading technology and transformation in regulated sectors, from insurance and financial services through to legal, professional services and higher education. These are environments where AI strategy has to be rigorous, governed and practically deliverable, not aspirational.

That background shapes how we work: starting with your business model rather than a vendor's pitch, building strategy on enterprise architecture and mapping your capabilities, your data estate and where AI genuinely creates value. We then stay with you to make it real.

Most AI consultancies will sell you a framework, and we'd rather help you build something that works on a Monday morning.

Meet the founder →

  • Capability-first thinking

    We start with what your business needs to do well, not what technology exists to sell you.

  • Sector depth across regulated and non-regulated industries

    We work across insurance, financial services, legal, higher education and professional services, and we understand the governance, precision and accountability these sectors demand.

  • Delivery, not just strategy

    Strategy without execution is just a document, and we stay with you until something real works.

Open source 08

The Agentic Delivery Model

Our open operating model for software delivery in the age of autonomous AI agents. Published in full and free to use, built from the same thinking we bring to client work.

Read the model Free and open on GitHub
Insights 09

Thinking out loud on AI strategy

Perspectives on AI strategy, governance and delivery, written for leaders who want substance, not hype.

All insights →

Contact 10

Let's talk about where to start

There's no pitch deck, just a conversation about your business, so tell us what you're looking for and we'll reply within one working day.

Get in touch

We'll respond within one working day. Or email hello@oxygenbubbles.com directly.

Or reach us another way

Oxi is our AI assistant. It answers questions about our services straight away, and anything it cannot answer comes to us.