Perspectives on AI activation
AWSM DSPTCH™ (“dispatch”) is where we think out loud about closing the gap between AI ambition and execution. Every piece is grounded in the same approach we bring to client work — ROI first, design-led, and relentlessly iterative — so what you read here is strategy you can act on, not hype. Field notes, frameworks, and hard-won lessons from deploying AI that actually earns its keep.
Custodial ROI: The Fourth Lens — and the Only One Someone Else Grades
You grade three of your four AI ROI lenses. Somebody else grades the fourth, and you will not meet them until diligence. In 2014, 87 percent of dealmakers said much the same about cyber security — folded into a general IT review, not a risk category in its own right. Three years later Verizon cut $350 million off the price of Yahoo.
Pablo Cruz Pou · September 14, 2026 · 22 min read
The Four-Lens AI ROI System
In July 2025, the most-quoted number in enterprise AI said 95 percent of deployments returned nothing. Eight months later, a survey of middle-market leaders said 97 percent of AI pilots had succeeded. Neither measured a P&L. Both were describing your portfolio.
Pablo Cruz Pou · September 14, 2026 · 19 min read
Experiential ROI
Your adoption dashboard says the rollout worked. Usage is up, logins are daily, every rep on the team shows green. Ask five of those reps how they actually feel about the tool, and you'll hear something the dashboard was never built to show you.
Pablo Cruz Pou · September 4, 2026 · 16 min read
Financial ROI: The Hidden Cost of AI Tool Sprawl
Your team says AI is paying for itself. Every portfolio company has picked up a tool or two — a copilot here, a summarizer there. Each subscription looks reasonable on its own invoice. But ask your CFO what the firm is actually spending on AI across the portfolio, and the honest answer is: nobody has ever added it up.
Pablo Cruz Pou · August 31, 2026 · 13 min read
Operational ROI: Sourcing Feels Faster. Is It Actually Working?
Your team says AI is helping. Sourcing feels faster. The analysts are more efficient. But when your LP asks what it's actually producing, you don't have a number you trust. That gap — between AI activity and AI value — is where most PE firms are stuck right now. Operational ROI is the first place to close it: not by chasing more AI activity, but by mapping the workflow, setting a real baseline, and proving that time saved actually became value created.
Pablo Cruz Pou · August 17, 2026 · 17 min read
The Accountability Gap: What Private Equity Gets Wrong About Measuring AI
A four-lens framework for capturing the full spectrum of AI value — and risk — across every dimension that matters to PE sponsors, operators, and boards.
Pablo Cruz Pou & Fritz Desir · May 30, 2026 · 17 min read
Measuring AI ROI Beyond the Hype Cycle
Real frameworks for quantifying AI value — from pilot to production at scale.
Fritz Desir · May 8, 2026 · 3 min readAWSM DSPTCH
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Perspectives on AI activation — ROI, frameworks, and lessons from the frontier — sent when we publish. No noise.