I help CEOs turn AI into ROI by fixing the operating system first.
This is the public profile and search surface for Luke Thompson: fractional Chief AI Officer, operator, AI strategy advisor, and co-founder of The Ops Guide.
The focus here is current work: helping small and mid-sized leadership teams turn AI from a scattered collection of tools into practical operating systems, workflows, dashboards, and adoption plans.
I help CEOs and leadership teams make AI useful inside the business they actually have.
Most companies do not have an AI problem first. They have an operations problem: scattered knowledge, unclear ownership, disconnected tools, manual reporting, inconsistent processes, and teams that are already too busy to adopt one more shiny platform.
That is where I work best.
Through The Ops Guide, I help teams assess where AI can create real leverage, prioritize the right use cases, build practical systems, and create the operating habits needed for adoption. The work often includes AI strategy, workflow design, internal tools, automations, dashboards, knowledge systems, governance, and executive roadmaps.
Before The Ops Guide, I was part-owner, COO, and CMO at ActionVFX, where I helped scale operations, marketing, product workflows, and team systems in the visual effects industry. That background still matters, but it is no longer the center of the story. Today, it is proof that I understand both creative teams and the operational work required to make technology useful.
I am also a TEDx speaker on AI and adaptability and a member of the Visual Effects Society.
- Fractional Chief AI Officer support for CEOs and leadership teams
- AI strategy audits, readiness assessments, and implementation roadmaps
- Operating system design for growing teams, service firms, and founder-led companies
- Workflow automation, internal tools, admin dashboards, and knowledge systems
- AI-enabled service productization and delivery models
- Base44 partner delivery for rapid operational apps, internal tools, and client-facing systems using Base44
- Change management, governance, adoption planning, and executive communication
- Practical training that helps teams use AI without getting buried in jargon
These are anonymized examples of real project work from the last two years. Client names are intentionally withheld unless approved for public use.
Designed a more complete operating layer for an AI-enabled services team, bringing service strategy, delivery workflows, assessment structure, quality checkpoints, client context, reporting, and repeatable deliverables into one usable system. The goal was not just to build a tool, but to help the team turn expertise into a clearer, more scalable service model.
Created a central operating hub for a professional services team that needed better visibility across relationships, projects, proposals, knowledge, and day-to-day context. The project combined strategy, information architecture, workflow design, data migration planning, and AI-assisted operating support into a more complete business system.
Led an AI operations assessment that helped a leadership team move from broad AI curiosity to a practical implementation path. The work translated team input, operational friction, risk considerations, and executive priorities into a clear set of quick wins, decision points, governance needs, and roadmap recommendations.
Helped shape a custom talent operations platform around the full candidate journey, from application intake and review workflows to status visibility, communications, internal decision support, and production readiness. The emphasis was on creating a more complete operational backbone while keeping human judgment at the center.
Delivered a customer operations platform for a retail business that needed more than a static website. The work connected public-facing experience, customer intake, appointment flow, messaging, admin visibility, and follow-up operations into a more cohesive customer journey.
Supported a training and compliance operations platform for a mission-driven organization, improving the systems behind onboarding, role-based access, progress visibility, administrative controls, and production reliability. The work helped make a sensitive operational workflow easier to manage, audit, and trust.
- Start with the business problem, not the tool.
- Build simple systems people will actually use.
- Keep humans in control where judgment, trust, or risk matters.
- Make AI adoption measurable, practical, and tied to operational outcomes.
- Treat documentation, data hygiene, permissions, and process ownership as first-class work.
- Prefer useful internal capability over impressive demos.
- Co-Founder, The Ops Guide
- Fractional Chief AI Officer and AI strategy advisor
- Base44 Partner for rapid AI-enabled app and operations system delivery
- Former part-owner, COO, and CMO at ActionVFX
- TEDx speaker: AI and the Art of Adaptability
- Visual Effects Society member
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E)
- Asana Ambassador
- The Ops Guide
- Selected Project Work
- AI Implementation Framework
- Business Automation Playbook
- AI Integration Guide
- TEDx Talk
A fractional Chief AI Officer helps a company make smart decisions about AI without hiring a full-time executive. The role usually includes strategy, prioritization, governance, vendor/tool decisions, workflow design, adoption planning, and executive communication.
I do not start by forcing AI into every corner of the business. I start by finding the operational friction: repetitive work, unclear process ownership, missing data, reporting burdens, inconsistent handoffs, or knowledge trapped in someone's head. Then AI becomes part of a better operating system.
I work best with founder-led companies, small and mid-sized teams, service firms, product teams, and organizations that have enough operational complexity to benefit from AI but do not want a bloated transformation program.
Visual effects is part of my background and professional network, and I remain a Visual Effects Society member. My current work is broader: AI strategy, operations, automation, and operating systems for growing teams.
The best place to start is The Ops Guide. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.