AI strategy / Architecture / Implementation
Redwood City, CaliforniaYour people
know the business.
Build AI around them.
- Your knowledge
- Approved sources
- AI prepares
- You decide
Your team brings the judgment and relationships that make the business work. I put AI alongside that expertise—connected to the right knowledge, allowed to act only where appropriate, and directed by your people.
Co-founder & Chief AI Officer of Mill Pond Research · 2023–2026
15
Years building technology
Product, platform, and client work since 2011.
1
Granted U.S. patent
Cross-platform orchestration of machine-learning models.
10
Organizations worked with
Clients, partners, resellers, consortium.
3
Years as co-founder & CAIO
Mill Pond Research, Inc.
4
Recognition marks
NIST, patent, TechCrunch, DoD.
3
Ways to begin
Review, sprint, or fractional leadership.
A useful perspective
The model is a starting point.
Your business gives it context.
Useful AI connects a defined job to the right information, familiar tools, and clear responsibility.
What sits behind a useful assistant?
- 01Your peopleSet the goal. Apply judgment.
- 02Familiar toolsMeet the team where work happens.
- 03AI assistancePrepare, find, organize, suggest.
Across all three
- Approved knowledge
- Relevant information, within reach.
- Permissions & review
- Responsibility stays explicit.
- AskWho owns the workflow and reviews difficult cases?
- AskWhere would this fit into the day?
- AskWhat is it allowed to do, and how will we test quality?
An illustrative architecture — one configuration of many, not a prescribed vendor stack.
Technical depth.
Practical application.
Co-founder and Chief AI Officer of Mill Pond Research. The work spanned AI products, organizational workflows, and the controls connecting them.
| Domain | The work | What shaped it |
|---|---|---|
| Product development | Xilos & WorkBench — AI governance and orchestration. | Policies had to fit existing practice. |
| Financial services | AI-assisted email content for a banking client. | Inside an existing design process. |
| Internal operations | Assigning work to AI assistants across teams. | Escalation kept judgment with people. |
| Government | NIST-aligned AI safety and acquisition documentation. | Written for a rigorous federal review. |
| Healthcare | Workflows scoped around protected health information. | Boundaries on records and approval. |
| Sales | Prospect research, outreach, and buyer answers. | Preparation inside a sales process. |
Technology should
expand what people can do.
I have spent the past 15 years building technology with that purpose in mind.
Born in New York, raised in Silicon Valley. I believe useful technology should give people more agency over their work and their time.
Ideas tested in practice
Personal projects, tested before I recommend them.
Research & market intelligence
Can AI gather and organize briefs with the sources kept available for review?
Voice-first interaction
Can speech and local transcription reduce friction without giving up control?
Organizations I’ve worked with
Client, partner, reseller, and consortium work through Mill Pond Research, 2023–2026. Logos indicate organizations engaged in that work; they are not endorsements.
- NISTAI RMF; U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium member
- U.S. PatentCo-inventor — orchestration and knowledge management for ML models
- TechCrunch DisruptXilos launched on stage
- DoDStrategic agreement — defense-channel deployment
Working together
Support for the
decision ahead.
You do not need a finished brief. Bring your priorities and constraints; scope, fees, and responsibilities are agreed before work begins.
AI strategy review
Build a shared direction.
You take a recommendation to leadership—not another list of tools.
Discuss a review ↗Decision brief
- Opportunity
- Prepare colleagues for a service visit.
- Options to compare
- Extend an existing tool, or build focused.
- Open decisions
- Access, capacity, operating cost.
- Next step
- Agree a bounded pilot.
Build sprint
Make the idea testable.
You have evidence of what it can do—and where it still needs work.
Discuss a sprint ↗Evaluation record
- Source accuracy
- Does it reflect approved records?
- Missing information
- Flags gaps rather than inventing.
- Access boundaries
- Retrieval limited to what is permitted.
- Human review
- Approval required before handoff.
Fractional AI leadership
Keep the work moving.
A capability your team understands, with clear responsibility for what comes next.
Discuss ongoing support ↗Operating handoff
- Ownership
- Named owner, escalation contact.
- Day-to-day use
- Guidance and review points.
- Maintenance
- Source updates, access reviews.
- Next decisions
- A maintained roadmap, expansion criteria.
A few useful questions
Do we need to build our own AI system?
Not necessarily. Existing products, hosted models, private infrastructure, and hybrid approaches each have a place — the choice follows your requirements, not a preferred stack.
What happens to our data?
We identify what information is needed, where it travels and is stored, who can access it, and what retention terms apply.
Will this replace the way our team works?
Some tasks may change. That is considered with the people doing the work — the aim is a capability they understand and direct.
How do we know it is working?
Agree a baseline and success criteria for the chosen workflow — quality, turnaround, review effort, or cost — then test before expanding.
What remains with us after the engagement?
Documentation, access, operating responsibilities, and what your team needs to maintain it. Ownership and licensing are agreed in writing.
The most valuable thing technology can give people is time to do what only they can do.
Pete ShimshockLet’s begin with what matters to you
What would you like your team to do better?
A process that takes too much time. Knowledge that is hard to find. An initiative that needs a direction. Tell me what matters most.
hello@peteshimshock.comRedwood City. On-site across the Peninsula.