Case Study: Transforming AI Capability Across A Nationwide Financial Advisory
Lifetime - AI Strategy, Governance and Enablement
Overview
Before founding Binary Refinery, Kat served as General Manager of Technology and Marketing at Lifetime, a nationwide financial advisory group. During her tenure, she led the organisation through its early AI adoption and governance journey - translating emerging technology into a structured, safe and business-wide capability uplift.
This case study captures that work: a practical transformation that strengthened governance, improved productivity, and equipped more than 160 people to use AI with confidence, clarity and responsibility.
The Challenge
Like many professional services organisations, Lifetime faced a familiar tension: high curiosity about AI, but uncertainty around safe use in a regulated environment. Staff were experimenting individually, but without guidance or consistency. Leadership needed clarity around risk, compliance, competitive impact and long-term opportunity. No formal governance existed, and the business required a structured, people-first approach.
Kat’s mandate was to answer the foundational questions:
Where should AI be used - and where should it not be?
How do we govern AI responsibly?
What training is required across a 160+ person organisation?
How do we scale capability without compromising privacy, quality or trust?
The Approach: A Strategic, People-Led Programme
Kat designed and delivered a multi-phase programme that combined strategy, governance, training and practical implementation.
1. Evaluating and Selecting AI Tools
A structured assessment ensured that any tool considered was safe, compliant and suitable for a regulated financial environment. This included privacy analysis, data-handling requirements, integration pathways and operational impact across advice, admin and marketing teams. Only tools that met Lifetime’s risk, security and practicality thresholds were recommended for adoption.
2. Board-Level Reporting and Strategic Alignment
Kat prepared comprehensive reports for the Board and senior leadership, outlining risk, opportunity, industry trends, competitive implications and governance recommendations. This elevated AI from a novelty to a strategic capability, providing leaders with the clarity needed to make informed decisions.
3. Governance and Policy Development
To support responsible adoption, Kat developed and implemented a complete governance framework, including:
A Responsible AI Use Policy
Rules for accuracy, privacy and disclosure
Updated IT and security policies incorporating AI
Guidelines for approved and restricted tools
Internal oversight and review processes
This formalised Lifetime’s approach and gave staff clarity on how to use AI safely.
4. Organisation-Wide Training and Enablement
Training formed a significant part of the uplift. Kat delivered live education sessions, team-specific workflow workshops, practical prompting classes, and a formal AI Licence assessment to ensure consistent capability. Ongoing development sessions supported continuous learning.
Cyber Month and AI Week
Kat launched Lifetime’s annual Cyber Month in 2022, creating a four-week programme of cybersecurity education, training and practical challenges designed to strengthen digital confidence across the organisation. In 2023 she expanded the programme to include core AI-safety modules - helping staff understand the emerging risks and opportunities of new tools within a secure, well-governed framework.
In 2024, Kat also introduced the company’s first AI Week, featuring webinars, demonstrations, role-specific training and organisation-wide engagement activities. Together, these initiatives embedded both cybersecurity and AI literacy into the ongoing rhythm of learning at Lifetime, reinforcing a culture of safe, confident and responsible technology use.
5. Embedding AI Into Daily Workflows
Kat mapped processes across advice, operations and marketing, identifying opportunities for meaningful productivity gains. This included integrating AI into the existing tech stack, building prompt libraries, developing templates and enabling AI-enhanced workflows. The focus was always on practicality, not over-engineering.
6. Custom AI Solutions
Where off-the-shelf tools weren’t enough, Kat designed tailored solutions such as custom AI functions within Lifetime’s internal systems and purpose-built GPTs trained on the organisation’s content, tone and values. These ensured high-quality, compliant outputs while maintaining efficiency.
The Outcome
Lifetime moved from uncertainty to a structured, confident AI adoption programme underpinned by robust governance and organisation-wide capability. Outcomes included:
Clear governance protecting clients, privacy and brand.
A consistently trained workforce equipped to use AI safely.
Faster drafting, reporting and communication.
Reduced administrative workload across advice and operations.
Consistent, professional outputs via custom AI models.
A culture of digital confidence strengthened through Cyber Month and AI Week.
A strategic roadmap for continued adoption and improvement.
AI became not just a toolset, but a trusted component of the company’s operational capability.
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