Strategic AI

Strategic Research & Design that becomes the foundation for how organisations build AI systems

I turn deep investigation into strategic direction, defining blueprints from zero to one that enable new ways of working in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. Research-led systems thinking where AI meets operational reality.

Key capabilities

What I bring to projects:

  • Systems thinking across technical, policy and human layers
  • Multi-stakeholder orchestration in regulated environments
  • Zero-to-one research and blueprint development
  • Service design at infrastructure scale

Selected work

Drug development infrastructure platform

BioTech, 2023
Zero-to-one systems • Explainable AI • Multi-user complexity

Challenge: Clinical drug approval processes rely on legacy systems that impede rather than enable scientific work. As trial data grows exponentially and post-market surveillance becomes critical, clinicians need ways to query complex datasets whilst maintaining rigorous safety standards.

Approach: I collaborated closely with scientists, engineers and statistical programmers to develop service design and user experience architecture for multiple user types. I orchestrated across scientific, engineering and clinical teams whilst navigating pharmaceutical regulatory requirements, creating not just a platform but the service ecosystem around it. I created differentiated workflows for clinicians and data analysts. I designed for explainable AI (XAI) rather than generative approaches, ensuring AI supports clinical judgement without introducing unacceptable risk. I developed automation strategies for parallel background processes that feed back into primary workflows.

Outcome: Next-generation platform enabling AI/ML integration in pharmaceutical development. Created capability that didn’t previously exist, establishing new paradigms for how clinical teams interact with trial data.

Covid Pass for crisis prevention

HealthTech, 2021
Crisis deployment • National scale • Critical infrastructure

Challenge: During a global pandemic, millions of people needed to validate vaccine status and verify others’ credentials. Infrastructure had to be designed, built and deployed at speed with zero tolerance for failure.

Approach: I led service design for critical national infrastructure during crisis conditions - 47 million users across the UK. I orchestrated across public health, technology, policy and citizen needs. I created user journeys for both credential holders and verifiers. I designed for multiple access scenarios, varying technical literacy and urgent deployment timelines.

Outcome: Live system serving millions of users. Delivered under extreme time pressure during active pandemic response. Infrastructure-level service design in crisis conditions.

AI-powered content validation platform

Technology startup, 2017
Early AI adoption • Trust & safety • Probabilistic systems

Challenge: Online misinformation requires detection systems that users trust enough to act upon. Technical accuracy is meaningless if the system’s recommendations aren’t adopted in practice.

Approach: I led service design and user experience for content validation systems addressing fake news detection. I focused on the human factors of trust in probabilistic AI outputs. I designed interfaces that communicate uncertainty appropriately whilst enabling confident decision-making.

Outcome: Early application of AI/ML to content trust and safety, years before generative AI made the space crowded. System designed for real-world adoption, not just technical performance.

Insights

Your AI can see you now: Understanding the look space
AI vision creates something new: a domain where processing happens before meaning, where patterns are detected faster than human attention can shift. What we build in this ‘look space’ determines what becomes possible.
Naked InstinctTom Flemming
From Heathrow to Gibraltar: architecting pandemic infrastructure at a human scale
Picture a 14-year-old at Heathrow who can’t board her flight because the system doesn’t recognise anyone under 16. How edge cases shaped the NHS COVID Pass - and what crisis infrastructure teaches us about organisational design.
Naked InstinctTom Flemming

Experience

Led service design for the NHS COVID Pass serving 47 million people during the pandemic. Created next-generation drug development infrastructure integrating explainable AI for pharmaceutical approval processes. Pioneered content validation systems in 2017, years before generative AI emerged.

Clients include: Pfizer, NHS, GSK, HSBC, BBC, Delta Airlines, Markit, SRF, Net-a-Porter

Sectors: Healthcare, government, finance, media, technology, web3

Experience: 25+ years creating systems from first principles

Alumni – Royal College of Art, London

Get in touch

Available for projects requiring strategic research and design thinking where artifical intelligence is foundational, not ornamental.