Our method
FAST: ten rules for making AI pay.
This is how we work with every client. Focus on where the value is, Accountability for who drives it, the Systems it runs on, and the Traction that makes it land. It's our version of the method set out in Rewired.
The wheel
Four parts, ten rules.
Each quarter answers one question. Where is the value? Who drives it? What does it run on? What makes it land? Select a rule to read it.
FFocusWhere the value is
AAccountabilityWho drives it
SSystemsWhat it runs on
TTractionWhat makes it land
F · Focus
Where the value is.
Start from the P&L, not from AI.
Every engagement starts with money: a line in your P&L, the one operational number that drives it, and how that number looks today. Technology comes second, and only where it moves that number. We measure the starting point before anything changes.
One domain, where the money is.
Value comes from improving one end-to-end part of the business properly, such as pricing and promotions, bids or supplier payments, not from a scattered list of pilots. We start where your economics are. We take an easier area first only when it pays for the next.
Fund step by step, on evidence.
You never commit to a programme up front. Each stage ends with something you can see: a shortlist, a scope, a solution running on your data, a measured result. The next stage is funded only if this one delivered, and what doesn't pay is stopped.
A · Accountability
Who drives it.
The business owner leads.
Every improvement has an owner from your business with real time for it. That isn't your IT team, and it isn't us. Your experts shape it from the first week, because they know where the work really goes wrong.
Build capabilities, not dependence.
Every correction your team makes becomes a rule they own and can change without us. We track how many changes your own people make, and we expect that number to keep rising.
People decide, agents execute.
During the day, people review, decide and set the next tasks. At night, AI does the work: reading, checking, drafting. By morning, only the exceptions are waiting for a person. What the system may do on its own, and what needs approval, is written down.
S · Systems
What it runs on.
One open platform, reused.
Each new solution is mostly assembled from parts that already exist: reading documents, matching, checking, drafting, connectors, approvals, dashboards. We keep the systems that work and replace the spreadsheets and e-mail loops that don't. The platform isn't tied to one AI model: each task uses the one that fits, and we switch when a better one appears.
Data products, not pipelines.
The data an improvement needs is built once: customers and suppliers, locations, prices, documents, events. Each has an owner and a quality bar. Every later improvement reads it, and every correction makes it better.
T · Traction
What makes it land.
Trust built in, autonomy earned.
Every step is logged, so you can see what the system did and why. People see only what their role allows, and your data stays in your own EU-hosted workspace. New work runs alongside your team first. It gets more room to act on its own only as its results hold.
It counts only when it shows up in the numbers.
A flagged error saves nothing until someone fixes it, and an hour saved is worth nothing until it's used. So we plan the change in how people work, not just the tool, and report three numbers separately: what was found, what was acted on, and what reached your P&L.
Where FAST comes from. FAST is Routario's adaptation of the method in Rewired by Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje and Rob Levin (Wiley, 2nd edition 2026). We apply it in our own way and change it where our clients need something different. Routario is not affiliated with McKinsey & Company or the authors.
Talk to us
Where would FAST start in your business?
Tell us which part of the business matters most to your numbers. We'll come back with where we'd start and what it would take.
We reply within one business day, usually with two or three questions and a suggestion for the first step.
Thanks — we have it.
We'll get back to you within one business day with how we'd approach it and what we'd need to start.