Mayhew book urges firms to start AI with workflows

Clive Mayhew has announced a book on using artificial intelligence in business workflows, aimed at founders, chief executives and business owners looking for a practical starting point for AI adoption.

Mayhew, former managing director of Netscape Australasia and co-founder of GOLF.AI, presents Vertical AI: Changing the Game as a guide to identifying routine customer requests that can be turned into structured, AI-supported processes.

The book centres on what Mayhew calls "vertical AI" - applying AI to the rules, knowledge and workflows of a specific industry rather than to broad, general tasks. He argues that, for many businesses, the most useful starting point is not a standalone tool but the everyday work employees already do to move customer requests through fragmented systems.

One example is the "Pro Shop Moment", based on a golf booking enquiry. In this scenario, a staff member handles a customer request while switching between booking software, equipment records and club rules. The work gets done, but the hidden effort behind it often sits outside management reporting.

Mayhew argues that the same pattern appears across other service settings, including hotel reception, appointment booking and client enquiries. In each case, experienced employees rely on memory, workarounds and judgement to keep service moving when information is split across different systems.

"The lesson I carry from the internet era is to take the change seriously early, while staying very practical about the customer problem," said Mayhew, author of Vertical AI: Changing the Game.

The book draws on more than three decades of experience in technology. Mayhew's career has spanned the commercial internet, eCommerce, cloud software and online learning, including a senior role at CDNOW, investment activity in software and education businesses, and leadership positions at startup community Fishburners, Sky Software and OpenLearning.

Practical method

A central feature of the book is its 12-chapter structure, with each chapter including what Mayhew calls an FDE Playbook. FDE refers to the forward deployed engineer role, described as someone who works closely with operations, translates business problems into technical solutions, and tests those solutions against the reality of staff and customer interactions.

Material released with the book says the playbooks are designed to give readers a repeatable process for examining a real workflow inside their organisations. The first exercise, a "Front Door Audit", asks leaders to spend 90 minutes observing where requests arrive, whether by phone, reception desk or inbox. Later sections cover workflow design, information needs, memory requirements, human oversight and checks on whether a task has been completed correctly.

The aim is for readers to take one live workflow through the book and come away with a plan to test it. That framing reflects a wider market debate over whether businesses should begin with AI software selection or by mapping operational problems first.

Research from MYOB, published in May, found that 81 per cent of surveyed mid-market leaders in Australia reported a positive productivity impact from AI, while skills shortages, governance issues and system integration problems held back broader use. That gap between early gains and operational follow-through forms part of the backdrop to Mayhew's argument.

"Buying an AI tool before understanding that can simply add another place for the request to get stuck," Mayhew said.

Industry focus

Mayhew's current operating experience comes through GOLF.AI, where he works on AI for golf enquiries and booking workflows. That sector focus appears to shape the book's emphasis on narrow, operational use cases rather than broad claims about organisational transformation.

His thesis is that leaders do not need to become technologists, but they do need a clear view of how work moves through their businesses and where people still need to intervene. In that model, AI can help carry a request through to a completed outcome, such as a confirmed reservation, while a staff member steps in when judgement is required.

Dean Publishing is releasing the 12-chapter book. "I want the leader to know what a successful outcome looks like first," Mayhew said.