23 Sep Building GAIN: How Per Lagerstrom Is Rethinking AI Strategy for the Real World

For the past year, we’ve watched Per Lagerstrom quietly become one of Innovation City’s most valuable minds in the room. Not just as a BehaviorTech founder or an ex-McKinsey partner, but as someone who consistently sees what others miss. Someone who doesn’t just talk about AI, but understands how to act on it.

Now, he’s making that shift official.

GAIN is Per’s new venture; a senior advisory model for established businesses under pressure from AI change. But it’s not a traditional consultancy. And it’s certainly not another hype machine selling jargon-filled transformation.

It’s designed for CEOs, CMOs, strategy leads, and boards who know they need to respond to AI, but are too entangled in the daily reality of delivering results to figure out how.

GAIN is lean, fast, and structured around the reality that time and attention are in short supply. Instead of 6-month reports, it’s built on month-long sprints. Instead of theory, it’s execution. Clients are in the driver’s seat, supported by Per and a handpicked global team of experts, from AI architects to product operators, board chairs to fractional CMOs. The model is AI-powered, but human-led. Focused, not frenzied.

“The real question isn’t whether you should respond to AI. It’s whether you can afford not to,” Per told us. “The longer you wait to act, the smaller your margin of manoeuvre becomes.”

GAIN is for the kinds of companies we work with every day: established, high-performing, with strong teams and proud track records; and yet, staring down a moment of uncertainty that requires new tools and faster answers.

For us at Innovation City, it’s a privilege to see this playbook being written here first!