AI and the Vanguard Method
A learning system, not an app.
AI amplifies what the system already does, including the waste. When an organisation automates a process that is designed wrong, it does not get a better result faster. It gets the wrong result faster.
That is why understanding the system has to come before the technology.
How to cut costs with AI
AI comes in at step six. Not step one.
Most organisations start at step 6. Steps 1 to 5 decide what step 6 is aimed at.
- 1 Forget about cost
- 2 Understand value
- 3 See the waste
- 4 Remove its causes
- 5 See how value is created
- 6 Ask how AI can amplify it
- 7 Then costs fall
The bridge
AI builds the bridge from understanding to something that works
Understanding
The Vanguard Method
Study the system from the outside in. Understand demand, flow and purpose. Redesign the work.
Action
Implementation
Working prototypes, tools that support the new design, systems that actually work.
Shared grammar, personal voice
Everyone speaks in their own voice
- Front-line worker
- Their context, their cases, their way
- Team leader
- The team's flow, the team's measures
- Director
- A view of the system, strategic design
- Developer
- Technical prototypes, system tools
- Internal coach
- Knowledge of the method, guiding the change
Principles of the Vanguard Method
The principles are constant. The expression is personal.
A learning system vs. traditional knowledge tools
A learning loop instead of a line that ends
The learning system
- 1Study the system
- 2Gain knowledge
- 3Ask how AI can amplify it
- 4Experiment, build prototypes
- 5Measure what matters
- 6Learn and develop
- ↻and onwards, with what you have learned
Traditional knowledge tools
- User asks a question
- App gives an answer
- End
No feedback loop. No learning. No development of the system.
Two starting points, one approach
Wherever you start, the path is the same
“We want to use AI”
Start by understanding the system. Then let AI amplify the learning and speed up the experimenting.
“We want to improve the way we work”
Study the system from the outside in. AI becomes a powerful component that makes the change last.
We help organisations build learning systems. AI is what makes it practical now. The Vanguard Method makes sure they learn the right things.
Technology has to serve the purpose
Sometimes the right thing is to switch the system off
In Mörbylånga, home care did away with minute-by-minute scheduling and switched off the central planning system. The care workers now planned their own work.
The planning system was built on a logic nobody had questioned. Only once the work was understood could the technology find its proper place.
It can be wise to switch off a system that does not support the value work. For a while you may work less efficiently, with Word documents and whatever else you have. But you learn what an IT system needs to be able to do. After that, with AI and other technology, you can build a system that supports the ability to plan, and move away from minute-by-minute scheduling.
Read the Mörbylånga caseThe book
AI doesn't care what it amplifies. You should.
Jonas Astrup Beck · 2026 · foreword by John Seddon
“This book will open your eyes to the opportunity and give you explicit instructions on things you need to do in order to see and realise the benefits.”
Get in touch
Do you want to use AI the right way?
Start with a conversation about what your system actually does today. Choose the way that suits you.