TrueLag

Your CEO says AI is going well.
Your Ops lead says some people use it.
Your CFO can’t find it.

That gap is the early warning. It shows up about a year before the bill does.

A portfolio company AI early warning for PE operating partners.

Timeline: a bad decision looks fine for about a year before the bill shows up. The early warning comes at the start.

By then, nobody remembers who said yes.

A bad AI bet doesn't announce itself. It looks like winning.Every signal is green: a launch, a pilot, a slide saying adoption is up. Nobody checks.When the cost shows, nobody owns it. The company pays the old way and the new, and calls it a win.

WHERE THE EARLY WARNING YEAR COMES FROM

The timeline isn’t a guess.

We logged 366 documented cases of AI and automation decisions that went wrong. The sources were published reviews, case studies and research. We measured how long each one took to show up. Half took less than a year. One in four took more than two. Ask for the list on the call.

366 documented cases. Time from the decision to the first sign: median about a year, middle half of cases three to twenty-four months, one in four past two years.

WHAT A PE OPERATING PARTNER AI ASSESSMENT LOOKS LIKE

Three columns for the CEO, CFO and ops lead, four rows of the same questions. Matching answers are aligned. Differing answers are the gap, and one is a warning sign.

Your CEO, your CFO, your ops lead. Same questions. Twenty minutes each.

Then we show you where the three answers line up, and where they don’t.

No numbers. No access. About an hour.

A person runs every interview. AI only scores the math.

WHAT YOU GET FROM THE PORTFOLIO COMPANY INTERVIEWS

One page per company.
One portfolio page that says which company to call first.

Every quarter, for each company: where the three leaders agree, where they don’t, and which gaps are warning signs. Under that, three decisions that are yours to make. It’s about where the answers differ, not who’s right.

Sketch of the two pages a partner receives: one page per company and one portfolio page that says which company to call first. Sample, not a real portfolio.

WHY NOW

If your portfolio made its AI decisions last year, the management truth arrived on time. The financial truth is still in the mail.

60%

of companies investing in AI had put generative AI to work by late 2024.

42%

now abandon most of their AI projects before they reach production. A year earlier it was 17%.

18%

of private equity funds see AI paying off inside their portfolio companies.

Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence, Voice of the Enterprise: AI & Machine Learning, Use Cases 2025 (1,006 respondents, Oct–Nov 2024). World Economic Forum, Feb 2025, reporting a 30-fund survey.

WHO YOUR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES LISTEN TO ON AI

Your companies are getting AI advice from the vendors who get paid when the answer is yes.

They may know the building, and they probably earned their spot. But nobody should sell the tool and check it too. Keep them. TrueLag is the second read, from someone who isn’t selling the tool.

A business card for a fictional technology partner listing managed IT, cloud and security, phones and printers, with an orange sticker across the corner that says Now offering AI solutions.

WHO RUNS TRUELAG

The decision that costs the most is the one nobody argued about.

Brian Kearns runs TrueLag. Thirty years as a commercial operator, building, running, and selling software businesses, taught him that. He’s sat on all three sides of that decision: selling the tool, buying it, and living with it afterward. He knows what “yes” sounds like from every chair. TrueLag finds them while there’s still time to argue.

Brian on LinkedIn →

We take on a few portfolios a quarter. Bring one company in mind. You’ll know by the end of the call whether yours fits.

PORTFOLIO COMPANY AI EARLY WARNING: COMMON QUESTIONS

What is a portfolio company AI early warning?
Your CEO, CFO and ops lead each tell a different story about AI. That mismatch is the early warning. It usually shows up about a year before the P&L does. TrueLag finds the gap while there's still time to act.

Is TrueLag an AI portfolio monitoring tool?
No. No dashboard, no login, no system access. Three short interviews per company and one page.

Who is it for?
PE operating partners with AI bets running across the portfolio who want to know which company to call first.

What do I get?
One page per portfolio company: where the CEO, CFO and ops lead agree on AI, where they don't, and which gaps are warning signs. Plus one portfolio page that says which company to call first. Every quarter.

How much time does it take?
Twenty minutes each with the CEO, CFO and ops lead. About an hour per company. Nothing to pull from your systems.

Our companies already have an AI vendor. Why add this?
Keep the vendor. They get paid when the answer is yes. TrueLag is the second read, from someone who isn't selling the tool.

Is TrueLag software?
No. It's a service Brian Kearns runs. Nothing to install, nothing to integrate. TrueLag doesn't implement or sell AI tools.

Thirty minutes to see a sample page and decide if the portfolio fits. No deck.

TrueLag does not implement or advise, and nothing here is investment advice. © 2026 TrueLag