The pressure to launch or scale AI initiatives is stronger than ever. Our firsthand experience shows that simply deploying AI isn’t enough—it requires a thoughtful strategy and precise execution. The most effective approach begins with identifying the highest-impact use cases and implementing them with a clear focus on change management from the start. Without this, even groundbreaking tools risk failure if employees don’t see their value or feel the benefits. When innovation is met with skepticism, trust erodes, making it even harder to introduce future advancements and fueling resistance to change.
Amid the AI hype, businesses often ask, “How do we realize value from AI?” Coastal’s True North methodology provides the answer. We align every AI initiative with your core business objectives, ensuring investments are focused on high-impact areas. At Coastal, we emphasize ROAI because it’s not just about deploying AI solutions—it’s about ensuring those solutions drive measurable results while letting you focus on the work that matters most. We leverage modern technologies and tools like Salesforce, Data Cloud, and Snowflake to deliver these outcomes with precision.
How We Approach ROAI
When we engage with a company on AI, innovation, modernization, or transformation, we start by collaborating to define business goals—for this year, the next, and beyond. From there, we identify key business moments or use cases that could benefit from AI or innovation. Using our experience and industry benchmarks, we map these use cases to their expected impact, creating a prioritized roadmap to guide your project. You’ll see opportunities for Quick Wins alongside High-Impact, High-Value initiatives—and we help you actualize these with the right measurement structures to ensure your investments deliver real value.
True North C.A.R.E. Model
Coastal’s True North methodology leverages our C.A.R.E. business impact model to guide your AI initiatives toward:
C.A.R.E. Business Impact Model
Cost Savings
Efficiency gains across people & process
Acquisition
New customers or sales acceleration
Retention
Reduced churn rate
Expansion
Incremental revenue, cross-sell, upsell, price increase
No AI solution is successful without the people behind it. Coastal provides hands-on guidance to ensure your organization is ready to fully leverage AI’s capabilities by addressing “what’s in it for them.” We help bring your team along on the AI journey, ensuring they don’t just understand the tools—they’re excited to use them.
Real Situation
Recently, an innovative education institution approached us to expand their impact. Together, we reviewed their student experience and identified moments that could benefit from improved experiences. We mapped out the expected return on these innovations, creating a roadmap of initiatives. Starting with a high-impact, low-effort initiative, we proved success by implementing Salesforce AI to summarize customer service calls. This led to increased new student enrollments and more considerate support call handling. Now, we’re moving forward with other use cases that have clear success KPIs.
Let’s Achieve Your ROAI Together
Ready to navigate your AI journey with Coastal? Let’s focus on what matters most and unlock the true potential of AI in your business today.
