Episode overview

What does real influence look like? Forget follower counts. In this episode, recorded ahead of The Influencers 2026, Anthony Perl sits down with David Clelland, senior partner and co-founder of the AI strategy business OmniPulse AI. David calls himself a treasure hunter, not an AI strategist: he goes looking for where the gold is hiding in a business. The problem, he says, is that most businesses go looking in the wrong place. They buy the tools, skip the strategy, and end up with what he calls the AI graveyard.

Key talking points

• Why he is a treasure hunter, not an AI strategist: finding where the gold is in a business, not fitting tools into it
• Why so many AI projects fail, and why the failure is almost always upstream of the technology: no measurement before the work starts
• Why the problem the executives name is rarely the problem on the floor, and why the answer usually comes from the people doing the work
• The 15-minute task done twenty times a day beats the shiny one nobody touches: how to prioritise by time and frequency
• Personal AI and corporate AI are two different things, and why the distinction matters for a mid-sized business
• Why fixing one process just moves the bottleneck further on, and why that is a feature, not a bug
• It is a journey, not a point in time: starting with the business side, not the tools
• The promise that puts the risk on his own shoulders: six figures of hidden revenue, or he keeps working for free

About David Clelland

David Clelland is the senior partner and co-founder of OmniPulse AI, the Sydney AI strategy business. He spent 35 years building businesses that scale, long before AI was a headline, and the one he is proudest of took 14 years to build: a software business across Australia and New Zealand acquired outright by the Danish company Zensai in 2022. He holds an AI Strategy for Business Transformation certificate from Kellogg Executive Education, and he writes about AI accountability and governance in his newsletter, The Pulse. OmniPulse AI works with mid-sized businesses on a flat fee and a four week engagement, and guarantees to identify six figures of hidden revenue, or keep working for free until it does. OmniPulse AI is a Proudly Supported By sponsor of The Influencers 2026.

The Influencers 2026

The Influencers 2026 is one morning in Sydney: Wednesday 7 October 2026, 8.30am to 12.00pm, Northside Conference Centre, Crows Nest. The theme is there's more than one way to become influential, explored through five lenses: media, communication, marketing, leadership and business. Tickets and group bookings are available via influencers2026.com.au.

Links

• Listen to the episode: https://youtu.be/qv9-CRlfAn8
• The Influencers 2026: influencers2026.com.au
• OmniPulse AI: omnipulseai.ai
• Podcasts Done For You: PodcastsDoneForYou.com.au

#AI #BusinessStrategy #Leadership #TheInfluencers2026 #SydneyEvents #SmallBusiness

**DOWNLOAD THE WORKBOOK from this episode and every episode of the Podcasts Done for You Show** https://link.podcastsdoneforyou.com.au/workbooks

Anthony Perl: Influence is

treasure hunting, and I'm joined by

David Clelland, who established

Omni+ AI to have conversations with

businesses about why so many AI

projects fail, and asking questions

of the leadership and the ones the

leadership never ask their teams.

Let's face it, AI is influencing

businesses, but who is influencing

how it's being used in your business?

Is it covering up bigger issues?

Well, the Podcast Done For You show,

as you know, is all about getting

the most value out of podcasting,

a platform where you can influence

the way people think and build

relationships that make people want

to engage with you.

People are looking to you to find

hidden treasure, and that's exactly

what David does.

He's also a sponsor of The Influencers

2026, so let's become influential.

Hello everyone, and welcome to

another episode of the special series

of The Influencers within the Podcast

Done For You show, and I'm very pleased

to say that I've got David Clelland

joining me today.

David, welcome to the podcast.

David Clelland: Thanks, Anthony.

And I think the important

thing that we like to do to start

the, when we have guests, is to allow

them to introduce themselves, but

as we're doing in this series, I just

want to give it the context to everyone

listening, because The Influencers

is all about, clearly about being

an influencer.

So when you introduce yourself,

I'm intrigued as to what, as well

as what you focus on in the context

of knowing that you want to have

an influence in a particular area.

Is there something that you emphasize,

um, as you tell everyone

who you are?

David Clelland: Thanks, Anthony.

Um, it's a good question.

I don't really think of that when

I meet people.

It's, um, sure, I want to tell people

what I do and who I am, but, um, it--

that's one of the reasons why I've,

I, um, sponsored or, or am a sponsor

of this, uh, Influencers 2026.

I want to gain more, uh, knowledge on

how I can influence, um, a room.

Anthony Perl: So with that

in mind, tell everyone a little

bit about who you are and, and what

you actually do.

So, uh, as Anthony says,

I'm David Clelland.

I live in, uh, Sydney.

Um, I've been in business for

quite a few years.

This is a new business.

Um, uh, three years ago, I sold

a business and then did a three-year

earn-out and had to reinvent myself.

So I looked at AI, very topical, and

so I thought, "How am I gonna get into

this business?" Um, and what I did was

went to a, uh, or did a course, uh, at

Northwe-Northwestern University at the

Kellogg School, AI Strategy

for Business Transformation.

And that's given me the, uh, framework

to now build this business.

Um, so our company, Omnipulse, is only

new, uh, but we, um, are hoping to

make a difference in the quality of

what's delivered for AI strategy.

We take a holistic approach to,

um, AI strategy.

So we looked at, look at the company

overall and, um, and provide, uh,

what I think is a, um, a good value,

uh, AI strategy for organizations

AI is definitely an

area that is having an influence in

many, many ways, uh, at the moment.

I mean, it, it-- So talk me through, you

know, that process for you in the first

place of saying, "Well, uh, you

know, what is the area of AI that you

wanna get involved in?" Because there

are a, seems to be a gazillion

AI businesses out there at the moment.

David Clelland: Yeah.

It, it's like medicine.

There's many different

specialties.

Um, so I'm on the business side, so

I, I looked at, uh, should we do agents?

Should-- What should we do in AI?

And I wanted to be part of changing

how businesses, uh, work with AI.

So it's, um, from the business point

of view, we don't come to the business

with tools, uh, which was an option.

Um, I struggled a little bit when,

when we first started this

business, uh, will we resell

someone's tools?

Will we try to go into businesses and

provide those tools?

Uh, that was the first iteration.

I think we're, uh, settled on the

fourth iteration now of, um, of

what business that we're going

to be, but we're most definitely,

um, wanna make ourselves different.

We don't go to businesses to try

to fit tools into their business.

We look at the business and look

at the problems that the business

are having, the pain points, how

we can, uh, address those pain points,

prioritize use cases, et cetera

Uh, it's, it's, uh,

fascinating when you go into it because

I imagine that there's a lot of

tools that are being used by businesses.

So how do you get your head around

everything that's being used, how it's

being used, what it's being used for

in the first place before you start

working out whether it's working well?

David Clelland: Well, we don't, we

don't look at what tools are out there.

Um, we just look at the problems

within the business and what needs to

be fixed and, and in what order and

what, uh, the data says and how it

can, um, support those use cases.

So, um, I've just come up

with a new title.

So I'm not an AI strategist, I'm a

treasure hunter.

So I go and find where the gold

is in businesses

And I imagine that

there's a lot of gold in businesses.

I mean, you put a, a pretty big

g-guarantee on your website, don't you,

to, to businesses?

So the-- maybe explain what

that is and, and how that works

David Clelland: First of all, look

at, um, how many AI strategy companies

are out there, and we felt lost

and we thought, "How are we going

to differentiate ourselves?"

Um, uh, that was one of the ways

we differentiate.

We give a promise that we'll find

six figures in your business,

and it's not hard to do at all.

Um-

But we look at the level of strategy

that's being delivered and, uh,

I come from the building industry

originally, and I use the analogy of a

window is a window.

What do you use a window for?

You look through the window to see

what's outside.

So when a company says, "We develop

AI strategy

The company that's, uh, looking at

that AI strategy doesn't know what

they're going to get originally.

So we find that there's a lot

of, uh, I've mentioned a lot

of companies that come with tools.

There's a lot from inside the business

that say, um, from IT, for instance,

we can, uh, work out what tools

we need and what we need to fix.

Uh, if you come with the tools, you're

looking for a place to fix the problem

or looking for a problem to fix.

Uh, if you come from within the business,

you're mapping out what your data looks

like and how you can put, uh, a tool

into a problem.

Um, if you're a software vendor,

again, you're, you're looking

at a place to put that, um, problem.

Looking-- turning that around,

it enables you to look at the

business, find the problems, and then

you can look at what can fix it.

Uh, so we, we, um

We provide the strategy.

When we say we guarantee six

figures, we guarantee that

we can identify where you're going

to, uh, earn a six-figure return.

And we do that by measuring beforehand

and estimating what, uh, the company

will gain, uh, by fixing that problem.

So it's, it's all about m-measuring

first and measuring after to be

able to get that six figures.

Um, yeah, so that, that's what we do.

In the context of

the influencers, you know, is the

problem the tools or the human element?

I think it's both.

Um, the human element doesn't

measure beforehand, therefore you

can't say whether AI is successful.

Um, i-if there's no planning from the

beginning and you're just looking, uh, at

a tool and saying, "Well, that's gonna

fix that," then, um, you're working the

wrong way around.

Uh, a lot of organizations, a

lot of executive teams are looking to

put AI in because,

because they, uh, the fear

of missing out.

So they know that they need to have

AI in to make their business run better.

Uh, but the stats say that 80% of

AI projects fail and 95% of, um,

pilots fail.

Now, the 95% of pilots fail is

most definitely because there's

no measurement beforehand, so

how can you say that it's worked

if there's no measurement

beho-beforehand?

I think the 80% of, um, AI projects that

fail is a result of, um, bad strategy,

of, of tools being put in where

there's no problem.

Um, I have many examples of, um,

where a use case has been put up, been

accepted, uh, and it wasn't actually

the problem.

So defining the problem is, um-

Is somewhere, is something that

really needs to be done upfront.

Uh, you can't just say, "We've got

a problem there." You've, you've got

to go through the steps to define

that problem.

Um, find out from the executive, from

the department, uh, heads, and from the

people on the floor.

So our process, uh, is that we do a

thorough interview process throughout

the business.

Um, and a lot of the time what the

executives say the problem is, is not

actually the problem on the floor.

So, um, it- it's, it's a

good way to work.

It's an interesting

one, isn't it?

Because then in the end, is the

problem what the floor says or what

the exec says?

How do you, how do you resolve that?

David Clelland: It's normally what

the floor says.

It's normally they're the people

doing the work.

They're the people who can say that

I'm, I'm, uh, this problem's costing

me fifteen, fifteen minutes here, and

I do that twenty times a day.

Uh, the executive can't, can't do that

unless they sit with the people on the

floor and see what the problem is, and

that's quite rare

Anthony Perl: The-- tell me

about the process then in terms of

educating once you identify that in

that particular case, it's fifteen

minutes that's being so- that could

be helped here, and it's repeated

twenty times a day, and there may be

three people doing the same thing.

How do you educate the business to

make a shift?

David Clelland: You've got to be

able to back it up, so you've got to

have the proof, um, and the reasoning

behind what you're putting forward.

And you've got to be able to say, "We're

putting this project through this year's

case through first, and we're putting

this one second and this one third and

that one fourth."

And you've got to be able to back

up why you've made those choices.

A use case is normally a full

page of, um, of information, um,

on how it was measured, um, why

it's in this order.

Um, sometimes you'll find that, uh,

something that takes two hours and it's

done, you know, once every six months.

Obviously, that's not a priority.

The, the one that takes fifteen

minutes and it's done twenty times

a day is much more priority.

Looking at the data, um, to see whether

it can support, um, i- is another,

uh, prioritization.

So if the data doesn't support,

but it's still a good use case, then

we need to see what needs to be fixed

on that data so we can implement

that use case.

But it's all got to be backed up

by the proof, proof behind it

How do you overcome

the challenge of educating people

about what you do?

Because it's great when you talk about

a scenario like you just have, but

the next business saying, "Oh, that's

not relevant to us. We, you know, we

don't have those kinds of issues."

Because immediately the people you're

talking to, I imagine, are the

executive who are looking at a diff-

from a different perspective, as

we've already established.

So how do you actually educate

people about the need that exists

and the way that you go about it?

David Clelland: Again, it's the, the

interview process.

So we go into a business, they've,

they've, uh, indicated that they

want to talk to us.

We go into the business.

Um, my first meeting is with a couple of

the executives, uh, to explain what we

do and how we do it.

Uh, and then we interview the,

um, the executive committee,

uh, as one.

W- we interview the department heads,

and we interview the people on the floor.

So i- in a, uh, business that has

six departments, you've got, uh,

an hour for the executive, you've

got an hour for each of the six

departments, and you've got

around about 45 minutes for, for

each of the, uh, department teams.

So you've got, what's that?

Uh, seven, eight, nine, 10 hours, uh

Thirteen hours of interviews.

So that's synthesized, um,

and it goes into a, uh, what we

call a capability maturity model.

Um, and we also, uh, the questions

that are asked will identify where the

problems are with the data and for

the maturity model.

So we explain what we do, and then we

go through a process to be able to

prove what we see.

So we're explaining our process to the

business, uh, to get their buy-in,

and then, um, we back it up by our,

uh, frameworks

Now how do you, in the

first place though, get those businesses

interested?

I'm, uh, I'm intrigued as to

what you're doing, particularly in

the context of a new business

and establishing yourself,

particularly with a different framework

as, as you've, uh, talked to.

How do you educate people generally

that you should be looking at this and

come talk to us?

David Clelland: Uh, good question.

Uh, so it, it's, it's my ability

to sell, um, and explain what we're

providing and asking the questions on,

on how they've approached this

before and what results that they've

got and what do they think went wrong.

Um, most businesses that we deal with

have already been through, uh, an

AI project, and the stats tell

us that most of them have failed.

Um, so we ask more questions and we

listen to their answers rather

than trying to sell to them.

Yep.

Yeah, I absolutely-- And

it's interesting when you go back

to what you were saying before

about, uh, how many of them fail.

You don't really hear about that.

I don't think people admit to that.

You know, there are people trying stuff

with AI all the time, and sometimes

it's just something little like write

me something, which is your typical

kind of entry into a ChatGPT, but

through to more complicated things.

So how do you define what works

and what fails?

David Clelland: Yeah, so

you're right.

There's different levels of AI.

So I categorize it into two

different areas.

So you've got the personal AI within

a, an organization, so the tools that,

uh, you would use to write an email

or, or help you to write a- an email

or tools that you might use, AI tools

in a spreadsheet.

That's personal.

Um, and then you've got the workflow,

um, the workflows that are what I

would consider a corporate AI.

So we're mainly looking at the

corporate AI.

We're looking at where the process

is broken, and we're looking at,

um, h- how they can be fixed.

When you fix a process, it moves

the bottleneck further on in

a lot of cases.

So what we're proposing to

businesses isn't a point in time

where we deliver an AI strategy

and walk away.

What we're proposing to businesses

is that it's a, a journey.

So AI is a journey itself.

It's moving all the time.

Uh, the models are getting bigger and

better and, uh, many different models

are coming out.

Um, so businesses don't stand still.

If they have an AI strategy that where

use cases have been, um, identified,

um, and they've worked through those

and it's worked, then they would go

and do that same process again in

the next twelve months or next

eighteen months.

And if it's measured correctly,

uh, there's two measurements.

There's the AI readiness or the

capability, um, maturity model

and the data readiness model.

So there's two scores that, um,

that are, are relevant within

that process, and it's important

to be able to see over a point of

time that those two scores are moving.

So i- it's, it's not only having success

with individual, um, projects

or use cases, it's a journey

What would you say to

people who are listening in right

now who are about to jump into an

AI project of some description to,

you know, whatever scale it is?

What is it that they need to do to

be ready and make sure that they

don't fall into the majority that sees

it as a failure?

I think they've got

to use a, um, a process to identify

where their problems are, um, to measure

those problems, to prioritize

those problems.

So they've got to go through a, uh,

a framework that's tried and proven,

um, not just say, "This is a great

tool. I think we can use that to fix

that problem." So it, it's starting

with the business side, not the tools

I think there's so

many things that pe- we could delve into

with all of this.

There is.

Um, we've only got limited, we've only

got limited time.

So, uh, uh, what I'm, what I'm

keen to ask you as well is that

particularly, uh, you know, y- you

talked early on about having moved

into this space.

So who are your influences?

Uh, there's, there's

quite a few people on LinkedIn that

have, um, similar thoughts and,

and, um, that I resonate with.

So I suppose they would be

my influencers.

Um, and they mainly come from LinkedIn.

Um, I have other, uh, consultant

friends that, um, uh, that have

like mind-minded, uh, processes

that I work with.

So they would be my influencers, I think

Anthony Perl: Excellent.

Well, look, it, it's a really interesting

space that you're in because it's having

such an influence on so many businesses.

So give me, just to wrap things up, a

bit of a prediction as to where you see

the big shifts that are coming in AI.

We've, we've had this kind of, I

guess, mass jumping in the deep end, uh,

with lots of things.

Is that going to continue, or do you

see more specific areas and a little

bit more stability in this space?

I think there has to

be more stability, otherwise AI

won't survive.

And I, I think it will be here for

the long term.

I think it's a point in time that

we haven't seen in our lifetime, the

gains that can be made with AI when

it's, um, put in place, uh, in-- with

a proper structure.

Um, I think it'll be here

for a long time.

Um, yeah, it, it's… I, I have

a dream of, and it's a big dream,

of creating an, uh, an AI standard, a

global AI standard.

Uh, and I'm actually in the process

of, um, h-having a platform built out

for consultants.

So I think businesses will

see that just going for the tools won't

produce what they, what they require.

They can see the failures, and

they're going to have to look at,

um, where they can get gains.

And I think that, that has already

started to turn now.

Uh, there's a lot more talk about

working in the business first

with-without the tools, uh, trying

to find a place for the tools.

So I think that's, uh, where the

gains will be made

Anthony Perl: Excellent.

Well, just to finish things up, um, I'd

love you to tell everyone about

the readiness test that you've got,

and I know there's going to be, uh,

uh, things left on people's seats

to encourage them to do it- … when

they come to the Influencers event.

But there'll be plenty of people who

might be listening in who aren't able

to attend as well.

So tell us a little bit about the

readiness test.

David Clelland: Yeah, it, it's a,

uh, 10 questions, um, throughout

the business, and it's structured

to, to look at different levels

of business and, and different areas

of the business.

And it will produce a score, uh, a

readiness score for, for businesses.

So it opens up a, a conversation.

Um, if people are asking questions

about AI, it's a way that we can get

to talk to people.

Um, they get a, a written readiness,

so, uh, which will be emailed to them,

um, straightaway.

So by answering the questions, we have

a process that, that will then,

uh, score those answers, uh, and do

a, um, spider map so people can see the

areas that they're being rated on and,

um, will give them something to think

about and hopefully, uh, we'll be able

to have a, a, a bigger conversation

with them.

Anthony Perl: Fantastic.

David, thank you so much for being part

of the podcast and, uh, looking forward

to seeing you at the Influencers event as

well, and appreciate all the insights

on AI as, uh, it has an increasing

influence on all of our business.

David Clelland: Thanks, Anthony.

Appreciate it.

Anthony Perl: Well, that's

this conversation wrapped up.

If it got you thinking about your

own influence, the Influencers 2026

is on Wednesday, October 7, at the

Northside Conference Center in Sydney,

and tickets are available via

influencers2026.com.au.

The link, of course, is also

in the show notes.

I'll be there on the day, so if you

want to talk about how my team and I

can help you have a podcast that

becomes a content machine for your

business to improve your influence and

make you a voice of brilliance,

come talk to me.

Until then, don't forget to keep

an eye out for the next episode.