26ers AI Systems Studio
Executive Briefing · 2026
Mission-First
AI Transformation
Most AI transformations begin with technology. The best ones begin with mission.
Competitive advantage no longer comes from deploying more AI. It comes from redesigning how intelligence, decisions, and execution move through the organization.
The Mission-First AI Operating Model
AI investment is accelerating.
Business value isn't.
Why?
Organizations are deploying AI into operating models that were never designed for AI.
The Outcome Gap is the widening difference between AI investment and realized business value.
Closing the gap requires redesigning the operating model, not simply deploying more AI.
The AI Outcome Gap
Closing the Outcome Gap requires redesigning the operating model—not simply deploying more AI.
Why Organizations Struggle to Create AI Outcomes
Technology adoption is not the primary barrier. Organizational systems are.
Disconnected Tools
Point solutions create overlap, silos, shadow workflows, and fragmented execution.
Architecting for AI Performance
Six integrated layers align mission, operating models, governance, and technology into one management system. Every section that follows explores one layer of this architecture and how it contributes to organizational intelligence.
Mission sits above everything. Nothing below it changes its meaning.
Decision Rights
Governance enables Human + AI teams to execute with trust at scale. Authority defines who decides. Oversight provides visibility. Accountability establishes ownership. Escalation resolves exceptions. Together, these principles govern how decisions are made across the organization.
The Human + AI Operating System
Organizations do not scale AI by adding more models. They scale AI by building an operating system where humans and intelligent systems work together under one architecture.
Knowledge & Memory
Institutional knowledge graph, retrieval, document and decision archives. The organization's compounding memory.
Business Impact
Knowledge compounds across people, workflows, and AI systems.
From Hierarchy to Network
Traditional organizations move information upward through hierarchy before decisions can be made. Organizations built around Human + AI operating systems move intelligence directly to where work happens, enabling faster decisions, stronger execution, and continuous organizational learning.
Better coordination enables faster decisions, stronger execution, and continuous organizational learning.
From Organizational Intelligence to Mission Outcomes
As intelligence compounds, organizations increase decision quality, execution capacity, organizational leverage, and ultimately produce better mission outcomes.
Equation One · Operating Inputs
Organizational Leverage
Mission Outcomes
Mission Outcomes
Build Your AI Modernization Office
AI modernization spans every major organizational capability. AI modernization opportunities across the enterprise.
In Practice
Organizations can modernize AI across many different business capabilities. While each mission is different, the principles for governing Human + AI systems remain consistent.
Examples of AI modernization across the enterprise.
How Human + AI Systems Compound Value
Each cycle creates more capability than the one before it — decisions sharpen execution, execution produces outcomes, outcomes feed learning, and learning compounds into organizational leverage.
Decision Quality
Human + AI decision systems surface better evidence, sharpen judgment, and accelerate executive alignment.
Business Impact
Higher-confidence decisions, made faster, with fewer reversals.
Engagement Models
From strategy through implementation, 26ers helps organizations design, deploy, and scale Human + AI operating systems that improve performance, increase execution capacity, and create organizational leverage.
Strategic Advisory
Strategic clarity for AI-era decisions.
- Aligned executive direction on operating model strategy.
- Prioritized opportunity portfolio with clear sequencing.
- Defined governance posture and decision rights.
Design & Implementation
End-to-end operating model transformation.
- Human + AI operating system designed, implemented, and operationalized.
- Governed workflows delivering measurable business outcomes.
- Internal capability developed to scale and evolve the model.
Optimization & Scale
Compounding organizational leverage over time.
- Continuous optimization across pilots, rollout, and portfolio.
- Embedded senior counsel through transitions and expansion.
- Sustained organizational leverage and adoption velocity.
Learn More About Service Offerings
Each engagement model is composed of modular services that can be tailored to your organization's goals, operating environment, and implementation needs.
9 ServicesWhy 26ers
Artificial intelligence is not simply a technology shift. It is an operating model shift.
The organizations that succeed will not be those that deploy the most AI. They will be those that redesign how decisions are made, how knowledge is shared, and how humans and intelligent systems work together.
26ers partners with leadership teams to design Human + AI operating systems that align mission, governance, workflows, and technology into a single operating model—improving decision quality, execution capacity, and mission outcomes.
Lasting transformation does not come from adopting new tools. It comes from redesigning how the organization operates.
Theresa Piasta
Founder & CEO
26ers AI Systems Studio
An enterprise transformation leader and AI strategy executive advising organizations on AI operating models, governance, and Human + AI systems design.
Her experience spans enterprise software, financial services, and military leadership as a former U.S. Army Captain.
Selected Experience
- Salesforce
- Outreach
- Cresta
- J.P. Morgan
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- U.S. Army
Mission-First AI Modernization
Executive briefing on redesigning your operating model for the AI era.