Glossary
Definitions of key Unlocking Growth terms
A concise glossary of the vocabulary Unlocking Growth uses across our offerings, the whitepaper, the diagnostic and our client engagements. If you've heard us use a term and want to know exactly what we mean by it, start here.
AI Enablement
The operating function inside an organisation that turns AI activity into enterprise capability — portfolio, platform, governance, enablement and operational excellence on one cadence. Unlocking Growth's primary offering. Distinct from AIOps (a different category — AI applied to IT operations tooling) and from AI strategy (slide deliverables without a running function).
AI-Native Growth Operations
Outside-in counterpart to AI Enablement. A Customer Brain layered over the existing GTM stack — adaptive journeys, next-best-action, contextual lifecycle, measured against the metrics that move the P&L (activation, trial-to-paid, NRR, time-to-value).
Customer Brain
The intelligence layer Unlocking Growth deploys over a client's existing CDP/CRM/analytics stack as part of AI-Native Growth Operations. Scores per account for next-best-action, churn and expansion. Powers adaptive onboarding and lifecycle.
AI Build Club
A fortnightly working forum we stand up in Stage 3 (Operationalised) organisations. Combines functional leads, AI Enablement team and front-line champions to identify, prioritise and build automations bottom-up. This is the operating practice that breaks adoption through the 50% ceiling.
Shadow AI
AI tools employees use without IT sanction or visibility. At Ad Hoc stage, shadow usage typically exceeds sanctioned usage. Our position is to inventory it, not suppress it — visibility is the precondition for governance.
AI Theatre
Activity that looks like progress without the operating discipline to compound. Pilots in marketing. A chatbot in support. Copilot licences no one measures. Steering committees that meet. The trap most organisations are stuck in.
Permissive-first Governance
A governance posture where the safe path is the easy path. Short, readable AI policy; clear data-handling rules; named owners; audit trails by default. The alternative — restrictive-first — drives employees toward shadow AI.
Portfolio (in AI Enablement)
A live register of every AI initiative across the organisation, scored for value and risk, reviewed at fixed executive cadence, actively re-prioritised. The first of the five AI Enablement pillars.
5-Stage AI Enablement Maturity Model
Unlocking Growth's proprietary model that places organisations on one of five stages — Ad Hoc, Coordinated, Operationalised, Embedded, AI-Native — based on a 15-question diagnostic scored 15–75. Each stage has a recommended next move.
90-Day Establishment Sprint
Unlocking Growth's entry engagement for Stage 2 (Coordinated) organisations. Stands up the AI Enablement function in one quarter — named owner, charter, portfolio of 5+ active initiatives, baseline measurement, board-ready reporting from day one.
Unlocking AI
Software product. The AI Enablement control plane — portfolio, platform, governance and evals on one surface, one scoreboard, one cadence. Used in every AI Enablement engagement.
Unlocking Signals
Software product. AI-generated growth intelligence on autopilot. Reads product, billing and support data; emits confidence-scored insights; pushes to Slack, not another dashboard. Used in AI-Native Growth Ops engagements.
5-stage maturity model (summary)
Each stage with score range and the move that unlocks the next:
- Ad Hoc (15–27) — The first move is ownership.
- Coordinated (28–40) — Now you need a function.
- Operationalised (41–55) — Point it at the customer.
- Embedded (56–67) — Now, compounding.
- AI-Native (68–75) — Let's talk partnership.
Take the 4-minute self-diagnostic to place your organisation on the model.