Agentic AI, Case Study Erik LaRochelle Agentic AI, Case Study Erik LaRochelle

Not a Demo: Making Agentic AI Actually Work

Everyone’s selling “agentic AI” right now, but most of what’s out there is just a chatbot in a lab coat. The difference between a flashy demo and an operational agent comes down to one thing: structure.

Unstructured data (emails, tickets, transcripts) is great for exploration. But if you want AI that runs at scale, feeds decisions back into your systems, and actually changes how the business operates, you need a structured substrate.

In this post, we break down how we used agentic AI to evaluate thousands of customer goals in a SaaS platform, scoring them against SMART criteria, routing weak ones back to CSMs, and closing the loop in our BI layer. No fairy dust, just data, structure, and agents that do the repetitive reasoning humans don’t have time for.

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Vendor Management, Strategy Erik LaRochelle Vendor Management, Strategy Erik LaRochelle

Transparency: the Sharpest Tool in Vendor Negotiations

Most vendor negotiations start with secrecy, holding back budgets, hiding roadmaps, and waiting for the discount dance. But the strongest deals don’t come from playing poker. They come from transparency. When you share your timelines, growth plans, and future needs, vendors can pull levers like time, volume, ramps, and marketplace credits to structure smarter, more equitable deals. Transparency isn’t just the best policy, it’s the strategy that wins.

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Strategy, Technology Erik LaRochelle Strategy, Technology Erik LaRochelle

Your Tech Stack Isn’t Broken. Your Approach Is.

Most SMBs fall into the same trap—buying a new tool and expecting it to fix broken processes. It never does. At Data Designs, we believe technology is a lever, not a lifeline. When deployed with purpose, it multiplies what’s already working, accelerates decision-making, and frees up your team to focus on growth. Our approach starts with clarity, builds small and connected systems, and automates the grind—turning your tech stack from a burden into a competitive advantage.

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Strategy, Leadership Erik LaRochelle Strategy, Leadership Erik LaRochelle

Ship Strategy, Not Decks: Fractional Chief Data Officers Scaling Growth in Lean Firms

How Fractional Chief Data Officers (CDO) Scale Growth in Resource-Constrained Firms — Budgets are tight, headcount is frozen, but growth targets remain. A fractional CDO acts as an accountable operator who connects data work directly to revenue, installs a lightweight operating system, and delivers measurable results fast. No agencies, no fluff — just the smallest system that works, a weekly decision-making cadence, and experiments that prove ROI in 90 days or less.

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