E352 | "Every founder becomes the bottleneck - until they fix the system" with Steve Salvin from Aiimi

Most enterprise AI projects crash long before take-off. Hype, bad data, cultural resistance, and “enterprise chaos” stop even the biggest organisations from getting value.

In this episode, Dominic speaks with Steve Salvin, founder & CEO of Aiimi, a data and AI company helping large organisations connect the messy, disconnected worlds of data, content, conversations, and operational history - and finally extract the insights buried inside.

Steve explains why most companies are still on “the first rung of the ladder,” why linking LLMs to enterprise data often backfires, and why the real breakthroughs come from agentic systems doing work humans can’t (or won’t). He also breaks down how to drive adoption inside your own teams, build a culture that celebrates experimentation and failure, and reinvent your leadership style as your company scales.

If you want to replace AI hype with genuine enterprise value - start here.

What you’ll learn:

💡 Why most organisations' data is too messy for GenAI to be useful

💡 The real difference between adaptive intelligence and token-prediction tools

💡 Why culture, not technology, derails adoption

💡 Power tools, champions, and performance management

💡 When to stop doing the work and start running the business

💡 The questions that reveal whether a candidate will raise the bar

Who should listen:

Founder-CEOs scaling from 30–150 people, CTOs/COOs trying to make AI stick, data/AI leaders, transformation teams, and operators frustrated that their organisation is “doing AI” without getting any value from it.

Book recommendations:

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers

Fierce Conversations - Susan Scott

Hope Is Not A Strategy - Rick Page

About the Guest:

Steve Salvin is the founder and CEO of Aiimi, a leading British AI company which he has bootstrapped since its launch in 2013. Their tech helps teams find, make sense of and retain control over their data, and is used by various FTSE100 companies as well as the likes of the FCA, PwC, and the UK government. Having worked in tech since the 80s, Steve is a serial entrepreneur and is passionate about building AI that empowers users and gives them more control.

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Chapters

00:01:44 - Aiimi's Founding Vision

00:02:52 - Disconnected Corporate Data

00:04:07 - Unlocking Value from Corporate Conversations

00:06:20 - AI Hype vs. Reality in Enterprises

00:08:45 - AI: Then and Now

00:11:36 - Practical AI Use Cases in Enterprises

00:13:35 - Extracting Knowledge from Calls and Messages

00:15:24 - AI’s Impact on Jobs and Productivity

00:17:25 - AI Adoption: Leadership & Cultural Change

00:20:01 - Engineering Teams & AI Power Tools

00:23:09 - Curiosity as a Leadership Requirement

00:24:34 - Celebrating Failure

00:27:26 - Agile, Experimentation, and Failing Fast

00:28:09 - Steve’s CEO Evolution & Leadership Lessons

00:32:02 - Book Recommendations