The AI Ignition Experience
The Brief
Turn a slide deck into a revelation
KPMG’s global Ignition Centres are high-tech, invite-only spaces where senior clients experience bespoke workshops. The format works — conversion rates are strong. But the AI sessions were polished slides and one-way storytelling. No genuine wow. The ask: design a signature AI experience that doesn’t just inform, but makes C-suite audiences feel it.
The Solution
Stop telling clients about AI. Show them what it means for their business
We discovered KPMG had a powerful but underused AI diagnostic that could assess any company’s readiness from the outside. We made it the backbone of the experience — and from that data, built the Proxy Co: a bespoke fictional mirror of each client’s organisation. The insight was psychological. It’s easier to make bold decisions about someone else’s company. A static pitch became an interactive, insight-led journey.
Background
Every firm is claiming AI leadership. The stakes couldn’t be higher
The consulting market for AI transformation is an arms race. Every firm is positioning itself as the go-to partner. For KPMG, the challenge wasn’t capability — they’d made serious internal strides. The challenge was perception.
Existing sessions risked becoming exactly what competitors were already doing: a well-produced presentation, heavy on claims, light on proof. KPMG needed something clients could experience, not just hear.
This project sat within the broader ‘You Can With AI’ campaign — a global initiative to reposition KPMG as a genuine pioneer. The Ignition Experience was its flagship embodiment.
The AI Ignition Experience — Example signature film.
Our Approach
Go back to first principles. Then build something nobody expected
We visited Ignition Centres, studied existing formats, and spent time with KPMG’s senior AI leaders. That’s where the breakthrough came: an AI-driven impact assessment tool that could evaluate any company’s AI readiness using only public data. Impressive technology — but not being used to its full potential.
We made it the centrepiece and developed the Proxy Co concept. A bespoke fictional company built from real diagnostic data, allowing participants to analyse, challenge and transform their own challenges at one remove. Physician, heal thyself is always the hardest brief. The Proxy Co removed the mental blocks.
We designed the full narrative arc around the building blocks of AI transformation — workforce, data, infrastructure — and brought it to life with personalised video, interactive exercises including live vibe-coding, and a visual identity connected to ‘You Can With AI’. The framework flexes from two screens to ten.
Key Project Assets
Strategic Experience Framework
A narrative structure for the signature AI Ignition session, built around the Proxy Co and the impact assessment. Repeatable, scalable, tailored to each client.
Proxy Co Methodology
A bespoke fictional mirror company powered by real diagnostic data — the psychological engine of the session, turning passive observation into active participation.
Personalised Video Content
Custom films for each session delivering data-driven provocations — highlighting untapped value and AI opportunity specific to each organisation.
Interactive Session Design
Workshop exercises and interactive moments — including live vibe-coding — designed to move participants from insight to action in the room.
Impact
The work was received as a breakthrough. Where the previous format was essentially a presentation, the new experience is interactive, personalised and revelatory. Clients are no longer being told about AI — they’re discovering what it means for their own organisation, in real time.
Project Insights
From presentation to epiphany
If you want senior, sceptical people to engage with AI, you can’t talk at them. You have to build a moment of genuine realisation — not through a slick deck, but through ideas. The Proxy Co didn’t just solve a creative problem. It solved a psychological one.
Project Insights
The value was in the thinking
The vast majority of this project’s value was in the thinking, not the production. KPMG didn’t need more content. They needed a better way into the conversation. That’s what we gave them.
Most of the value was in our thinking, not our doing. Designing moments of epiphany for senior audiences takes real intellectual heft — and we did it in a very Tilt way.
Paul Mallaghan, Director of Creative Strategy & Content — We Are Tilt
