Business Case
HM.Clause
Helping a global company’s board turn AI
ambition into strategic priorities
How an AI Fresco helped move board members from abstract discussions to concrete, prioritised AI use cases in a single afternoon.
Sector
Agri-food / seed genetics
Locations
France (Limagrain Group)
Workshop
AI Fresco
Format
In-person - 3-hour executive session
About HM.Clause
HM.Clause is an international seed company within the Limagrain Group, employing around 3,000 people worldwide. Operating at the intersection of agriculture, genetics and global supply chains, its innovation pipeline from varietal selection to demand forecasting is exactly where AI’s promise and its risks both concentrate.
The Challenge
HM.Clause’s board knew AI mattered. What it lacked was a shared, structured understanding of what AI actually meant for the business: its strategic implications for R&D performance, operational efficiency and long-term innovation capacity. Like many leadership teams, the conversation kept circling AI as a buzzword, ambition without priorities, interest without alignment. The board needed to move from abstract discussion to concrete decisions, together, before committing to an AI roadmap.
How It Unfolded
The full board in one room
Twelve board members came together for a single three-hour AI Fresco session a structured, experiential format designed specifically for executive alignment, not technical training.
From buzzword to business map
Working through the Fresco, the board built a prioritised map of AI opportunities across R&D, supply chain and forecasting grounding the AI conversation in HM.Clause’s actual operations for the first time.
Two strategic use cases prioritised
The session converged on two concrete priorities: accelerating varietal selection through genomic predictive models and predicting demand through hybrid forecasting.
Principles and guardrails agreed
The board reached a shared position: AI should enhance decision-making, not automate operational roles and opened its first structured reflection on governance, ROI discipline and HR’s role in AI transformation.
Of the board aligned behind shared AI priorities
Strategic AI use cases prioritised
From abstract debate to clear priorities
HM.Clause
What Happened Next
Following the session, HM.Clause launched training on Microsoft Copilot, opened further discussions on AI integration within R&D, and began drafting an internal AI ethics charter involving HR, cybersecurity and legal stakeholders. AI adoption moved from exploratory conversation to structured experimentation aligned with business priorities with the full board aligned behind it.
HM.Clause
Why This Matters For Your Organisation
Board alignment, before the AI roadmap, not after.
Most organisations approach AI adoption from the bottom up: a tool here, a pilot there, with leadership catching up later. HM.Clause’s board did the opposite. In a single structured session, they built a shared understanding of where AI could genuinely move the needle in their business and where the risks and governance questions needed answers first. That alignment at the top meant every subsequent AI initiative had clear, board-endorsed priorities behind it from day one.
Client Voice
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— Maeve Hall, Global Lead for Nature, HM.Clause
HM.Clause
What made this possible
This session was delivered by Nicolas Blanchon of Galances Conseil, co-founder of the AI Fresco in France and DecarbonEaser’s partner in bringing this format to organisations. DecarbonEaser is the global delivery partner for AI Fresco the same structured, experiential method behind our climate, nature and transition workshops, applied to the decision every board is facing right now.
