Brian Butte
AI strategy, adoption and governance executive, Charlotte, North Carolina
I help regulated enterprises move AI from pilot to production, with governance that holds.
I have worked in AI across four generations of the technology: neural networks and fuzzy logic in industrial automation research, machine vision in healthcare, AI-driven transformation strategy for the largest US banks, and today, governance for autonomous agents. In 2025 I founded Auspica AI to close the trust gap that keeps agentic AI in pilot, building a platform that compares what each agent is approved to do against what it actually does.
Before that I led strategy, innovation, and transformation work at Verizon, AT&T, PwC, IBM, and Diamond. At Verizon I shaped AI, IoT, and edge innovation strategy for the four largest US banks, piloted an AI-driven business outcomes approach, and led the recovery of failing high-visibility global transformation programs. At PwC I founded the global Cloud and IT Transformation Strategy practice.
Selected results
- Recovered 15 of 16 failing, high-visibility global transformation programs, preserving $600M in annual recurring revenue and 22 executive relationships.
- Rescued a 10-year, $500M outsourcing agreement the customer had declined to renew.
- Generated $250M in customer-signed AI and innovation business cases, growing a strategic portfolio from under $250K to more than $25M in annual recurring revenue.
- Led an internal help desk agent from strategy to delivery that cut calls 90% and cost 80% while raising customer satisfaction 65%.
- Built an AI governance platform with 75 detection rules mapped to NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, SOC 2, and the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications.
What I do
I work with executives and technical teams across the full AI lifecycle: choosing the right business problems, defining architecture and data requirements, establishing ownership and controls, moving pilots into operations, and measuring adoption and value.
- AI strategy
- Choosing the problems worth solving, scoring them on value, feasibility, data readiness, and risk, and sequencing them so value arrives early.
- AI governance
- Policy that is enforced, not just written: declared behavior, continuous comparison against it, and evidence an auditor can use.
- AI adoption
- Adoption measured against a baseline captured before anything changes, so value is proven rather than asserted.
Industries
My deepest experience is in regulated industries, including the four largest US banks and national healthcare payers and providers.
- Financial Services
- Retail banking experience, wealth management experience, IT transformation, life insurance transformation, P&C insurance transformation, fraud detection.
- Healthcare Payer, Provider, Pharma, and Biotech
- Contract management, patient funds, patient experience, business intelligence, data warehousing, ETL, fraud detection, electronic medical records, remote diagnosis, disease modeling, medical image storage & retrieval.
- Manufacturing & Logistics
- Logistics, customer support, IT transformation, marketing transformation, application rationalization, preventive maintenance, IT/OT alignment, ERP selection, infrastructure audit.
- Retail
- Retail operations, eCommerce, product development, ERP selection, business intelligence, executive dashboards.
- High Tech
- Growth strategy, cloud strategy, vertical marketing, sales transformation.
- Entertainment & Media
- Guest experience, digital archival & retrieval, data warehousing, business intelligence, executive dashboards.
- Hospitality & Travel
- Guest experience, eCommerce, IT transformation, business intelligence, data warehousing, executive dashboards.
Community
- Providence STEM
- Advisor and board member working to increase participation of women and minorities in STEM degree programs (2019 to 2023).
- AT&T High School STEM Mentorship Program
- Founder. Proposed, developed, and piloted a program pairing high school STEM students with professional mentors and exposing them to real professional challenges.
- Youth rugby and football
- Video coach, board advisor, and former president across Charlotte Junior Rugby, South Charlotte Rugby Club, Providence Rugby, Providence Football, and Pop Warner.