About David McLaughlin

The Short Version

I run MLLytics, an AI consulting practice helping SMB and mid-market organizations move AI implementations from pilot to production. I got here from twenty years inside the operations, not from the model side.

Before founding MLLytics I spent 25 years progressing from the NOC floor to CIO: managed security operations at DefendNet and Guardent, then a decade and a half as IT leader and CIO at D3Logic scaling the business from $1M to $30M+, then CIO at Rebuilders Automotive Supply scaling from $30M to $90M+ on a custom ERP handling $70M+ in annual transactions. I am not a fly-in-fly-out consultant. My longest engagements span 10 and 15 years, because real capability does not get built in a quarter.

What I've Built

Building the tooling is proof of practice. The platforms behind this site are the same ones I use in engagements:

• The MLLytics AI Implementation Framework, a four-phase adoption model (Foundation, Execution Readiness, Build & Prove, Scale & Lead) now in its third version

• The AI Readiness Assessment, a 20-question diagnostic across five pillars with a scored maturity report

• The Claire Path, a pragmatic AI governance model built for mid-market teams, with 8 pillars and tiered complexity

• Six AI systems shipped in production, spanning intake, memory, assessment, generation, review, and delivery

What I've Done

The numbers tell part of the story:

• Scaled companies from $1M to $30M+ and $30M to $90M+ as embedded technology leader

• Led 10 ERP and CRM transformations into production

• Built and deployed mobile-first applications generating $44M+ in revenue

• Patented an image recognition and geocoding process for recalled materials that enabled a $15M+ sales channel

• Productized a 190M-record nightly data pipeline into subscription revenue

• Protected 100M+ personally identifiable records a year across financial services, healthcare, and government

• Guided organizations through 50+ security and compliance audits across SSAE 16, SOC 2, and HITRUST postures

But numbers don't capture the human side. The warehouse team that went from paper-based chaos to 98% inventory accuracy. The operations staff who stopped dreading Monday mornings because the systems finally worked. The CEO who could finally see the business in real time instead of waiting for last month's spreadsheet.

That's the work I care about: results you can see in the numbers and feel in the culture. From satisfactory to exceptional has always been the personal standard.

How I Work

AI implementation fails for the same reasons ERP implementations failed. So every engagement starts with the same discipline: understand where your people, your processes, your technology, and your capacity for innovation are today, and where they need to be. I am a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and hold the Microsoft Azure AI-900 certification. I do not guess. I measure, I analyze, and I build systems that sustain results long after I have moved on.

My Background

I've worked across manufacturing, automotive, financial services, banking, healthcare, government, education, logistics, warehousing, insurance, and more. I hold a B.S. in Computer Information Systems, serve on the OSPMI board, and work from Warwick, Rhode Island. Every industry teaches you something different about what implementation actually requires, and reinforces that the fundamentals are universal.