Congrats, you bought an AI company. Now please don’t “integrate” it to death.
The classic PMI playbook treats an acquired AI team like a new warehouse: harmonize the processes, fold it into the ERP, and hit the synergy targets by Q3.
Great for capacity. For capability, it’s a very expensive way to buy talent and then train it to fill out your change-request forms.
The smarter sequence from WGA Consulting’s new playbook:
🔒 Protect what you paid for: the people, the release cadence, the data pipelines.
🔌 Connect it to your operations on purpose.
🧩 Combine only what’s safe to combine.
Integration doesn’t have to mean absorption. Sometimes the bravest move in a merger is leaving something alone.
Worth a read before your next deal: https://wgaconsulting.com/new/2026/10/11/ai-acquisition-integration-playbook/
This piece first appeared as a post on LinkedIn.