Independent AI advisory for mid-market organisations.
About Perform Advisory
THE FIRM
Practitioner-led. Senior-delivered. Independent.
Perform Advisory is a specialist AI transformation advisory firm. We help mid-market organisations move from AI ambition to AI capability through structured diagnostic work, strategic advisory, proof-of-concept design, operating model design, and change management support.
We are founder-led and deliberately selective. We take a limited number of engagements each quarter so that every client receives senior-level attention from first conversation to final delivery.
Trust and ownership. You walk away with findings you can trust and a plan you own. We don't sell technical implementation, so our recommendations reflect what your organisation needs. When you're ready to build, you know where to start and what to do next.
FOUNDER
ILIJA SOVILJ
Ilija is the Founder and Managing Partner of Perform Advisory.
He is an AI transformation practitioner with more than ten years of experience bridging strategy and delivery across Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East.
Most recent work. Ilija served as Acting COO and Head of AI Strategy for a Silicon Valley venture-backed AI firm operating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He built the consulting practice from the ground up establishing the delivery model, team structure, tooling, and operational cadence required to support a high-growth enterprise AI advisory. He led more than 150 C-suite conversations across Saudi Arabia's largest organisations, including PIF portfolio companies, sector leaders, and multinationals, developing ground-level insight into where enterprise AI investment is genuinely landing and where it is stalling.
The methodology. During this period he architected a complete AI transformation methodology covering AI readiness assessment, strategy definition, use case identification and prioritisation, POC design, pilot execution, scale planning, operating model design, and adoption and change management and delivered enterprise AI proofs-of-concept across analytics and reporting, document intelligence, process automation, predictive maintenance, and customer-facing AI.
Earlier career. London and international, 2016 to 2024. At EY London, Ilija led digital transformation, technology strategy, and operating model engagements across some of the United Kingdom's most complex programmes. He led technology strategy and operating model design for Europe's largest infrastructure programme developing high-value use cases for digital twins, IoT, and machine learning across the full construction lifecycle. He led digital transformation for a major UK electricity market body, including the transition to agile delivery. He directed the design of a global IT target operating model for a major international telecommunications tower provider, and contributed to IT due diligence and carve-out planning for a major corporate divestiture. He also served as strategic advisor to EY's Global Power & Utilities sector leadership, developing practice strategy and automating revenue reporting.
The AI Readiness Diagnostic now offered by Perform Advisory is the productised version of the methodology he developed and executed in live enterprise settings. It is a framework refined through direct delivery to clients.
How we think about AI transformation
PHILOSOPHY
01
AI Readiness determines outcomes more than model selection
02
Evidence outperforms conviction
Where AI succeeds, the organisation was ready to absorb it. Where AI stalls, the model was usually fine the data was fragmented, the process was undocumented, the governance had not been designed, or the skills were not in place.
The strongest signal that an organisation will struggle with AI is a leadership team that has already decided what AI means for them without having looked at the evidence. The AI Diagnostic exists to replace assumption with evidence.
03
Sequencing is
strategy
04
Independence is a commercial position, not just an ethical one
The useful output is a sequence: which investments unlock multiple downstream capabilities, which are blocked by prerequisite constraints, and which can wait. Dependency modeling is how we produce sequenced plans rather than gap lists.
Our findings do not change based on whether you engage us for further work, and our recommendations do not quietly steer you toward our own services. This is why our clients tend to recommend us to their peers.
CONTACT
The first step is a conversation.
30 minutes. No pitch. We'll discuss what's driving the AI conversation at your organisation and whether a structured diagnostic would add value. If it's not the right fit, we'll tell you straight.
Limited engagement volume. We take on a limited number of engagements per quarter. This is not marketing. It is how the depth the methodology requires is protected. If you need an immediate start, ask about availability.