Engagements

How We Can Work Together

AI search is changing how organizations structure, manage, optimize, and communicate what they know.

Kinetic Pencil helps organizations understand what that shift means for their digital ecosystem—and turn it into a practical strategy for what comes next.

Start here

Start with a Clarity Call

Bring the question you’re trying to answer.

A Clarity Call is a focused working session for a specific AI search, content, website, or digital optimization challenge. We’ll examine what is happening, identify the questions underneath it, and clarify the most useful next step.

This is a strong place to begin if you need an informed outside perspective, are exploring how AI search applies to your organization, or want help determining whether a larger assessment is warranted.

$100Focused working session Book a Clarity Call
Core engagements

Two ways most organizations move forward.

01 · Assess

Assess the Opportunity

Understand what needs to change—and where to begin.

A structured assessment examines the relevant parts of your digital ecosystem to uncover how well your organization is being understood, where existing systems are creating friction, and what needs to evolve for AI search.

Depending on the organization and scope, this may include

  • Content, messaging, and entity clarity
  • Information and content architecture
  • AI search visibility and representation
  • Search and audience performance signals
  • User journeys and digital experience
  • Content operations and governance
  • Organizational readiness
  • Measurement and prioritization

The result is a clear view of the current state, the most consequential opportunities, and a prioritized roadmap for moving forward.

Focused assessments and strategic roadmaps typically begin at $5,000.

Because every digital ecosystem is different, the scope is defined before the work begins.

02 · Build

Build and Operationalize the Strategy

Turn the roadmap into an organizational capability.

For many organizations, identifying the opportunity is only the beginning.

AI search requires more than a collection of optimization tactics. It may require changes to content architecture, publishing systems, governance, workflows, measurement, team responsibilities, and the way knowledge moves across the organization. Kinetic Pencil can help design and lead that transformation.

Engagements may include

  • AI search and content transformation strategy
  • Content and knowledge architecture
  • Website and content ecosystem optimization
  • Cross-functional planning
  • Governance and operating models
  • Workflow and publishing-system redesign
  • Measurement strategy
  • Team enablement
  • Implementation leadership
  • Ongoing experimentation and optimization

The goal is to move from isolated improvements to a system the organization can operate, measure, and continue evolving.

Scoped per engagement, with a defined program of work. Engagements begin at $18,000.

Engagements are shaped around the organization’s goals, complexity, internal capabilities, and implementation needs.

Retained

Fractional AI Content Transformation Leadership

Senior guidance without waiting to build an entirely new function.

Some organizations need sustained strategic leadership but are not ready—or may not need—to hire a full internal team.

Fractional support provides an embedded senior partner who can help establish direction, align stakeholders, guide implementation, evaluate emerging priorities, and build the internal capabilities required for AI search and content transformation.

Retained engagements typically begin at $8,000 per month.

Engagements that include a delivery team are scoped separately. Availability is limited to a small number of clients at a time.

This may include

  • Advising executive, marketing, digital, and content leaders
  • Establishing priorities and transformation roadmaps
  • Coordinating work across internal teams and external partners
  • Guiding content, architecture, and optimization initiatives
  • Evaluating tools, approaches, and emerging opportunities
  • Supporting team design, capability development, and hiring
  • Providing ongoing strategic oversight

Fractional engagements are available on a retained basis and tailored to the organization’s operating needs.

We’re honored to have supported the digital strategy of
Microsoft
Starbucks
Meta
Hilton
Liberty Mutual
World Vision
Waldorf Astoria
Cisco
Penn Medicine
MSDN
Encompass Health
Who’s behind Kinetic Pencil

A senior lead, and the specialists the work actually requires.


Kinetic Pencil is led by Hillary Bassett Ross, who sets direction on every engagement and stays involved through implementation. Depending on scope, that work is delivered alongside a hand-selected group of technical and content specialists.

Hillary Bassett Ross

Hillary Bassett Ross

Founder & Principal Strategist

With more than 20 years of cross-functional digital experience for Fortune 50 enterprises including Microsoft, Cisco, and Liberty Mutual, Hillary brings a rare perspective shaped by working hands-on across design, content, SEO, digital marketing, and performance analysis.

As founder of Kinetic Pencil, she helps marketing leaders understand what changes when AI becomes a primary layer between their brand and their customers—and how their content, websites, and digital ecosystems need to evolve with it..

Supported by a hand-selected bench


  • Technical SEO and search engineersCrawlability, indexation, structured data, site performance, and the implementation work that makes strategy hold up in production.
  • Content strategists and information architectsContent models, taxonomy, entity and semantic clarity, and the editorial systems that keep it consistent at scale.
  • Digital and analytics specialistsMeasurement design, experimentation, CMS and publishing workflow, and platform integration across the wider digital ecosystem.

Teams are assembled per engagement and scoped before the work begins.

Briefings, workshops and training

Understanding the shift is often the first step toward acting on it.


Kinetic Pencil offers talks, executive briefings, working sessions, and training programs that help organizations understand how AI search is changing content—and what their teams need to do differently.



  • Speaking

    Keynotes, Talks and Executive Briefings

    Introduce the shift, explain what it means, and help leaders see the organizational implications beyond search rankings and individual webpages. Adapted for leadership teams, conferences, associations, and cross-functional audiences.

    See speaking →
  • Facilitated

    Interactive Workshops

    A facilitated working session that helps participants apply the ideas to their own organization—surfacing readiness gaps, priority questions, and the beginnings of an organizational response.

    See workshops →
  • Training

    Content Team Training

    Equip content teams to work in an environment where content must serve human audiences, search engines, AI systems, and an expanding ecosystem of machines. Delivered standalone or inside a larger transformation engagement.

    See the curriculum →
Next step

Choose Your Starting Point

Have a specific question or need help clarifying the opportunity?

Book a Clarity Call

Exploring an assessment, organizational transformation, or team engagement?

Discuss an Opportunity