Before the Bots: Building the Brain Behind AI
Katie Robinson
Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer
Madison Millsaps
Knowledge Management Manager
© LS3P 2026
Artificial Intelligence is occupying center stage these days. Of course it is; at its best, AI tools promise efficiency and insight, and they’re new enough and powerful enough to feel like magic. However, as LS3P’s Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer Katie Robinson reminds us, the tools are only as useful as the data. “What if you had the tools, but no structured, vetted data or real knowledge behind it? Without that foundation, things get messy fast,” she says. Fortunately for the firm, Robinson understood that concept long before AI forced this issue.
Building a Culture of Data Stewardship Though the firm has been around since 1963, LS3P’s data journey really started a couple of decades ago. In the early 2000s, information lived everywhere and nowhere at once. The Marketing Team had to answer proposal questions by digging through file cabinets, old submittals, spreadsheets, and binders, while relying heavily on institutional memory to fill in the gaps. It worked, technically, but this process was inefficient, repetitive, and deeply frustrating. The turning point came with a simple but powerful question: could project data become a single source of truth? An intentional approach helped to
That cultural shift didn’t happen
digital asset platforms, and an intranet
overnight. Relying on overloaded
designed to connect knowledge
project managers for project data
across a growing firm, data verification
entry proved to be a bottleneck. The
occurred at a pivotal moment. Instead
solution ushered in a new era for data
of racing forward, the team chose to
management: the firm created a data
pause, clean, and recalibrate, ensuring
manager program, engaging emerging
the system remained trustworthy.
professionals and embedding data collection into project roles. The result was transformative. Within months, the available, verified project data was paying dividends in the proposal process. The data helped the Marketing Team identify and showcase the depth and breadth of experience across project types and offices. Over time, the firm has captured the vast majority of its project data. What began as an operational fix became a firmwide
Team focused on collecting what mattered. They asked what data would actually be used, what decisions it would support, and just as importantly, what could be left behind. This discipline led to a defining principle that still guides the work today: if data is going to be successful, it has to be accessible. Opening access across the firm shifted ownership from a single team to a shared firmwide responsibility, a subtle but critical pivot toward a culture of data stewardship.
data. As Millsaps explains, “if the data coming out is messy, the reports can’t be trusted. And once the team stops trusting the reports, they stop using the system altogether.” This insight underscores a critical lesson for any organization exploring AI. Sophisticated tools cannot compensate for unreliable inputs. In fact, they amplify the problem by scaling inconsistency.
capability.
streamline the process. Rather than collecting everything, the Marketing
Trust, it turns out, is the true currency of
Verifying the Data Before Scaling the Tools With a solid foundation in place, the next phase was expansion. The firm’s first data analyst, Madison Millsaps, joined the team in 2022. Now a Knowledge Management Manager, Millsaps spotted a challenge. “We started to see some inconsistencies and gaps in the data, and we realized we couldn’t keep layering on top of what we had,” she explains. “We needed to step back and repair the foundation first.” As data increasingly flowed outward into visualization tools,
Human Insight, Augmenting Data, Which Augments Human Insight Even the cleanest dataset has its limits. Numbers tell part of the story, but not all of it. For example, a project that appears to break even might open a strategic door to future opportunities, strengthen a portfolio, or build a client relationship. Recognizing this, LS3P began to focus on capturing the knowledge behind the numbers, the nuance that lives in conversations, experiences, and instincts.
As Robinson explains, “It’s the
What makes LS3P’s journey particularly
knowledge behind the data, the
compelling is not the technology itself,
knowledge that lives in people’s heads.
but the progression of understanding
It’s critical that we find ways to capture
behind it. From scattered information
that.”
to structured data, from data to
This shift introduced a new layer to the firm’s knowledge ecosystem. Presentation run-throughs became content. Expert sessions became resources. Project closeouts evolved into structured conversations designed to surface lessons learned. The approach is refreshingly practical:
knowledge, and finally from knowledge to AI, each step builds on the last. It is a reminder that innovation is rarely about a single leap forward. More often, it is a series of deliberate, sometimes unglamorous decisions that create the conditions for something powerful to emerge.
capture what already exists, organize
In the end, the lesson is both simple
it thoughtfully, and make it reusable.
and profound. AI is only as smart as
The result is a richer, more dimensional
the system it stands on. Clean, reliable,
knowledge base, one that pairs
well-organized data may not be flashy,
structured data with lived experience.
but it is foundational. And when paired
About the Contributors Principal and Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer Katie Robinson joined LS3P in 2004. She plays a pivotal role in driving the firm’s practice and business processes. With a keen focus on supporting the firm’s vision, Katie works closely with the Executive Committee to ensure comprehensive support across marketing, knowledge management, and strategy. Katie has transformed LS3P’s marketing department into a strategic in-house creative agency, leading brand development, communications, and innovative marketing initiatives while also advancing the firm’s knowledge management efforts. Her leadership in establishing LS3P’s pioneering Data Manager Program and her ability to connect data-driven insights with creative thinking have strengthened both business strategy and design excellence across the firm.
with the human stories that give it
Building on Successes
meaning, it becomes something far more valuable: a living knowledge base
With clean data and captured
that doesn’t just store information, but
knowledge in place, the firm can begin
actively supports better design, better
to invite AI into the conversation. AI
decisions, and better outcomes.
agents are being tested within LS3P’s intranet, drawing from internal data to answer questions, surface relevant projects, and summarize progress. This is where the promise of AI becomes tangible, not as a replacement for human expertise, but as an amplifier of it. As Millsaps notes, “without that foundation, you can layer on as many AI tools as you want, and they won’t deliver real value. They’ll just be shiny objects.”
Senior Associate and Knowledge Management Manager Madison Millsaps joined LS3P in 2022 and is a graduate of Elon University with a multidisciplinary background in data analytics, entrepreneurship, and hospitality, providing a strong foundation for operational excellence. In her role, Madison leads the strategic development and implementation of firmwide knowledge management initiatives. She partners with teams across the organization to identify performance trends, streamline workflows, and drive data-informed decision-making. Madison champions a culture of knowledge sharing, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement through best practices in data and information capture. Her work directly supports LS3P’s mission to deliver design excellence through innovation, insight, and efficiency.