Seeing what AI is really doing inside systems
The Fourth Lens helps organizations adopt AI through the perspective most decision makers overlook: power dynamics.
The work involves building intelligent systems, guiding strategic implementation, and training teams, all through a framework that asks who benefits, who decides, and whose voice matters when technology enters an organization.
What The Fourth Lens Does
The Fourth Lens is a strategic consultancy and AI integration practice focused on one fundamental question: How do systems redistribute power, especially as AI enters the picture?
Most organizations evaluate AI through three lenses: Technical feasibility, Financial return, and Operational fit. These are essential, but they are not enough. They miss the fourth lens: how AI shifts decision making authority, redistributes resources, and amplifies or silences community voice.
The Fourth Lens helps organizations see what others miss. The practice designs and builds AI agent systems with that fourth lens at the center, from initial strategy to vendor selection to implementation. Clients don't just deploy technology efficiently; they deploy it in ways that are more honest about power.
Universal Patterns of Power
Whether the context is housing, philanthropy, corporate enterprise, or government, the same dynamics emerge. It's not just about the industry. It's about the pattern.
Who is Trusted?
The Pattern: Automating trust away from people. In housing systems, algorithms often replace caseworker judgment. In corporate hiring, they filter talent. The question: Are we amplifying human wisdom or eliminating it?
Who is Resourced?
The Pattern: Resource concentration. In philanthropy, the question is who gets grants. In enterprise, which departments get AI budgets. The question: Does this technology distribute capacity or hoard it?
Who Carries the Risk?
The Pattern: Invisible risk shifting. When an algorithm fails, the most vulnerable pay the price. When it fails in business, front line staff take the blame. The question: Who absorbs the consequences?
The Common Thread
Every system faces the same choice: Concentrate power (efficiency, speed, centralized control) or distribute it (relationships, participation, agency).
Technology does not make this choice automatically. It amplifies whichever gets chosen. This work helps organizations choose distribution on purpose.
How The Work Happens
The approach is grounded in a few non negotiable principles.
Community as Expert
People with lived experience (users, staff, citizens) are not simply stakeholders to consult. They are experts whose knowledge must guide direction. The practice designs and facilitates processes where those most impacted lead.
Critical Analysis
Direct questions get asked about how systems work, who benefits, and who is left out. Technology gets treated as an active force that shapes power relations rather than a neutral tool. Organizations get help seeing what they're missing.
Practical Frameworks
Complex analysis gets translated into tools leaders can actually use: assessment guides, decision matrices, and working AI systems. Clients don't just get theory. They get implementation plans.
Transparency
Thinking gets shared publicly through Intelligence, Adjusted. Methods should be visible, challengeable, and reusable if the field wants to move forward. Clients own the systems that get built.
Systems Thinking
Housing, philanthropy, healthcare, and corporate systems are not separate universes. Patterns repeat. The Fourth Lens framework works across sectors because power dynamics are universal.
A "Both/And" Posture
The work celebrates what technology can make possible while naming its risks honestly. The stance is not anti AI. The commitment is to equity. The question is not whether to use AI. It is how.
What Makes This Approach Different
We Build, Not Just Consult
Most AI consultants deliver strategy documents. The Fourth Lens delivers working systems.
Clients get configured tools, automated workflows, trained teams, and intelligent agents that handle real work. Plus the strategic analysis that ensures they're redistributing power, not concentrating it.
We Design for Redistribution
Most AI implementations optimize for efficiency. The Fourth Lens optimizes for power redistribution.
- Front line staff gain capacity, not just executives
- Community voice gets amplified, not filtered out
- Accountability flows in all directions
We Center Lived Experience
The question isn't just "What does the data say?" It's "Whose data? Who collected it? Who's missing from it?"
Every AI system includes mechanisms for community input, human override, and continuous equity auditing.
We Use No Code Platforms
Systems get built on platforms like Relevance AI, Make.com, and Airtable.
- Clients own the account and the system
- No one gets locked into any single vendor
- Costs stay affordable ($200 to $500/month, not $50K+)
Why This Matters
Mission
To guide organizations through AI adoption by illuminating power dynamics so that technology advances equity, amplifies community voice, and serves those most affected by systemic challenges.
Vision
A world where AI adoption is guided by the fourth lens. Leaders move beyond efficiency to ask who benefits, who decides, and whose voice matters in every technological choice.
Values
The work values clarity, conviction, and radical collaboration. The belief: those most impacted by systems must lead their redesign, and technology exists to serve human flourishing, justice, and community power, not just efficiency.
Background & Experience
Twelve plus years in systems design, participatory processes, and power analysis across philanthropy, housing, government, and social services.
Strategic transformation at the intersection of innovation, equity, and operational excellence.
Professional Track Record
Philanthropy Strategy
Strategic consulting on participatory grantmaking for national foundations.
Systems Design
Homelessness systems design and coordinated entry implementation.
Policy Development
Low-barrier shelter standards development for the state of Illinois.
Tech Adoption
Technology adoption strategy for social impact organizations.
Leadership
Multi-million dollar initiative management and cross-functional team leadership.
Current Focus
AI agent development, Fourth Lens framework training, AI ethics advisory.
The Work Now
The practice works with a small number of partners each year. This is intentional: depth over volume.
Implementation Work
Building AI agent systems, configuring automation, training teams.
Strategic Consulting
Fourth Lens audits, AI strategy development, vendor evaluation.
Thought Leadership
Writing Intelligence, Adjusted, speaking, framework development.
Let's Work Together
The Fourth Lens partners with organizations serious about implementing AI without concentrating power and building systems that center community voice.
Implementation & Build
For organizations ready to build custom agents and stacks.
Strategy & Audit
For Fourth Lens analysis and strategic consulting.
VIP Sprint
Intensive, focused collaboration to get systems moving fast.
