About The Middle Distance Project
The Middle Distance Project is not a media outlet, not a consultancy front, and not a platform trying to sell something. It is a thinking space.
The observation that drives it: the AI conversation is happening in the wrong rooms. The people generating the loudest claims are mostly building for environments where change is fast, regulation is light, and data is clean. The people who run large-scale engineering programmes, regulated manufacturing operations, or complex procurement environments hear those claims, recognise that their world looks nothing like that, and go back to the meeting where three departments are arguing about which spreadsheet has the correct version of the data.
Both responses are rational. The gap between them is the problem.
The Middle Distance Project sits in that gap.
Who it is for
Leaders and senior practitioners in organisations where change is hard by design. Not because people are resistant, but because the systems are complex, the data is sensitive, the processes carry legal weight, and the consequences of getting things wrong are significant.
- Programme and project leads on large-scale engineering programmes
- Operations, procurement, and systems leaders in regulated industries
- Engineering managers watching the AI conversation but finding nothing that speaks to their constraints
- Digital transformation leads who know they need to move but aren't sure what that looks like
What makes it different
Most AI commentary lives at one of two extremes. One end is the Silicon Valley forecast: full automation in two to four years. The other end is dismissal: the hype will pass, our industry is different.
The Middle Distance Project tries to occupy the honest middle. Not “here is what will happen.” Not “nothing will change.” Instead: here are the real developments, here is what they could mean for organisations like yours, and here are the questions worth paying attention to.
The reader is invited to think, not told what to conclude.
Where this comes from
The perspective here comes from years of working inside large-scale engineering programmes, making complex systems work across difficult organisational and contractual environments.
It also comes from having built software tools from scratch using AI-assisted development, with enough systems understanding to translate between the technical and the organisational.
The honest version of this site’s value proposition: the writing comes from someone who has stood in both rooms. Not sure about answers. But the questions are worth writing down.