Keystone buys Zero Gravitas to add executive AI training to its transformation arm
What's the deal? KeystoneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a global advisory firm, has acquired Zero GravitasDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a firm specialising in AI executive education and capability development for Fortune 500 C-suite leaders. Terms were not disclosed. Zero Gravitas becomes part of Keystone's AI Navigator offering, which develops organisational AI capabilities.
Who's joining? Zero Gravitas founder Karim Lakhani, a Harvard Business SchoolDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → professor, joins Keystone as chief innovation advisor. He founded the company in 2023 to address a gap he had documented in his research: leaders who grasped that AI mattered but couldn't work with it themselves.
What each side does: Zero Gravitas has trained more than 20,000 senior leaders across sectors including legal, financial services, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing, using a model built around learning, doing, imagining, acting, and caring. AI Navigator draws on Keystone's expertise in advanced technology, applied economics, and business strategy to help executives drive AI value across the enterprise.
The rationale: The deal folds hands-on executive learning into Keystone's strategy and execution work. "AI is revolutionising what it means to lead — and CEOs can't delegate their way through it," said Keystone chief executive officer Jeff Marowits.
Why it matters: Keystone is betting the weak link in enterprise AI is leadership fluency, not technical capacity. "There is a tangible difference between a leader who has approved an AI strategy and one who has actually built something," Marowits said. Together with AI Navigator, Keystone says it now offers strategy, execution, and executive guidance under one roof.
The Harvard tie: Lakhani is founding chair of the HBS AI InstituteDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and co-author of Competing in the Age of AI (2020), written with Keystone co-founder Marco Iansiti. His Cybernetic Teammate study found that individuals working alongside AI matched the performance of entire teams working without it.
The signal: Advisory firms are moving beyond strategy decks to reshaping how executives themselves use AI, treating C-suite fluency as the layer that decides whether transformation efforts succeed or stall.
Image credit: U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
