Data · Knowledge · AI systems

Structure + Data + AI + Rules → Intelligence

The magic isn’t in the model — it’s in the structure you give it. I help innovative data & AI teams turn that structure into reliable, governed, explainable intelligence.

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Jaco van der Laan at a whiteboard covered in a hand-drawn data model — structure made visible

25 years in data — at the banks Model-driven data engineering and governance at scale, for regulated institutions.

Proof in the life, not the slide I run my own work and life on this architecture before I bring it to a client.

Rules are the wedge Everyone says data + AI. The missing word — the one that makes it reliable — is rules.

Known for making the complex clear — architecture, models and processes turned into diagrams people actually understand.

The stance

Most people experience AI as a magic box.

Type something clever, something impressive comes out, and tomorrow it remembers nothing. Impressive demo, unreliable in real work.

The architect’s stance is the opposite. Output quality is a function of the structure around the model — the context it can see, the memory it carries, the rules that encode your standards, the data wired in. Get the structure right and good output stops being luck. It becomes repeatable. That’s the difference between a toy and an instrument.

Structure + Data + AI + Rules → Intelligence — the formula — The whole approach in one picture — Rules is the wedge, Intelligence is the result.

What I offer

Two ways to work together.

Short engagements

Focused, senior, time-boxed — a few weeks, clear scope. Together we choose the patterns, prove them, and build them — documented as we go. Assessment, foundation build, or advisory.

Training

AI and rules in practice — the structure-beats-magic approach and how teams actually apply it, with your data.

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A good fit

Who this works well for.

This works best for innovative data & AI teams and leaders who want AI that’s reliable and explainable, not just impressive — and who are ready to build a foundation rather than buy a magic box. If that’s where you are, we’ll get on well.

If this is the way you want to build, let’s talk.

A short, honest conversation about what you’re trying to build and whether I’m the right person to help.

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