front left
About

Agentic/AI-Native workflows are no longer optional

...and custom software is yours for the making.

AI is magical, not magic. You can't just bolt it on and hope that it works.

But it does mean that you can certainly learn how it works, and then how to use it.

There is substance beneath the hype, and I can show you how to mine it.

01 · Foundations

AI amplifies the system you already have.

AI is a force multiplier. It doesn't fix broken workflows or bad businesses. Whatever system you drop it into is simply amplified.

AI leverage is governed by systems and evidence. That requires changing judgment, habits, and controls alongside the tools, starting at the bottlenecks.

If you're struggling to see value from AI, start at your operation's foundations, then redesign your work around AI's strengths.

Change. Test. Learn. Adapt.

Then rinse and repeat.

02 · The approach

Inquiry before intervention.

I really like winning, so first we must define what winning means.

Every engagement begins with an inquiry where I partner with you to clarify the problem(s) you are trying to solve, explore your options, and agree on what success and evidence of progress will look like so that you can make informed choices.

I know agentic AI, automation, and how to solve problems with software.

I do not know your business.

The only way we win together is if we work together.

03 · The founder

William Hallatt.

William Hallatt
This is me
Milestones
01
front leftFounder & Principal
02
15+ yearsSoftware Engineering & Architecture
03
10+ yearsMulti-Team Leadership
04
Credentialled CoachInternational Coaching Federation (ICF) ACC

About

I design and build production agentic workflows, multi-agent evaluation loops, and deterministic controls around probabilistic LLMs. I spend my time executing in the real mess of agent harnesses, tool orchestration, and automated test pipelines.

Professionally, I bring more than 15 years of enterprise-level software engineering and architectural leadership across multi-disciplinary, distributed groups shipping everything from core web applications to high-stakes marine survey and asset-integrity systems.

My focus at front left is closing the gap between AI hype and production reality: designing the context, automated harnesses, and verification boundaries required to make AI agents reliably do useful work.

04 · The team

No layers, no handoffs.

Practice Model

Direct engagement with the practitioner

When you engage front left, you work directly with me. I don't pitch the strategy and hand delivery to junior consultants you didn't meet.

When an engagement requires specialised technical depth, UI design, or bespoke infrastructure work, I collaborate with a small, trusted circle of senior engineers and designers with whom I've shipped in production.

Want to work together?
06 · Why 'front left'?

The name front left comes from a 2018 drum & bass track by Benny Page, a song about a dance culture phenomenon where people would meet “front left” at festivals. Not only do I like the song, I also liked the word play (you lead from the front). There's probably also a hint in there that polished professional life is not the whole story.