Andy Parton launches Destreza after leaving BAT

Andy Parton has launched Destreza, an independent London consultancy built to help consumer brands use AI in brand strategy, operating models and execution. The move follows his senior leadership work at BAT and extends a track record that includes the early AI whisky selector What’s Your Whisky at Diageo.

Why it matters: - Destreza is targeting a shift in how consumer businesses use AI: not just to cut costs, but to make better brand decisions and protect brand quality. - The consultancy is aimed at marketing leaders who need clearer guidance on AI operating models, capability and agency setup. - The launch adds a senior, brand-building-led option in a market where many teams can now generate more content, research and ideas with AI.

What happened: - Andy Parton launched Destreza, an independent London consultancy, after leaving BAT. - Parton founded Destreza in May 2026. - Destreza positions itself as an AI-native marketing consultancy for consumer businesses. - The consultancy focuses on brand-building decisions, operating models and execution. - Destreza is based in London.

The details: - Parton has more than 16 years of experience across commercial, customer, consumer and digital marketing for consumer brands including Guinness and Johnnie Walker. - He spent the last seven years in senior leadership roles across more than 60 global markets. - At Diageo, Parton led the 2019 launch of What’s Your Whisky, described as the world’s first AI-powered whisky selector. - The whisky tool launched three years before ChatGPT and has reached more than a million consumers worldwide. - Parton has worked on AI across the marketing lifecycle since 2019, including consumer insight, strategy, creative development, activation, measurement and evaluation. - At BAT, he was Global Head of Content. - His BAT role covered global brand building, premiumisation and AI-enabled marketing across the customer journey from awareness through conversion to retention for three global brands. - Destreza uses what it calls the Destreza Operating Model, built around specialist AI agents and one accountable senior practitioner. - An Agentic Council reviews and sharpens every output. - The AI agents handle research, brand and campaign strategy, creative development, evaluation and market-by-market adaptation. - Parton remains responsible for diagnosis, strategic choices and the final recommendation. - Destreza says more work can be completed before an agency is involved, which can reduce cost without weakening the outcome. - The consultancy’s engagement formats are Survey, a short fixed-fee diagnostic; Shift, one defined change delivered end to end; and Focus, a sustained senior partnership. - In late September 2026, Destreza will open The Playbook for AI Brand Building, a ten-stage working method for founders and lean marketing teams. - The Playbook is designed to give smaller teams a professional discipline for building brands with AI. - The name Destreza comes from La Verdadera Destreza, a 16th-century Spanish school of swordsmanship built on strategy and precision rather than power. - Destreza says it takes brand-building methods used by major consumer brands and adapts them with AI. - The company says the Playbook rebuilds that method for one person through four foundations and ten stages in more than a thousand configurations. - Destreza says this allows a founder to build a brand with AI while keeping every material decision. - More information is available at destreza.ai.

Between the lines: - Parton is framing AI as a judgment problem, not just a tooling problem. - The consultancy’s model suggests a premium on human accountability even as AI takes over more of the workflow. - Destreza is also positioning itself between traditional agencies and in-house teams by handling more strategy and execution before outside agency involvement.

What's next: - Destreza will start taking on marketing leaders with live questions about AI operating models, brand strategy, capability and agency configuration. - The Playbook for AI Brand Building will launch in late September 2026. - The company appears set to focus first on consumer businesses and founder-led brands that want AI-native support without losing strategic control.

The bottom line: - Parton is betting that the next wave of AI marketing will reward brands that combine machine speed with senior human judgment.