With 35 years of executive leadership across climbing hold innovation, gym and wall design, gear development, and industry-to-technology integration, Foose is launching the first AI consultancy built by a climbing industry insider, for the businesses that make the climbing industry great.
FOOSE.AI, a new AI integration consultancy dedicated to the indoor climbing, hold manufacturing, gear, and routesetting industries, officially launched today at the opening of the 2026 CWA Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The firm was founded by Ty Foose, whose career spans more than three decades of executive leadership inside the climbing industry. Foose has driven climbing hold innovation that has shaped competition and gym environments worldwide, piloted climbing gym and wall design and construction, and led product development teams responsible for launching over 400 climbing gear products in the past four years alone. He has also played a direct role in bridging the climbing industry with Silicon Valley — guiding integration between climbing businesses and the software platforms and technology companies reshaping how the industry operates. That combination of domain depth and technology fluency is the foundation on which FOOSE.AI is built.
“I’ve watched this industry grow from the ground up. The gyms, the brands, the setters, the manufacturers — these are businesses built by people who are genuinely passionate about climbing. When I started seeing what AI was doing to other industries, my first thought wasn’t about opportunity. It was about the businesses I care about, and whether they’d have someone in their corner who actually understands them.”
— Ty Foose, Founder, FOOSE.AI
A Disruption Cycle Unlike Any Before It
Every major technology wave of the past three decades — the internet, mobile, cloud computing — reshaped industries and separated early movers from those who waited. But those transitions played out over years. Businesses had time to observe, adapt, and course-correct.
AI is operating on a different timeline. The capability gains, adoption curves, and competitive displacements that once unfolded over a decade are now compressing into eighteen to twenty-four months. Retail, finance, healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing have all experienced this firsthand — not as gradual evolution but as rapid structural change in the economics of their industries. Businesses that built AI fluency early now hold advantages in cost efficiency, customer retention, and operational intelligence that latecomers are struggling to close.
The climbing industry is not exempt. And the honest reality is that no one can fully predict where this goes from here. Every industry that has been through this cycle discovered that the disruption ran deeper, and the opportunity ran wider, than anyone initially anticipated. The applications that will most significantly reshape climbing businesses in 2028 and 2030 have not been fully imagined yet. That uncertainty is precisely why having an experienced guide in place now — before the acceleration arrives — matters more than waiting for a clearer picture.
How FOOSE.AI Works
FOOSE.AI engages with clients in two ways. For businesses that have a specific, well-defined challenge — a retention problem, a content bottleneck, a data gap — Foose offers focused, project-based implementations with clear scope, defined timelines, and measurable outcomes.
The engagement model Foose is most focused on, however, is serving as a Fractional Chief AI Officer — an ongoing strategic partner embedded in a client’s leadership team. This is where the real impact lives. AI is not a one-time project. The technology is evolving faster than any single implementation can account for, and the businesses that will navigate this period most effectively are those with sustained, informed guidance — someone who understands their operations deeply, monitors the landscape continuously, and helps them make smart decisions at every inflection point over the next several years.
Foose is intentionally limiting his fractional client roster. FOOSE.AI is accepting only a handful of ongoing engagements in 2026 — a deliberate choice that ensures each client receives the depth of attention and strategic investment that this kind of work requires. For the right businesses, it is a genuine long-term partnership.
“A one-time implementation solves a specific problem. A fractional CAIO partnership means your business is never caught flat-footed by what comes next. That’s the relationship I’m most interested in building.”
— Ty Foose, Founder, FOOSE.AI
About FOOSE.AI
FOOSE.AI is an AI integration consultancy specializing in the indoor climbing industry and adjacent markets. Founded by Ty Foose — a 35-year climbing industry executive with deep experience in hold innovation, gym and wall design, gear development, and climbing-industry technology integration — FOOSE.AI works with gyms, hold manufacturers, gear brands, and routesetting programs to identify, implement, and sustain AI systems that create measurable operational and competitive advantage. Engagements range from focused project implementations to the firm’s flagship Fractional Chief AI Officer model, designed for businesses committed to navigating the next several years of industry change with a dedicated strategic partner. FOOSE.AI is based in Denver, Colorado and Hueco Tanks, Texas.
Media Contact
Ty Foose — Founder, FOOSE.AI
ty@foose.ai · (720) 766-0000 · foose.ai
Available for interviews at the 2026 CWA Summit, April 15–18, Salt Lake City, Utah
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
