It is interesting to read back on old posts sometimes. One I came across is titled: AI Changes Everything. Way back in June 2024 I travelled to Boston to speak at FEI: Front End of Innovation conference, invited by old friend Seth Adler to speak about how AI was about
The AI conversation is shifting. What began as a fascination with generative tools is rapidly evolving into something far more consequential: AI as an enterprise execution engine. The real challenge is no longer producing outputs, but delivering reliable, governed outcomes at scale.
As AI agents take real actions across your business, observability and assurance move from nice‑to‑have to non‑negotiable.
Data is no longer a static by-product; it is a flowing asset that powers automation and AI. When it is poorly governed, AI amplifies the problems - so managing data and its risks is now a strategic imperative.
Ukraine has shown that modern war is increasingly software-defined, data-dependent and commercially entangled. Salt Typhoon reveals what this means in peacetime: adversaries are mapping telecommunications, infrastructure and digital ecosystems long before a crisis begins.
Most cyber breaches aren’t driven by advanced AI - they’re caused by basic failures like exposed cloud storage and poor data governance. It’s time to refocus on cybersecurity fundamentals.
AI and data teams are heading into a period where hardware scarcity, longer lead times, and rising costs are no longer edge cases but operating conditions.
AI is changing the risk profile of cybersecurity, turning data minimisation from a privacy nicety into a frontline defence. The less data you hold, the less there is for AI‑enabled attackers to exploit.
The story we tell ourselves about technology and jobs has almost always been wrong, at least in the short term.
Organisations that treat AI as a series of disconnected experiments will end up with expensive demos, shadow IT and AI, and mounting risk rather than real business value.
Artificial intelligence is now a first‑order cyber risk driver, as well as a productivity tool. AI‑accelerated threats, fragile model “harnesses,” and concentrated dependence on a few vendors demand urgent uplift in governance, resilience, and incident response.
Generative AI has hit the peak of inflated expectations. The Gartner Hype Cycle reminds us we've been here before - and shows why governance, not hype, and doing the work still matters.