The Cognitive Enterprise In 2027: Four Priorities For AI Maturity

Casey Kindiger is a technology entrepreneur and CEO of Droma (formerly Grokstream).

​When a customer reports a service disruption, different parts of the business often see different problems. Operations sees an infrastructure alert, finance sees a billing exception, and account management sees a renewal at risk. Each team may have AI tools to interpret its information, yet connecting those perspectives still requires people to exchange messages, reconcile records and find someone who remembers a similar incident. AI is accelerating individual tasks, but it is also exposing a fundamental weakness in how enterprises operate: Intelligence remains fragmented, even as the technology becomes more capable.

As organizations prepare for 2027, closing that gap should become a leadership priority. A recent McKinsey article, citing its latest state of AI survey, reports that 80% of respondents say AI has improved their individual productivity, while only 37% report a positive impact on earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). That gap illustrates the challenge ahead: Translating local improvements into better business outcomes requires changes to how information, decisions and responsibility move across the enterprise.

Having spent much of my career building operations automation and AI systems, I see four priorities for measurable AI maturity in 2027:

1. Shift The Focus From AI Adoption To Enterprise Intelligence

The cognitive enterprise offers a useful framework for this transition. The concept predates generative AI; IBM described it in its 2019 annual report as an organization informed by data and AI and equipped to adapt. Generative AI now makes institutional knowledge more accessible, while agentic AI can pursue objectives through multiple steps and systems. What is different now is the possibility of a more explicit cognitive architecture: systems that connect perception, institutional memory, judgment, governed action and learning across the enterprise.