Why The Biggest Risk In Enterprise AI Isn’t The Technology; It’s Waiting To Get Ready

Todd Bernson is the Chief AI Officer at BSC Analytics, where he leads AI strategy and cloud transformation for enterprise clients.

An enterprise customer hesitated over an AI investment because its leaders didn’t know where the technology would be in 12 months. I understand the concern. I don’t know either.

But their organization will still need accessible data, workable integrations, governance and people who know how to use AI. Those capabilities take time to build. Waiting for a clearer forecast only delays the work that lets them act.

Enterprises can afford to wait on a specific AI model. They cannot afford to wait on building the capabilities or platform to use it. That work needs to start now, and the faster AI changes, the more it costs to wait. A better model next year is worth nothing to a business that still cannot put it to work.

We Have Seen This Before

Cloud adoption played out the same way. Some financial services organizations I worked with moved slowly on cloud and modern application architectures. Now they want AI capabilities while still carrying monolithic applications and manual processes that make integration difficult.

Meanwhile, a startup building its workflows today can design AI into them from the beginning. Established enterprises have valuable data and deep expertise, but getting those assets into a usable workflow takes work. Postponing that work only makes it more expensive.

Cloud taught us that adopting a foundation and adopting its next new capability are different jobs. Migration alone settled very little. Plenty of companies moved badly and rebuilt the same problems on more expensive infrastructure. The ones that benefited had modernized how they built, integrated and operated technology. Companies that waited still had all of that work ahead of them.

AI is exposing the same distinction, only faster. Enterprises have a second chance to learn that lesson. They shouldn’t need a third. Getting it right takes three things: