Writing archive
Older essays on agentic systems, governance, operations, incentives, and the work of making AI useful in real organisations.
Over coffee, parents keep asking me the same thing: is AI making it impossible for kids to think for themselves? They worry their children won’t know how to question, solve, or decide. But maybe the bigger problem is this — most of us (including schools and wo
At breakfast in Morocco, prepping for a CEOs’ conference, I got the best metaphor for digital transformation I’ve seen in months. “Why am I writing this blog post? Because this morning, at breakfast in Morocco...I was handed the perfect metaphor for agentic wo
Let’s get honest: the story dominating boardroom conversations this month isn’t about AI gone rogue – it’s about leadership that leaves oversight on autopilot. The Deloitte–Australia incident didn’t just raise eyebrows; it exposed how fragile reputation and bu
Most boards hear the promise: AI in customer service unlocks speed, data, happier customers. But here’s the thing when you supercharge customer interaction with automation, the rest of your business rarely gets the same upgrade. The operational fallout? That’s
Open any Q3 board pack right now, and there’s likely a new line item: “AI Cloud Costs – Unplanned Overage”. Sound familiar? Over the last year, I’ve watched multiple leadership teams discover that chasing AI capability through cloud providers often means losin
I’ve spent months working with “Agentic Workers” in production. AI agents that respond to requests, automate routine jobs, and run entire processes at digital speed. The possibilities are exciting, but the wake-up call is even bigger: every new AI-powered task
It is a startling statistic that a single pair of jeans can have a water footprint equivalent to thousands of AI conversations. But this begs a more important question for 2025: Why is our intuition so wrong about this? Why is it so easy to picture a data cent
Here’s a thought to start your day. Before you worry about the water used to train a large language model, ask yourself: how much water are you wearing?
Minimal Usage in UK: Contrary to public perception, most commercial data centers in the UK use very little water. A recent techUK survey (with the Environment Agency) found 64% of English data centers consume under 10,000 m³ of water per year , which is less t
Recent data shows AI-generated content floods LinkedIn, yet boasting "no AI" signals effort over outcomes—missing out on efficiency gains that add real value.
The game changed after The New York Times secured a US court order that could force OpenAI to keep all ChatGPT conversation logs—maybe forever. For firms across England, it’s the watershed moment we always said would come. OpenAI’s own CEO, Sam Altman, isn’t m
"Board of Directors", "C-Suite", "Risk & Compliance Leaders"] tags: ["Agentic AI", "Board Leadership", "ISO 27001", "Operational Resilience"
It started as a playful curiosity—seeing my LinkedIn title echo back in quirky automated replies. Today, it’s a real risk: attackers, and sometimes just creative users, can slip hidden instructions into fields that agentic systems read. That means generative A
In July 2025, I watched a familiar scene: a UK leader, live on air, stalling and cycling as they waited for information. It was more than awkward, it was telling. In an age when any fact is a search away, is public life about memory, or something more? Now, th
"Board of Directors", "Executives", "Digital Transformation Leads"] tags: ["AI Accountability", "Enterprise Strategy", "Agentic Workflow", "Feedback Loops", "Vendor Procurement"
Ever stared at a transformation project and realised you don’t fully understand what’s holding things back? I have. After hitting a tough blocker on a new workflow, it dawned on me: what looks like slow progress is often a sign we’ve missed something deeper so
As boards grapple with more complexity and stakeholder pressure, even the best decision-makers can miss critical cues. Enter agentic AI systems that deliver unemotional, assumption-free analysis, offering the fresh perspective boards need to avoid costly mista
Many AI pilots begin with anxiety: Will we lose jobs? Could AI erode company culture? Yet when our strategy team reconsidered our workflow, the tone shifted—focused on enabling human work, not just automating for cost. This case study lays out how leading orga
Companies deploying large-scale intelligent “crews” to filter, analyse and act on online information now face a rapidly escalating challenge: adversaries aren’t merely tricking humans—they’re building targeted misinformation webs to fool even your most advance
When was the last time your board received feedback so candid it changed the course of strategy? For most enterprises, the honest answer is: too long ago.
As AI reshapes boardroom dynamics, the allure of multi-agent “agentic crews” promises step-change in how we tackle projects, organise knowledge, and define team focus. Yet, the true value—and risk—lies not in autonomous potential, but in how well we structure,
During a recent boardroom demo, I showed a colleague a market report crafted by a multi-agent AI team—each agent assigned tasks, overseen by a domain expert, the process tracked from ideation to risk analysis. Instead of interest, he recoiled: “I don’t want to
Back in the feudal era, raw strength won battles and kept villages safe—today, the traits that once shaped society’s upper hand have shifted. Fast-forward to 2025, and we’re witnessing a new frontier: enterprises realising that ADHD, dyslexia, and neurodiverge
Pressure to deliver AI-driven productivity gains is mounting. But after the first wave of chatbots and data dashboards, leaders are realising: technology alone rarely transforms an enterprise. The real question is: Who drives day-to-day adoption, trust, and pr
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