Shadow IT has long been a major problem for IT leaders, but the biggest problem may be coming from the executive suite’s hunger for unsanctioned AI. Nearly two-thirds of senior decision-makers admit to using unapproved AI tools, compared to just 31% of lower-level employees, according to a survey by Microsoft solutions partner TrustedTech. The use…
DetailsIf you spend enough time in Silicon Valley AI circles, you’ll hear the same message over and over again: AI needs context. The statement is broadly true. The problem is that “context” has become one of the least precise terms in the industry. Depending on who is using it, context can mean documents, dashboards, reports,…
DetailsA largely overlooked layer of the AI stack is emerging as a major driver of enterprise costs. New testing by AI consultancy Systima found that agent harnesses, the software that coordinates models, tools and workflows, can generate significant token overhead through their configuration alone, potentially inflating the cost of AI deployments as organizations scale agents…
DetailsVenture-backed firms are buying up the support, finance-ops and managed-services providers enterprises rely on and re-platforming them around AI agents — and the renewal that follows arrives priced per outcome, sold as your advantage. The acquisition-built structure and unproven stability create governance and continuity risks your vendor process isn’t sized for. Here’s how to keep…
DetailsA few weeks ago, a new hire at Aviator, fresh out of college, asked me a question I didn’t have a clean answer to. How do I become a senior engineer, or even a staff engineer? What should I learn, and how? It’s a fair question and a harder one to answer than it was…
DetailsI attended several major technology conferences in 2025 where the first AI agents embedded in enterprise SaaS platforms were announced. Some of these agents showed promise and a glimpse into the future of work, while others looked like natural language extensions of a platform’s existing functionality. At the end of 2025, Anthropic and OpenAI…
DetailsMessage a business on WhatsApp this week and you may be greeted by software. On June 3, Meta made its Business AI agent available to companies everywhere, a bot that answers questions, recommends products, books appointments, qualifies sales leads and hands you to a human when it gets stuck. It comes bundled in WhatsApp’s premium…
DetailsDeluxe may have prevailed against the odds when it successfully migrated from a 50-plus-year-old mainframe recently. The company was able to move from it to a cloud environment in about 12 months without a major hitch, and while AI did some of the heavy lifting. The save will amount to about $4.9 million a year…
DetailsSince the advent of generative AI, the use of AI in business has shifted from something we should do to something we must do to survive. Many companies are now working to utilize AI with the aim of improving productivity and creating value. Here, I would like to pose a question to you all once…
DetailsAlmost every company has a board or executive AI mandate. Vendors are rolling out agentic AI platforms. The pressure to move is intense. But the reality on the ground looks different. Eighty-three percent of organizations say data quality is their top AI challenge, and 74% struggle to demonstrate ROI, according to Lopez Research. And only…
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