AI Adoption Is Like Handling Fire
Architecture and Governance, Friday, September 5th, 2025
The first is the FOMO tribe those driven by the fear of missing out. They rush into the AI race without truly understanding it beyond a handful of GPT prompts. You'll find them attending every AI conference, spending heavily, and often relying on 'YouTube and WhatsApp scholars' as decision-makers.
This makes them easy prey for marketing pitches. Vendors sell half-baked products under the glitter of 'AI-enabled,' convincing them to pursue use cases that add little or no real business value. In their haste, they build costly AI teams, buy expensive tools, and overlook due diligence. The fallout? Burnt dollars, disillusioned legacy teams, and yet, a misplaced sense of belonging the comforting illusion that they are 'in the AI herd.'
The second group I call the Bay Watchers. They stand on the shore, waiting for the tide to calm before stepping in. This strategy worked during the early days of mobile adoption, and to some extent, with Cloud where early adopters did face stability hiccups and a few even rolled back. But AI is a different beast. It's not a ripple, it's a tidal wave. Waiting too long is perilous. Business thrives on calculated risks, and sitting too long on the bench could leave you so far behind that catching up may become impossible.