Series · 7 parts
The AI Adoption Series
Read in order, or jump to the part you need. Each stands alone, but together they make the full case.
- 1
You're Behind on AI. Here's How to Start.
A leader I'm working with came back from an industry event rattled — every peer was talking about their AI, and their company had nothing. The panic that produces leads to the worst first move. Here's how to start from zero deliberately: pick one workflow, measure it, and prove the win before you scale.
June 18, 2026 · 8 min - 2
You Don't Have to Build AI. You Can Just Call It.
Most leaders picture AI as a project: hire data scientists, collect data, wait two quarters. But a huge share of useful AI isn't built — it's called. Google Cloud exposes a shelf of pretrained AI as plain APIs: speech-to-text and back, document intelligence, entity recognition, translation, image generation. Here are the quick wins you could ship this week.
June 20, 2026 · 8 min - 3
Stop Picking a Model. Pick a Control Plane.
Two smart teams burned three hours debating Gemini vs. Claude — the wrong meeting. In 2026 the durable enterprise AI decision isn't the model, it's the control plane you standardize on.
June 22, 2026 · 6 min - 4
Stop Writing an AI Policy. Start Running One.
Most leaders ask me how to write an AI policy. It's the wrong first question. The document is the easy part — and while you draft it, two-thirds of your team is already using AI they think you've banned. What you actually need is a standing committee and an operating cadence. Here's how to build both.
June 23, 2026 · 8 min - 5
The 90-Day Line: Why Some Teams Ship AI and Others Stall
High performers go from pilot to production in ~90 days. Everyone else takes nine months — with the same tools and models. The 3x gap is change management, not technology. Here's the fast path.
June 24, 2026 · 7 min - 6
Reimbursing AI Subscriptions Is Not a Tooling Strategy
Plenty of engineering orgs think they've solved AI tooling: expense anyone's individual subscription, done. It feels generous and fast. It's also a governance blind spot — you pay every bill and can introspect on none of it. Here's how to actually choose AI tooling for an org, and why the answer is a team or enterprise tier.
June 25, 2026 · 9 min - 7
Your AI Pilot Isn't Failing — Your Scoreboard Is
A VP told me their AI rollout was "a wash." The verdict was wrong — not because the tools are magic, but because the scoreboard measured the wrong things. Fix the instrument before you judge the pilot.
June 26, 2026 · 6 min
The Goldwater dispatch
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