Hard-Won Lessons from Dozens of AI Projects & 5,000+ People Taught
Here are a few hard-won lessons on AI from dozens of AI projects and 5,000+ people I taught to actually use this stuff.
10% Technology. 20% Tech & Data. 70% People.
Most companies think buying the technology is the hard part. It isn't. Success is roughly 10% the technology (AI) itself, 20% your tech and data, and 70% your people and how you work. Almost everyone gets that backwards and pours all their effort into the 10%.
Data is the Lifeblood of AI
AI doesn't fix a messy organization, it speeds it up. If your information is scattered and no one trusts it, no model will save you. Clean it up first, or you just make the mess faster.
Your Old Processes Are the Bottleneck Now
AI can now do real multi-step work on its own — the agentic shift everyone's talking about — and that exposed a new problem. The technology is no longer what holds you back; your old processes are. Drop a capable agent into a slow, bureaucratic workflow and it gets stuck in the same traffic everyone else does.
Learn by Doing, Not by Meeting
You can't figure out what AI is useful for by sitting in a meeting. You have to try it, fail a bit, and learn by doing. The people getting ahead aren't the ones with the perfect plan. They're the ones running lots of small, cheap, slightly embarrassing experiments.
There's No Manual to Wait For
Nobody fully knows what this technology is best at yet, not even the people who built it. That's the opportunity. Whoever figures out how to use it in their own field first gets a real head start, because there's no manual to wait for.
A New Kind of Valuable Person Is Emerging
They don't have a job title yet. They're not the best at typing prompts. They're the ones who can take a fuzzy problem, define what a good result looks like, and direct AI the way a manager directs a small team.
Technology Never Drives Change — People Do
Nothing I ever built made a difference until someone inside the business decided to own it and push it forward. Technology is the tool; people are the engine.
I learned a lot of that from the people I worked beside. Thank you to TEKsystems, the IBMers, the partners, and clients across industries and across the world — a few different roles, several cities, more good people than I can name.
To everyone still on the inside of client installs: keep delighting clients, keep betting on innovation, open source, and trust, and above all, be BRAVE.
And to everyone who was part of these years — thank you, truly.
I've never been more excited to work in AI than I am right now.
A lot more to come. Let's get to work.
Let's ConnectThe Top 2000+ AI Business Use Cases
Welcome, executives and professionals. Every organization is unique — but there are proven AI agent, agentic AI, and generative AI use cases that consistently deliver value across industries. Leveraging these, specific to your industry or function, can help de-risk implementation, reduce costly experiments, and accelerate time to value.
Google Cloud
Agentic AIFinance, Healthcare, Tech, CPG+, and more
Full collection →OpenAI
AI AgentsStrategy, Research, Data analysis, Coding, and more
Full collection →Deloitte
Gen AIEnergy, Consumer, Government, Life Sciences, and more
Full collection →SAP
AIProcurement, Supply Chain, HR, E-commerce, and more
Full collection →PwC
AIHR, Legal, IT, Sustainability, Operations, Sales, and more
Full collection →Salesforce
AI AgentsFinance, Tech Support, Order Mgmt., and more
Full collection →Stack AI
AI AgentsFinance, Operations, Healthcare, Marketing, and more
Full collection →McKinsey
AI Case StudiesTechnology, Media & Telecoms, and more
Full collection →IBM
AICustomer, Creative, Tech, Industry, and more
Full collection →Fujitsu
AI / Multi-AgentCybersecurity, Loan Underwriting, and more
Full collection →Capgemini
Gen AISoftware Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Customer Service, and more
Full collection →Microsoft
AIReinventing employee, customer experience, and innovation
Full collection →Workday
AI AgentsHR, Finance, Healthcare, Higher Education, and more
Full collection →EY
AIInnovation, efficiency, transformation, and more
Full collection →Customer, Employee, Creative, Data/Security, and more
Full collection →Intel
AIAutomotive, Cyber, Banking, Energy, Retail, Education, and more
Full collection →Google Cloud: 30 Agentic AI Use Cases
A curated PDF covering Finance, Healthcare, Tech, CPG, Retail, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Telecom, Energy, and Logistics — ready to share with your team.
01. Automated Loan Underwriting
AI agents orchestrate document intake, risk assessment, and approval recommendations — reducing underwriting time from days to minutes.
02. Real-Time Fraud Detection
Agentic AI monitors transactions in real time, flagging anomalies and escalating suspicious patterns for immediate review.
03. Wealth Management Copilot
Gen AI assists advisors with portfolio analysis, client briefing prep, and personalized investment recommendations.
04. Clinical Documentation Assistant
AI agents transcribe and structure clinical encounters, auto-populating EHR fields to reduce physician burnout.
05. Prior Authorization Automation
Agentic AI verifies insurance requirements and submits prior auth requests, cutting approval cycle times significantly.
06. Patient Triage & Scheduling
Gen AI chatbots assess symptoms, recommend care pathways, and schedule appointments with the right providers.
07. Medical Imaging Analysis
AI agents pre-screen imaging scans, prioritizing urgent cases and flagging potential abnormalities for radiologists.
08. Automated Incident Response
Agentic AI detects, diagnoses, and remediates infrastructure incidents — rolling back deployments and notifying teams.
09. Code Documentation Generator
Gen AI produces documentation, inline comments, and API references from codebases, keeping docs in sync with releases.
10. Intelligent Test Generation
AI agents analyze code changes and auto-generate unit, integration, and regression test suites.
11. Demand Forecasting & Inventory Optimization
Agentic AI predicts demand spikes, adjusts inventory levels, and triggers replenishment across distribution centers.
12. Shelf Monitoring & Planogram Compliance
Computer vision agents audit shelf displays, flagging out-of-stock and misplacement issues in real time.
13. Product Description Generation
Gen AI creates SEO-optimized product descriptions across languages and channels at scale.
14. Consumer Sentiment Analysis
AI agents aggregate reviews and social signals, surfacing trends and emerging product issues for brand teams.
15. Personalized Shopping Assistant
Gen AI guides shoppers through product discovery, offering personalized recommendations based on behavior and preferences.
16. Dynamic Pricing Optimization
Agentic AI adjusts pricing in real time based on demand, competitor pricing, and inventory levels.
17. Returns Processing Automation
AI agents triage return requests, issue labels, and route items to the correct disposition — restock, refurbish, or recycle.
18. Predictive Maintenance
AI agents analyze sensor data to predict equipment failures, scheduling maintenance before breakdowns occur.
19. Quality Inspection Automation
Computer vision agents inspect products on the line, flagging defects with higher accuracy than manual review.
20. Supply Chain Disruption Response
Agentic AI detects supply disruptions and recommends alternative sourcing, routing, and production plans.
21. Constituent Service Assistant
Gen AI chatbots handle common citizen inquiries — permits, licenses, benefits — 24/7 across multiple languages.
22. Grant Application Processing
AI agents intake, validate, and triage grant applications, reducing manual review burden by automating eligibility checks.
23. Document Classification & Redaction
Agentic AI classifies and redacts sensitive information from public records requests at scale.
24. Network Operations Copilot
AI agents monitor network health, predict outages, and orchestrate self-healing actions across infrastructure.
25. Customer Churn Prevention
Gen AI identifies at-risk customers and generates personalized retention offers based on usage patterns.
26. Automated Trouble Ticketing
Agentic AI classifies, routes, and resolves support tickets — escalating only complex issues to human agents.
27. Grid Optimization
AI agents balance load distribution in real time, integrating renewable sources and reducing waste.
28. Outage Prediction & Response
Agentic AI predicts outage locations and automatically dispatches crews with the right equipment.
29. Route Optimization
AI agents continuously re-route delivery fleets based on traffic, weather, and priority — minimizing fuel and time.
30. Warehouse Operations Copilot
Gen AI assists warehouse managers with pick-path optimization, staffing forecasts, and slotting recommendations.
Use Case Collections — Free Downloads
Finance, Healthcare, Tech, CPG, Retail, Manufacturing, Public Sector, Telecom, Energy, Logistics
Google Cloud: Agentic AI TAM Analysis — 30 Use Cases
Strategy, Research, Data Analysis, Coding, Operations, Customer Service, and more
OpenAI: Identifying & Scaling AI Use Cases — 90 Use Cases
Energy, Consumer, Government, Life Sciences, Financial Services, and more
Deloitte: Applied AI Use Cases — 125 Use Cases
Procurement, Supply Chain, HR, E-commerce, Finance, and more
SAP: Joule AI Assistant — 200 Use Cases
HR, Legal, IT, Sustainability, Operations, Sales, and more
PwC: Applied AI Compass — 200 Use Cases
Service, Sales, Marketing, Commerce, and more
Salesforce: Agentforce Use Cases — 45 Use Cases
Finance, Operations, Healthcare, Marketing, and more
Stack AI: Use Cases — 25 Use Cases
Technology, Media & Telecoms, and more
McKinsey: AI & Gen AI in TMT — 60 Use Cases
Customer, Creative, Tech, Industry, and more
IBM: Most Valuable AI Use Cases — 27 Use Cases
Cybersecurity, Loan Underwriting, and more
Fujitsu: AI Agent Innovation — 15 Use Cases
Software Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Customer Service, and more
Capgemini: Gen AI in Organizations — 54 Use Cases
Reinventing employee, customer experience, and innovation
Microsoft: 1000 Stories of Customer Transformation — 1000 Use Cases
HR, Finance, Healthcare, Higher Education, and more
Workday: Top AI Agent Examples — 25 Use Cases
Innovation, efficiency, transformation, and more
EY: AI Use Cases — 15 Use Cases
Customer, Employee, Creative, Data/Security, and more
Google: 101 Real-World Gen AI Use Cases from Industry Leaders — 1302 Use Cases
Automotive, Cyber, Banking, Energy, Retail, Education, and more
Intel: AI Use Cases — 25 Use Cases
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Agentic AI Case Studies
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Twice-Weekly AI Intelligence for Executives
Agentic and generative AI are evolving rapidly in the enterprise, driving a new era of AI transformation. Twice a week, we review hundreds of the latest agentic and generative AI best practices, case studies, market dynamics, and innovations — bringing you what is driving material value, and why it's important.
- Deloitte's agentic enterprise 2028 blueprint
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