Achieving AI Success: A Pragmatic Focus on Outcomes Over Hype

In this week’s One Vision Podcast, we welcome back Sandeep Mangaraj, now co-founder of Aileron Group, to discuss lessons from building a company in a crowded AI market and why AI success is more about people and process than technology. The conversation covers executives rushing into GenAI due to FOMO, the importance of starting with desired outcomes rather than applying GenAI everywhere, and why mid-market institutions may benefit from faster time-to-decision, less technical debt, and faster learning cycles. The key question is whether firms can afford the downside of waiting. And the answer is increasingly: No.00:00 Welcome Back: Meet Sandeep Mangaraj 00:55 Building Aileron: Lessons From a Crowded AI Market03:49 The AI ROI Myth: What’s Actually Being Measured?05:28 FOMO vs Outcomes: Picking the Right AI Use Cases10:09 Falling Costs & Speed of Learning12:40 Who Owns AI Outcomes and Who’s Accountable When It Breaks?14:55 Third-Party Risk: Regulators, Vendors, and Dependencies19:51 “Can You Afford to Wait?”23:02 Closing: Act With Purpose in 2026Hot take:  The barrier to AI success isn't technology, it's people and process. #AI #Fintech #GenerativeAI #DigitalTransformation One Vision Podcast is a fintech, banking, and AI podcast hosted by Theodora Lau (Founder, Unconventional Ventures; author of Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence). One Vision goes beyond the headlines on AI, agentic commerce, digital banking, financial inclusion, and the future of money — with founders, analysts, venture capitalists, technologists, and operators building the next chapter of financial services. New episodes weekly. Featured guests include leaders from Ant, bunq, J.D. Power, Forrester, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAS, SAP, and Wall Street Journal. Recognized in American Banker's Top 20 Most Influential Women in Fintech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.