We Moved Fast On AI; Now We Need Brakes

The adrenaline rush is gone and the lights are on. Google Notebook LMs agents dig into Deloitte’s latest State of AI in the Enterprise and confront a tough truth: access exploded, but value is uneven and the governance gap is widening. Instead of more shiny pilots, 2026 demands systems thinking, economic rigour, and clear decision rights as AI moves from chat to action.At a Glance / TLDR:access rising but daily usage laggingpilot success versus production economicsthree tiers from surface gains to deep transformationrevenue gap between savings and new incomejob redesign, broken ladder, and pod-based teamssovereign AI, local models, and data controlagentic AI, tool use, and governance deficitsphysical AI growth in APAC and safety needs2026 as a friction year demanding brakesThe podcast starts with the usage gap - why sanctioned tools sit idle - and trace the roadblocks that turn successful sandboxes into expensive production failures. From latency and cost blowouts to brittle data pipelines, we unpack what it takes to move beyond proof-of-concept purgatory. Then we map the three tiers of adoption: surface-level productivity, process redesign, and deep transformation. A standout case turns mining equipment into connected platforms, shifting from digging to predictable, data-driven extraction. That’s the leap from automation to imagination, and it’s where new revenue lives.The conversation gets candid on jobs. When models make the call, humans can’t be left as rubber stamps. We explore role redesign, escalation rules, explainability, and the “broken ladder” problem created by automating entry-level tasks. A promising answer is pod-based teams - small cross-functional units orchestrating fleets of AI agents - where learning shifts from manual repetition to supervision and exception handling. We zoom out to sovereign AI and the rise of compact local models that run under domestic rules, balancing control, privacy, and latency with the realities of global operations.Agentic AI is the tipping point: systems that plan, act, transact, and iterate toward goals. The value compounds, but so does the blast radius of mistakes. With 74 percent planning agents soon and only 21 percent ready on governance, we lay out practical brakes: scoped permissions, human-in-the-loop gates, immutable logs, simulator testing, budget limits, and kill-switches. We also scan physical AI - robots and drones scaling fastest in APAC - where safety and uptime meet AI reliability.If you’re leading AI adoption, ask three things:Are we transforming what we sell, not just how we work? Do we know who overrules the model and when? And have we built the brakes for autonomy before hitting the gas? Subscribe, share with a teammate who owns the roadmap, and tell us: what’s the first brake you’ll install?Support the showIf you are leading your businesses strategic transformation and need greater clarity, stronger execution and measurable results, let’s connect.  🌎 Website: www.KieranGilmurray.com📅 Book a call: https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/catch-up📘 Kieran Gilmurray | LinkedIn🌐 Substack: https://kierangilmurray.substack.com📕 Amazon https://tinyurl.com/MyBooksOnAmazonUK AI Transparency Notice:  This podcast uses a hybrid format. When an episode features one of Kieran Gilmurray’s written articles, the narration is generated using a synthetic clone of his voice via ElevenLabs AI (the underlying article text is entirely human-authored). Episode descriptions and summaries are assisted by AI and should be considered unedited by a human unless specified.