On this episode, I’m joined by Invoice Briggs, CTO at Deloitte, for a straight-talking dialog about why so many organizations get caught in what he calls “pilot purgatory,” and what it takes to maneuver from spectacular demos to measurable outcomes.
Invoice has spent practically three a long time serving to leaders translate the “what” of latest know-how into the “so what,” and the “now what,” and he brings that lens to every part from GenAI to agentic programs, core modernization, and the messy actuality of technical debt.
We begin with a second of real-world context, Invoice calling in from San Francisco with Tremendous Bowl week chaos close by, and the humorous method Waymo selfies rapidly flip into “oh, one other Waymo” as soon as the novelty fades. That very same sample exhibits up in enterprise tech, the place shiny instruments can seize consideration quick, whereas the tougher work, information foundations, APIs, governance, and course of redesign, will get pushed to the aspect.
Invoice breaks down why layering AI on prime of outdated workflows can backfire, together with the concept that you could “weaponize inefficiency” and find yourself paying for it twice, as soon as in complexity and once more in compute prices. From there, we get into his “innovation flywheel” view, the place progress will depend on getting AI into the arms of on a regular basis groups, constructing belief past the C-suite, and embedding guardrails into engineering pipelines so security and self-discipline don’t depend on wishful pondering.
We additionally dig into technical debt with a framing I think will follow numerous listeners. Invoice explains three varieties, malfeasance, misfeasance, and non-feasance, and why most debt comes from comprehensible trade-offs, not unhealthy intent. It leads right into a sensible dialogue on methods to prioritize modernization with out falling for simplistic “cloud good, mainframe unhealthy” narratives.
We end with a myth-busting riff on infrastructure decisions, a fast take a look at what he sees coming subsequent in bodily AI and robotics, and a human ending that in some way lands on Seaside Boys songs and pinball machines, as a result of tech management remains to be management, and leaders are nonetheless folks.
So after listening to Invoice’s take, the place do you suppose your group is true now, measurable outcomes, success theater, or someplace in between, and what would you alter first, and please share your ideas?
