In this episode of The AI Moment, Jonathan Wagstaffe and I dive into a common failure mode we are seeing across the business landscape: the ‘start-stop’ motion of AI adoption.

Too many businesses treat AI implementation like a pit stop—they pull in to perfect their strategy or policy, but then struggle to get back into the race.

We discuss the real danger of ‘over-perfecting’ governance. While some leaders pause to hit 100% policy perfection, competitors and internal outliers race ahead at 70% readiness.

This creates a massive internal disconnect; when the company hits the brakes, enthusiastic employees often just go underground, building their own ‘shadow AI’ toolkits while the rest of the business stagnates.

Key Takeaways:

Measure Twice, Cut Once: Jonathan emphasises the importance of the ‘thinking phase’ before experimentation begins. Spending time defining playbooks and guidelines upfront prevents the frustrating scenario where Legal steps in weeks later to ban work that has already started.

Adopt 90-Day Sprints: To cure the start-stop cycle, we recommend working in 90-day sprints. Set your scope, run the sprint, and evaluate at the end. This structure prevents the distraction of constantly debating tool switches: like the recent Gemini vs. ChatGPT discourse & keeps the team focused on execution.

Leadership Clarity: Leaders must define three core themes and stick to them. This stability allows your AI champions to guide the rest of the team to maturity without the agenda constantly shifting.

Your Call to Action!

Stop aiming for a perfect policy that doesn’t exist. Establish your 90-day goals, empower your champions, and keep the momentum going.

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Thanks for listening

Danny Denhard