Perspectives
Most conversations start with AI Tech
We start with the business.
Not because the technology doesn’t matter, it does.
However, initial excitement around AI tech can lead to successful development and pilots that never make it into production and fail to deliver the value the organization was promised.
The mistake is investing in AI before answering the business questions that determine whether it will actually deliver value.
Including the understanding of how different types of AI work, what they’re capable of, and their different requirements, risks, and organizational demands to ensure chosen AI solutions will deliver real business outcomes.
Business strategy is the foundation.
AI is the fuel
The Long Wick:
Everyone is watching the fire, the buzz, the latest models, the latest agents and frameworks, the capabilities, and the latest release.
Nobody is asking what lit it, whether the conditions were right, or whether it’s burning in a direction that actually matters to the business.
Business strategy leads.
Technology follows
The organizations that succeed with AI will be the ones that ask the hard questions first.
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What are the right solutions for the right opportunities and challenges, including evaluating non-AI solutions, to achieve business outcomes?
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How shall they expand their approach to governance and trust, incorporating AI accordingly, with business outcomes as the foundation for measurement and monitoring?
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How will AI solutions integrate with applications, cyber, governance, data, and overall IT strategy to turn ideas into digital workers? AI success is not an island of technology.
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How their Business-first AI strategies will reduce distractions from the constant noise of new models and announcements, ensuring their AI roadmap becomes manageable when their strategy is grounded in their goals?
The Podcast: Three Takes on AI
Different Perspectives Built on Experience
Three Takes on AI is co-hosted by Brian Silverman, Mike Muhlfelder, an IT industry VP sales leader, and Campbell Robertson, an AI technology and data leader.
They formed the podcast to share perspectives on key issues, offering different takes from others in the industry and from each other.
Recent topics have included:
• Shadow AI and its impact on organizations
• Human vs. AI, defining human and AI roles for AI-forward organizations
• The impact of AI data centers on water and natural resources
• Responsibilities for monitoring and supporting AI results in production
They don’t always agree. And they invite others to share their takes as well.
Subscribe at threetakesonai.com or follow on YouTube
Substack: Business of AI Channel
For business and technology leaders:
AI substance over hype.
Brian Silverman writes about AI strategy, governance, and organizational readiness, going deeper on the topics that matter most to organizations trying to get AI right.
Recent topics include:
• AI strategy as business architecture
• The rise of Super Agents and Agentic AI
• The impact of correlation vs. causation for Generative AI
• Identity and access management in the age of digital AI workers
Subscribe to The Business of AI Substack Channel
The Business of AI Series
TechChannel
The Business of AI Roadmap started with a series of articles on TechChannel in 2025 that still hold up well today.
The series covered different types of AI, planning, data, and an interesting interview on cyber and modernization.
Read on TechChannel
About Brian Silverman
A career built at the intersection
of technology and business
I built the Business of AI Roadmap because I kept watching the same pattern play out: organizations investing in AI activity that was never connected to business outcomes.
My interest in AI dates back to research and papers in college, and I’ve been writing and speaking about it ever since, across TechChannel, LinkedIn, Substack, and the Three Takes on AI podcast.
From early in my IBM career to today, I learned that technology only delivers value when it is aligned to the business.
That conviction is the foundation of everything in the Business of AI Roadmap.
Learn More including writings at aaronbriansilverman.com
The first step is a focused discussion on your business objectives, current AI initiatives, and organizational readiness.
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No sales presentation.
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No technology pitch.
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Just a structured conversation about whether your AI strategy is positioned to deliver real business impact.