Part 1 argued that enterprise AI projects share the characteristics of venture investments but are funded like plant expansions. This…
In a two-part series, I introduce the Enterprise Capital Gate, the AI GPS’s companion instrument. The Gate is used for AI project capital decisions to address specific risks. Decisions are based on the project’s innovation horizon and stage. The Gate’s mechanics come from venture capital and corporate innovation portfolio practices.
Many corporations are starting their #AIjourney in the wrong way. They make two mistakes. First, they lack an #AIstrategy. Second, they don’t engage the right members of their senior management teams in their AI decisions. As they face skyrocketing AI charges, #CFOs find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war among the corporation’s various organizations. I describe a four-graph #dashboard that acts as the corporation’s #AIGPS. The CFO owns the dashboard. The executive team uses the dashboard to monitor AI strategy’s performance, and the CEO uses it to communicate the corporate AI efforts.
General-Purpose Technologies, such as AI, must cause the enterprise to rethink and redesign its workflows, organizational structures, and business models. Most information technologies targeting the enterprise, e.g., business intelligence, refine and optimize existing processes rather than forcing their complete redesign. Failing to distinguish between a true General-Purpose Technology and a standard information technology leads CEOs to the dangerous trap of considering AI committees and Centers of Excellence as the appropriate bodies to introduce AI to their corporations.
As 2025 drew to a close, the narrative surrounding enterprise AI began to shift. We moved from 2025 being the “Year of Experimentation” to 2026 shaping as the “Year of Deployment.” Under such a mandate, enterprises must develop and deploy their AI applications scalably, efficiently, and economically. For the large enterprise, starting with the Fortune 500, achieving these goals will require the adoption of a factory-like approach, leading to the development of AI Factories.