Operating Intel

Field Notes.

Unvarnished observations on transformation, AI, and the messy reality of scaling teams.

Most companies treat AI strategy like a tech decision. It is not. It is an operating model choice wrapped in vendor pitch decks. These articles cut through the hype to look at where AI actually changes how work gets done, where it does not, and what leaders should do about the gap.

A professional team in a focused meeting, representing the customer success restructuring conversations happening across enterprise organizations in 2026

Customer SuccessJun 16, 2026

Customer Success Teams Are Being Cut While Still in AI Pilot Mode

63% of customer success teams are still running AI pilots. Their headcount is already down. The tools the restructuring model depends on aren't operational yet. The people those tools were meant to support are already gone. That gap is not a technology problem.

Read Essay 7 MIN READ

Recent Essays

Person at a desk reviewing a laptop screen, representing the gap between AI deployment metrics and real customer experience

Customer SuccessJun 10, 2026

Your AI Is Answering Your Customers. Your Customers Are Leaving Anyway.

Your AI is handling the volume. Customers are quietly losing faith. TELUS Digital found two-thirds of enterprises can't measure whether their CX AI is actually working. Forrester warned this would damage customer trust in 2026. The data says it already has - silently, without anyone looking.

7 MIN READ

Team in a corporate meeting room looking at a laptop - representing the gap between executive AI strategy and organisational reality

AI StrategyJun 8, 2026

Your AI Budget Is Real. Your AI Strategy Is Performance Art.

75% of executives admit their company's AI strategy is more for show than actual guidance. 54% say AI is tearing their company apart. The technology is working. The organisation underneath it isn't. Here's why - and what the 29% actually getting ROI are doing differently.

8 MIN READ

Rows of identical server racks in a data center - representing commoditized AI infrastructure

AI StrategyJun 5, 2026

Almost Every Company Has AI. Almost None of Them Have an Advantage.

AI adoption is nearly universal. Competitive advantage from AI is not. The reason has nothing to do with the technology - and everything to do with what happens when every competitor buys the same tool from the same vendor.

8 MIN READ

Business leader reviewing growth strategy at a desk, representing the shift from AI cost-cutting to AI-enabled revenue growth

AI StrategyJun 1, 2026

You've Been Using AI to Cut Costs. Your Competitors Are Using It to Win Customers.

Most companies deployed AI to reduce costs. A smaller group deployed it to understand their customers better and grow revenue. In 2026, the gap between those two decisions is becoming visible in the numbers - and increasingly hard to close.

7 MIN READ