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Welcome executives and professionals. Rising costs, aging workforces, and relentless competition from native AI and tech-forward competitors are pressuring companies to increase productivity.

Since the previous edition, we have reviewed hundreds of the latest insights in agentic and generative AI, spanning best practices, case studies, market dynamics, and innovations.

This briefing outlines what is driving material value — and why it’s important.

Note: Last Wednesday marked the first midweek edition of Enterprise AI Executive, which will continue every Wednesday alongside the Sunday edition.

In today’s briefing:

• Bain: Human-centric AI deployment.

• The state of AI security and governance.

• Five board-level ROI metrics.

• The SaaSocalypse after Anthropic.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Insights for Executive+ members.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Bain: Human-centric AI deployment

Brief: Bain outlined how unlocking AI’s exponential productivity requires modernizing workflow and workforce in tandem. Without both, AI investments risk delivering incremental gains rather than enterprise-wide transformation.

Breakdown:

• Despite billions invested in AI, most companies are seeing limited gains, such as faster reporting and narrow productivity lifts.

• The missing link is aligning workflow modernization with workforce modernization through process reengineering and targeted tech.

• The two are inextricably linked but when people impact is treated as downstream change management, AI stalls at micro-productivity gains.

• Firms taking a human-centric approach to productivity deliver 2.3 times higher total shareholder returns.

Why it’s important: AI is more than just another technology cycle; it is a leadership test. Firms that pay down workflow debt, and apply AI with discipline while modernizing talent in parallel will outperform peers. Those that separate technology change from workforce strategy risk unrealized value.

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MARKET INSIGHT

The state of AI security and governance

Brief: Google commissioned the Cloud Security Alliance to survey 300 IT and security leaders on AI security and governance as generative and agentic systems increasingly scale in production.

Breakdown:

• Firms with formal AI governance are twice as likely to adopt agentic AI and twice as confident in protecting AI systems.

• Security teams are early AI adopters, with over 90% testing or planning use cases across threat detection, red teaming, and access control.

• Enterprises pursue multi-model strategies, averaging 2.6 models, yet usage is concentrated around Gemini, Claude, GPT, and LLaMA.

• Executive enthusiasm remains strong, but 72% report low or neutral confidence in their organization’s ability to secure AI.

Why it’s important: The findings highlight a widening divide: organizations with mature AI governance are accelerating adoption with confidence, while others advance without adequate safeguards. As AI shifts from pilots to production, governance maturity is becoming a key predictor of success.

VALUE REALIZATION

Five board-level ROI metrics

Brief: Gartner outlined five metrics to prove AI’s worth to the CEO and board. Many leaders struggle to quantify and communicate AI’s value. These metrics change that, linking AI directly to outcomes executives track.

Breakdown:

• Time to Value measures how quickly initiatives generate returns, accelerating revenue realization while compressing delivery costs.

• Average Labor Cost per Worker targets one of the most significant line items in any organization’s budget: payroll.

• Sales conversion rate is where AI’s impact on revenue becomes immediately visible and quantifiable.

• Collection Efficiency Index tracks how effectively revenue converts to cash, while Employee Net Promoter Score reflects workforce engagement.

Why it’s important: Activity-based measures like “productivity gains” or “time saved” don’t translate to boardroom language. Executives need to see direct financial impact related to what they already track: revenue growth, cost reduction or employee retention.

MARKET INSIGHT

The SaaSocalypse after Anthropic

Brief: Everest Group analyzed the SaaS selloff following Anthropic’s Cowork release, which erased $285B in market value in 48 hours. It argues the reaction reflects market anxiety more than a collapse in enterprise software.

Breakdown:

• Anthropic’s launch marked progress toward agentic AI, with systems moving closer to autonomous execution beyond assistance.

• The selloff reflects fears that intelligence could displace the SaaS application layer between user intent and execution.

• That view may hold in low-friction consumer markets but overlooks enterprise complexity and integration demands.

• Platforms like Salesforce and ServiceNow embed workflows, governance, approvals, and compliance beyond simple features.

Why it’s important: In the enterprise, intelligence without governance creates risk, and autonomy without accountability creates exposure. The Anthropic moment signals not SaaS collapse, but an evolution toward more integrated, accountable, and resilient enterprise architectures.

MIT Sloan outlined what executives should know about AI coding tools, as agentic systems expand beyond developers.

Forrester explored how Fortune 500 CEOs move AI to the core growth agenda, plus how zero-click is only half the story.

Microsoft’s latest Cyber Pulse report shows rapid AI agent adoption, urging leaders to prioritize observability and governance.

IBM’s Global Managing Partner detailed how CEOs are rethinking AI ROI, while its VP of AI-First Transformation shared its "Client-Zero" model.

Deloitte examined how healthcare leaders are increasing investment in agentic AI, with returns tied to scaling beyond pilots.

IntuitionLabs released a guide to multi-agent AI coding, covering OpenAI Codex, architecture choices, adoption, and more.

Google upgraded Gemini 3 Deep Think, posting leading math, coding, and science scores, plus launching an Olympiad-level math agent.

OpenAI launched GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, a speed-optimized coding model on Cerebras chips, generating 1,000+ tokens per second.

Anthropic will cover data center electricity price increases, shielding ratepayers, echoing pledges from Microsoft and OpenAI.

xAI held its first all-hands since merging with SpaceX, outlining reorganization plans, roadmap updates, and lunar ambitions.

MiniMax unveiled open-source M2.5, rivaling Opus 4.6 and GPT-5 on coding benchmarks but at a fraction of the cost.

Anthropic confirmed a $30B round at $380B valuation, with revenue run rate at $14B, including $2.5B from Claude Code.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

JPMorgan - AI Executive Director

Liberty Mutual - Enterprise AI Leader

Citi - AI Senior Vice President

EVENTS

Stanford - AI @ Work - May 14, 2026

McKinsey - Agents, Robots, and US - February 26, 2026

IDC - AI-First Marketing - February 24, 2026

Reach enterprise AI decision-makers:

• 66% of readers are C-level executives or VP and Director-level leaders.

• 63.2% of the audience is based in the U.S., EU, UK, ANZ, and Singapore.

• Read by leaders at Microsoft, Deloitte, the Fortune 500, and more.

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Conceived as a practical communication for executives Lewis Walker has worked with, this briefing has become a trusted resource for thousands of senior decision-makers shaping the future of enterprise AI.

We welcome your feedback.