Insights
Insights
Published work from Tirith Strategies on technology, strategy, and the decisions that matter.
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Your AI Bill has Arrived…
Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in four months. The company’s R&D line ran $3.4B in 2025. The AI tooling slice of that budget, which went mostly to Claude Code and Cursor for 5,000 engineers, was gone by April. Their CTO, Praveen Neppalli Naga, went back to square one telling The Information: “I’m…
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Before You Can Measure AI Return, You Must See the Spend
Most companies can’t answer what the AI spend returned because the spend itself isn’t visible yet. The first half of the ROI equation is a cost problem, not a measurement problem, and it has to be solved before the return question is worth asking.
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From AI Talk to AI Value
Three starting questions that distinguish companies generating real AI value from companies still in PowerPoint pilot mode. Production workflows, named ROI ownership, and a policy that describes actual practice.
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The AI Productivity Trap
New research from Infor and Deloitte confirms what we argued at SIM NJ in February: most companies see AI productivity gains, but only a third are using AI to reimagine the business. The 34 percent number is the one that should bother you.
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What OpenClaw Taught Me About the Safe Path to Personal AI Agents in the Enterprise
A hands-on read on the fastest-growing AI agent project in history, why its security profile is wrong for most enterprises right now, and why commercial alternatives a quarter away are worth waiting for.
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Beyond the AI Hype: Building Competitive Advantage Through Strategic Intelligence
A framework piece on where AI creates defensible competitive advantage instead of theater. Introduces the 5 Modes of AI, the three technical generations executives manage across, and the four pillars of disciplined deployment.