WELCOME, EXECUTIVES AND PROFESSIONALS.

AI is fueling high demand for compute power, spurring companies to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure. But with future demand uncertain, companies will need to make calculated decisions to accrue lasting competitive advantage.

Since the previous edition, we've reviewed hundreds of the latest agentic and gen AI best practices, case studies, and innovation insights. Here’s the top 1%...

In today’s edition:

• McKinsey: The $7 trillion race to scale data centers.

• Deloitte: State of AI in the boardroom.

• Palo Alto Networks: Agentic AI threats.

• KPMG: Trust in AI 2025.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT

McKinsey: The $7 trillion race to scale data centers

Brief: McKinsey provided a 5-year outlook for companies in the compute value chain. Hardware, processors, memory, storage, and energy powering data centers, collectively known as compute, are emerging as one of this decade’s most critical resources.

Breakdown:

• Global data center demand could triple by 2030, with AI accounting for $5.2T of the $6.7T in investment across the compute value chain.

• Players from chipmakers to hyperscalers and enterprises building AI infrastructure, can use a three-pronged approach to invest.

• First, assess compute needs early and plan for demand shifts. OpenAI’s o1 needs 6x more compute than non-reasoning models like GPT-4o.

• Second, innovate on compute efficiency. DeepSeek V3 cut training costs 18x and inference costs 36x compared to GPT-4o.

• Third, build supply chain resilience by securing chips, power, and adding supply chain flexibility without overextending capital.

Why it’s important: One thing is certain: the stakes are high. Overinvesting in data center infrastructure risks stranding assets, while underinvesting means falling behind. Winners in AI compute will anticipate demand and secure critical resources across the value chain to accrue competitive advantage.

STRATEGIC AI GOVERNANCE

Deloitte: State of AI in the boardroom

Brief: AI transformation is still early for many, but a Deloitte survey of 695 board members (84%) and C-suite executives (16%) in 56 countries reveals a growing impetus for action compared to six months ago.

Breakdown:

• AI isn't always on the board agenda, but progress is being made: 31% say it's not on the agenda, down from 45% in the previous survey six months ago.

• More boards are getting up to speed: 66% say their boards have "limited to no knowledge or experience" with AI, lower than 79% in the last survey.

• Time on AI is improving: 33% are “not satisfied” or “concerned” with how much time their boards spend on AI, down 13 points from the previous survey.

• AI is influencing board composition: 40% say AI made them rethink board makeup, a 4-point increase from the last survey.

• The report also highlights key questions for board members and their management teams to help embrace their oversight responsibility.

Why it’s important: Boards are recognizing the need to accelerate AI, embedding it into their agendas and C-suite dialogue. Deloitte’s previously released Strategic AI Governance Roadmap can help boards oversee risks, support ethical use, and navigate the evolving AI landscape.

BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Palo Alto Networks: Agentic AI threats

Brief: Palo Alto Networks simulated attacks on AI agents built with CrewAI and AutoGen frameworks to explore vulnerabilities like data leaks, credential theft, and tool misuse. The cybersecurity firm then outlined defense strategies.

Breakdown:

• Enforce safeguards in agent instructions to block out-of-scope prompts. Deploy content filters to detect prompt injection attempts at runtime.

• Sanitize tool inputs, apply strict access controls and perform routine security testing, such as Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST).

• Enforce strong sandboxing with network restrictions, syscall filtering and least-privilege container configurations.

• Use a data loss prevention (DLP) solution, audit logs and secret management services to protect sensitive information.

• Combine multiple safeguards across agents, tools, prompts and runtime environments to build resilient defenses.

Why it’s important: As AI agents see broader real-world adoption, understanding their security implications is critical. Most vulnerabilities are framework-agnostic, rooted in insecure design patterns, misconfigurations, and unsafe tool integrations, not in the frameworks themselves.

WORKFORCE ADOPTION

KPMG: Trust in AI 2025

Brief: KPMG’s 2025 Trust in AI global survey, with over 48,000 respondents across 47 countries, reveals that more than half are unwilling to trust AI. The survey also explores AI adoption trends in the workplace.

Breakdown:

• 58% of employees use AI at work "on a regular basis," with 31% using it daily or weekly. 48% report AI has increased revenue-generating activity.

• However, nearly half of employees use AI in ways that violate company policies, including uploading sensitive data to free public tools like ChatGPT.

• Many rely on AI outputs without checking accuracy (66%) and are making mistakes in their work due to AI (56%).

• Employee AI adoption is higher in emerging markets (72% vs. 49%), and trust in AI at work is greater too (63% vs. 45%) compared to advanced economies.

• Only 47% of employees say they have received AI training and only 40% say their workplace has a policy or guidance on generative AI use.

Why it’s important: The findings reveal that while AI use at work delivers performance benefits, it also introduces risks from insufficient oversight. They highlight the importance of effective governance and training, and creating a culture of responsible, open, and accountable AI use across organizations.

Deloitte published a 17-page report exploring the shift towards decentralized payments, driven by the convergence of blockchain and AI.

Anthropic found 33% of 500K Claude coding chats were startup use cases, but just 13% were enterprise-focused, indicating a significant adoption gap.

IoT Analytics mapped 530 enterprise projects across 68 business tasks and found 49% are in customer support, 27% in marketing, and 24% in IT.

BCG explored how AI agents can be the “new all-stars on your team", gen AI adoption in professional services, and why CEOs must lead when AI efforts stall.

PwC released an AI Leadership Maturity Assessment, plus a dashboard showing where value is flowing by industry and sector over the next decade.

J.P. Morgan’s CISO warned third-party suppliers that modern SaaS delivery is enabling cyberattacks with AI agents amplifying and rapidly distributing risks.

AWS shared insights from customers successfully deploying gen AI in production, overcoming challenges like reliability, security, and compliance.

Business Insider explored eight boutique firms attempting to challenge the classic consulting model: Xavier AI, Perceptis, and more.

Microsoft is reportedly adding xAI’s Grok to Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, enabling enterprises to leverage Grok within their applications.

Apple is partnering with Anthropic on a new agentic coding platform, planning internal use first while undecided on a broader public release.

Amazon launched Nova Premier, its most advanced model yet. It handles complex tasks and also acts as a “teacher” to fine-tune smaller models.

Meta revealed a standalone Meta AI app with upgraded personalization, a new Llama API preview, security features, and more at LlamaCon.

Anthropic released ‘Integrations’, allowing Claude to connect with remote MCPs to integrate additional tools alongside new research capabilities.

Microsoft released three new open-weight Phi models that surpass larger rivals at reasoning tasks, while remaining lightweight for phones and laptops.

OpenAI reversed a GPT-4o update that made the model overly agreeable, sparking debates on AI personality tuning.

Cisco launched Foundation AI, a new group aiming to build open-source AI models specialized in cybersecurity and threat detection.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Takeda - Head of AI

Salesforce - AI Transformation Director

Gartner - AI Executive Partner

EVENTS

Google - I/O 2025 - May 20-21, 2025

Wharton - AI and the Future of Work - May 21-22, 2025

OpenAI - AI in Action - May 29, 2025

Complete this survey to get more value.

Here's how we can help you:

Promote your business to thousands of executives and professionals.

All the best,

Found this valuable? Share with a colleague.
Received this email from someone else? Sign up here.
Let's connect on LinkedIn.