Insights

Technology does not fail because it lacks promise.

It fails when optimism is mistaken for readiness.

Insights is a curated library of board-level analysis on AI, extended reality (XR), and digital platforms—written for investors, directors, and senior operators navigating scale, security, and durability decisions.

The perspectives here are intentionally selective. They focus not on what is new or impressive, but on what survives enterprise reality: commercialization pressure, governance scrutiny, hardware volatility, and long-term operational complexity.

These articles are designed to be read the same way they are used—quietly circulated, debated internally, and applied to real decisions.

For deeper frameworks, evaluation tools, and board-ready resources, visit Resources.

XR Training ROI: What to Measure First

Meta funded the study that most vendors now quote when they pitch enterprise XR training. Forrester’s Total Economic Impact model, built from interviews with four[…]

Public Sector Advisory Without Vendor Bias

GAO reviewed 13 AI acquisitions this spring at the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs, plus the General Services Administration. None of the[…]

Retail AI ROI: The 16.5% Who Can Prove It

I keep having a version of the same conversation with retail executives this year. They tell me AI sits at the top of their strategic[…]

Defense Tech Due Diligence Investors Miss

More than $14.6 billion has moved into defense tech startups so far this year, according to Crunchbase — already past the $9.6 billion raised in[…]

Independent Defense AI Procurement Review

Defense AI contracts went from 657 in 2024 to 1,319 in 2026. Total potential contract value rose more than 1,600 percent over the same stretch,[…]

The AI ROI Gap in Manufacturing

Source: Deloitte, AI in Manufacturing 2026 (140+ manufacturers surveyed) Eighty-four percent of manufacturers now report measurable value from AI somewhere in their operations. That’s the[…]

XR Due Diligence: What Investors Miss

Rec Room raised $294 million, reached a $3.5 billion valuation in December 2021, and registered 150 million users. On June 1, 2026, it shut down[…]

Healthcare AI Diligence Beyond the Demo

Matt Holt’s Thoreau Group agreed this year to pay $12 billion for Ensemble Health Partners, a revenue-cycle management platform built on AI-driven denials and prior-authorization[…]

Independent Government AI Readiness Review

Eighty-eight percent of federal decisionmakers call artificial intelligence a critical tool for modernizing their agencies. That figure comes from an Ernst & Young survey published[…]

AI ROI Framework for Enterprise Leaders

Worldwide AI spending is on pace to cross $2.5 trillion in 2026. Set against that number is an uncomfortable one from IBM: only 29% of[…]