Doug Shannon

The key ingredient to disruption is bravery. It’s about creating brave spaces where people aren’t just allowed but encouraged to take calculated risks. Disruption isn’t about staying safe; it’s about stepping into unknown territory, experimenting, learning, and growing. You can’t disrupt if you’re afraid to break away from the status quo. When organizations focus on building these spaces, that’s when true innovation happens. And when you combine that with AI-driven automation, businesses can disrupt markets in real time, not just in theory. 

The status quo has been crippling business efficiency for far too long. 

We need more visibility, analytics, and better use of AI to support roles like business analysts and project managers. Businesses have the tools, but they lack the strategic execution to use them effectively. What we’re seeing now with Generative AI is that it’s enabling roles and processes that were once manual to be automated or optimized. The issue is, that many companies still don’t move at the pace necessary to keep up with this innovation. If businesses continue to rely on outdated processes, they’ll fall behind. They won’t just be slower, they’ll be replaced. Companies need to stop dragging their feet and start integrating the technology that’s readily available. This is the moment for businesses to move at the speed of now. 

The disruption is the integration of Gen3IA (AI-Intelligent Automation) into every layer of the business. This isn’t just about automating tasks; it’s about using AI to create a new level of visibility and agility. AI can process real-time data, predict trends, and provide insights that humans alone can’t manage at scale. It’s about enabling businesses to make decisions based on data, not gut instinct. This disruption breaks the old model of slow, manual processes and replaces it with an ecosystem where businesses evolve as fast as the market does. 

It came down to a simple realization: automation alone isn’t enough. You need to reshape how data is handled, from ingestion to execution. I worked with many enterprise companies that had all the right tools, yet were buried under manual processes, insurance claims, and care coordination, it was chaos. The problem wasn’t the technology, it was how it was being used. I knew then that the real answer wasn’t just tech; it was the strategic reworking of processes to embed AI-driven automation at the core. I spent years researching and experiencing firsthand how businesses move at a snail’s pace, particularly in large enterprises. As a practitioner, I’ve seen that businesses need to not only adopt technology but also reframe their approach to how they handle people, processes, and data. Employees are often the first to feel the pain of inefficiency, leading to burnout. The answer? Build a foundation where employees are your first customers and the processes and technologies you implement support their success. 

The turning point for me came during the many projects with that many enterprise companies. They were all overwhelmed, struggling to keep up with the volume of manual tasks. They had everything they needed on paper, but execution was missing. That’s when I had my “That’s it” moment. If data isn’t handled strategically from end to end, from ingestion to execution, you’re not solving the problem, you’re perpetuating it. That’s when I fully committed to driving (AI-Intelligent Automation) adoption at scale, not just as a tool but as a fundamental change agent in how we do business. 

The biggest challenge I’ve faced in adoption is mindset. Businesses know they need to change, but they’re afraid to take the plunge. The idea of automating processes and relying on AI feels like losing control to many leaders. They cling to the old methods because they feel safe, even though these methods are no longer competitive. Education around AI is also a hurdle, people still see it as a threat rather than a tool that can enhance their capabilities. It’s about showing them that automation doesn’t replace human potential, it amplifies it.