After a year of pilots and prototypes, large companies are asking harder questions about AI, platform engineering and cost. Here is the honest picture we see from the stage.
From experiments to balance sheets
The era of twenty disconnected AI pilots is ending. Winning teams consolidate around two or three use cases with measurable returns, instrument them properly, and sunset the rest without sentimentality.
Platform engineering follows the same arc: less fascination with tooling, more obsession with developer time-to-first-commit. The companies pulling ahead treat internal platforms as products with users, roadmaps and support.
What this means for your team
Hire for judgment over familiarity, budget for evaluation the way you budget for infrastructure, and keep one eye on regulation — the next wave of rules will reward teams that documented their systems early.
