IT Visionaries
Episode
506

How to Maximize ROI on AI in 2026

The promise of agentic AI has been massive, autonomous systems that act, reason, and make business decisions, but most enterprises are still struggling to see results.

In this episode, host Chris Brandt sits down with Sumeet Arora, Chief Product Officer at Teradata, to unpack why the gap exists between AI hype and actual impact, and what it takes to make AI scale, explainable, and ROI-driven.

From the shift toward “AI with ROI” to the new era of human + AI systems and data quality challenges, Sumeet shares how leading enterprises are moving from flashy demos to measurable value and trust in the next phase of AI.

CHAPTER MARKERS

00:00 The AI Hackathon Era

03:10 Hype vs Reality in Agentic AI

06:05 Redesigning the Human AI Interface

09:15 From Demos to Real Economic Outcomes

12:20 Why Scaling AI Still Fails

15:05 The Importance of AI Ready Knowledge

18:10 Data Quality and the Biggest Bottleneck

20:46 Building the Customer 360 Knowledge Layer

23:35 Push vs Pull Systems in Modern AI

26:15 Rethinking Enterprise Workflows

29:20 AI Agents and Outcome Driven Design

32:45 Where Agentic AI Works Today

36:10 What Enterprises Still Get Wrong

39:30 How AI Changes Engineering Priorities55:49 The Future of GPUs and Efficiency Challenges

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