The last time every client wanted to talk about the same thing at the same time, it was Y2K. It is happening again with AI, but with a key difference. This time, the money is outpacing the understanding.

From the internet to cloud to mobile, each technology wave follows the same pattern. Companies rush in and treat adoption as a what question, while it should be a who question.

We lead firms with different specialties. BDO’s is assurance, tax, and advisory; Gagen MacDonald’s specialty is people-centered change. Working together on BDO’s AI transformation confirmed what we both see with organizations: Technology creates the possibility of transformation, but people determine whether it succeeds.

As boards set their 2027 budgets, one question will follow AI spending into nearly every conversation: Why isn’t it showing up in our results? Intelligence platform AI4SP found that for the first half of 2026, 76% of enterprise AI initiatives struggled to show return on investment, while in 2025, Gartner projected that more than 40% of agentic AI projects would be canceled by the end of 2027.

The reflex is to write a bigger check for a more capable platform. But buying more of what companies have struggled to turn into value cannot be the fix.

We believe most firms treat AI as a technology purchase. We treat it as a people transformation. Hand the best tools in the world to people who have no reason to care, and you have bought expensive software nobody uses.

But the response should not be a top-down mandate nor a pure grassroots initiative.

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