The Problem With Locking Your AI Strategy Into One Platform

InnovationThe Problem With Locking Your AI Strategy Into One PlatformBySteve Dawson,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 09, 2026, 08:30am EDTSteve Dawson is the founder and CEO at POWERCONNECT.AI. gettyAI is moving too fast for businesses to lock themselves into rigid strategies this early. A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a meeting with a utility leadership team discussing AI roadmaps. Within the first fifteen minutes, the conversation shifted away from customer experience, operational efficiency, and employee productivity and went almost entirely toward one thing: which platform they should build everything on top of.That’s the part of the AI conversation I think a lot of companies are getting wrong right now.There’s an enormous rush to adopt AI across large enterprise environments. Every board wants an AI strategy. Every executive team wants movement. Every software vendor suddenly has an AI story attached to their platform.But I’m starting to see organizations make long-term architectural decisions far too early, especially when it comes to embedding AI deeply inside core systems like billing platforms, customer information systems, ERP environments and other enterprise applications.The data already exists there. The workflows already exist there. The integrations appear simpler. On paper, it sounds efficient to build AI directly into the systems utilities and enterprises already rely on every day.The problem shows up later.I’ve seen organizations spend massive amounts of time and money customizing workflows, building automations, and designing AI-driven experiences around one environment, only to realize later that changing anything becomes incredibly difficult. Even small adjustments start requiring new consulting engagements, redevelopment work or additional layers of complexity.What started as sp...