This episode explores the growing disconnect between massive enterprise investment in AI and the limited business value many organizations are actually realizing. Despite intense pressure from boards and investors to “move faster” on AI, most enterprises remain stuck in pilots and proofs of concept rather than achieving true transformation, a challenge the panel calls the AI Value Paradox.
In collaboration with DataIQ, this episode features David Reed (Chief Knowledge Officer, Data IQ) alongside the Blend leadership team: Ozgur Dogan (President, Americas, Blend), Rob Fuller (Chief Solutions Officer, Blend), and Caroline Caldwell (Evolve Host and Head of Marketing, Blend) as they cut through the hype to explain why “experimenting with AI” often fails to become “transforming with AI".
The big unlock is not automating yesterday’s workflow faster. It’s redesigning how work should happen now that software can take on tasks that once required humans. That’s where ROI lives, but it also demands discipline: clear processes, strong guardrails, and the willingness to do the hard operational work (not just demos). “Agentic” isn’t a magic digital employee, either; it’s a coordinated system of smaller capabilities, drafting, checking, routing, retrieving, validating, working together. If the underlying process is unclear or messy, agents won’t fix it; they’ll just scale the mess.
The team closes with a grounded message: ambition isn’t the finish line, execution is. Customers don’t want AI for its own sake; they want a better version of your brand experience, powered by AI in ways that actually work.
Key takeaways:
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David Reed is the author of "Winning with AI", a guide to embedding artificial intelligence into data-driven brands, and "Becoming Data Literate", a game-changing book on how to ensure data becomes central to the culture of organisations. As Chief Knowledge Officer and Evangelist at DataIQ, where he was worked since 2011, he supports leading brands, senior data leaders and their teams to drive impact from data and AI.
Caroline Caldwell is Head of Marketing at Blend, where she built and scaled the global marketing function to position the company as a leader in AI services. With experience spanning Oracle, Merkle, and high-growth ventures, she specializes in transforming emerging technologies into scalable, revenue-driving marketing engines. Caroline is passionate about helping enterprises operationalize AI at scale and building teams that turn bold vision into measurable growth.
Ozgur Dogan is President of Blend and a co-founder of the company, where he helps clients harness AI, data, and technology to drive measurable business outcomes. In this episode, he unpacks the AI Value Paradox and explains why the biggest ROI comes from reimagining how work gets done rather than simply automating legacy tasks, while highlighting the importance of orchestration and the evolving roles and job families required to scale agentic systems responsibly.
Rob Fuller leads data and AI strategy at Blend as the Chief Solutions Officer, where he architected Blend X, the company's strategic middle layer that enables enterprises to deploy AI solutions with consistency and speed while maintaining customization. In this episode, he explores what it really takes to scale agentic systems, clarifies common misconceptions around digital labor and autonomy, and emphasizes the need for process rigor, measurable value creation, and strong data foundations to move AI from pilots into production
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