I did not read a book this summer

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I spent it digging into AI instead. Not reading about it. Using it. On something that had to work when I was done. As a result I'm now vibe coding, and I've built my first business application.

Part of the reason was that we needed a capability we didn't have. The bigger reason was different.

I needed to experience what it's like from the other side of the table. To be one of the people who wants to use AI and can't, because the security isn't there yet.

That's exactly where many organisations find themselves today.

Saying no is easy from where I sit. It is a different matter entirely to have something in front of you that works, that would deliver value tomorrow and be told it has to wait.

The summer has been painful, and something of a learning experience.

Painful, because the speed is seductive. You finish in an afternoon, and only afterwards do you notice how many decisions you made along the way without ever making them. A learning experience for exactly the same reason.

I am not a developer. I built this as an ordinary user with time to spare.

This made me realise how easy it has become for anyone inside an organisation to build something that nobody else even knows exists.

If we thought Shadow IT was a problem before, look at where we are now. Anyone with access to data can build their own application on the spot. No procurement. No architecture review. No one knows it's there.

My working thesis was that we shouldn't work against AI. We should find a way to work with it.

It holds. 110%. The value in using AI for development and content is simply too great for security to be the thing that stops it.

And yet.

Using AI without security is not a serious position. Sometimes it must be a hard gate, a no, until the guardrails are in place.

Because let's face it, nobody remembers how easy the ride was if it later comes out that EPO won the Tour.

It's a given we must keep moving. We just need to get there in a way we can stand behind.

The question isn't whether organisations should use AI. They already are.

The challenge is making sure they can keep doing so with confidence and that's the conversation we're having with more and more organisations.