Most boards think they have an AI strategy. What they have is an AI conversation that has not yet become a governance structure. The distinction matters — and the failure patterns are specific.
AI Governance
Every organisation with AI in production will have an AI incident. The governance question is whether the review process exists before the incident occurs, or gets built in its aftermath.
AI Governance
A failed AI governance audit is a specific, recoverable problem. The boards that recover well focus on causal gaps first and documentation second. Most do it in reverse.
AI Governance
Most boards do not know what AI readiness means for a governance body. This guide defines it specifically, and gives directors a structured way to assess where their board actually stands.
Causal Analysis
Governance failures are not random events. They are the downstream consequences of structural gaps that were present long before the failure became visible. Most governance processes are designed to respond to the failure. Very few are designed to diagnose what made it possible.
AI Research
AI agents without memory are stateless. Every session starts from zero. For a production system where accumulated experience matters, that is not a limitation to accept — it is a problem to engineer around.
AI Governance
When an AI system fails, most boards ask what went wrong. The more important question is why — and that requires a different kind of reasoning than most governance frameworks support.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
The CISOs who describe PQC migration as a scheduled upgrade cycle are being optimistic. The boards that believe them are accumulating governance risk. The honest picture is more specific.
AI Research
A single AI agent attempting complex, multi-stage work will fail more often, and more opaquely, than a well-decomposed team with clear interfaces. The decomposition decision is not technical — it is architectural, and it determines everything downstream.
Commercial Strategy
Series A deep tech founders consistently lose conversations with non-technical investors by answering the wrong questions brilliantly. The fix is structural, not presentational.
AI Research
Trust in an AI system is not declared. It is designed. The security architecture of a production multi-agent system — approval gates, scope limits, credential handling, boundary checks — is where trust is either built or not built.
AI Governance
Mid-sized company boards face a real choice between a fractional technology advisor and a full non-executive director. The decision turns on accountability, not cost.
AI Governance
AI governance failure at board level follows recognisable patterns. Here are the five most common signs that a board is managing the appearance of AI governance rather than the substance.
Causal Analysis
Most governance uses regression: explaining what has already happened. The more valuable and underused mode is forward projection: anticipating what will happen if a decision or system performs as designed. The distinction determines whether a board governs proactively or retrospectively.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Nation-state actors are collecting encrypted data today with the intention of decrypting it once quantum computers become capable. Most boards have not been told this is already happening.
Causal Analysis
Causal analysis is not a methodology reserved for data scientists and network engineers. It is a reasoning discipline that executives can learn, and boards can apply, to governance decisions. Here is where to start.
Commercial Strategy
Founders presenting AI strategy to boards consistently provide the wrong information at the wrong level. The board's question is not what the system does — it is what the board is being asked to approve.
AI Governance
Every AI governance framework mentions human oversight. Almost none of them specify what that oversight actually requires from a real human in a real organisation.
Advisory Validation
A board advisor affiliated with a consulting firm cannot provide the independent governance judgement the board's fiduciary function requires. This is structural, not a criticism of any firm.
AI Research
Routing every task to the most capable model is the most expensive approach and not always the best one. Task-appropriate model selection, based on output requirements and cost profile, is one of the more underrated disciplines in AI operations.
AI Governance
The NACD's AI governance guidance is a useful starting point. For boards of mid-sized companies, it is also incomplete in specific ways that matter.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
NIS2's Article 20 makes company directors personally liable for cybersecurity governance failures. Most directors have been briefed on NIS2 compliance. Far fewer have been briefed on what personal liability actually means.
AI Governance
Three major EU regulations have landed on boards simultaneously. They are not separate compliance exercises. Understanding where they overlap is where the governance priority sits.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
NIST finalised its post-quantum cryptography algorithms in August 2024. For boards, the question is not technical — it is what decisions need to be made, and in what sequence.
Personal Authority
Three environments that taught me what governance under pressure actually looks like — and why the instinct to manage the symptom is the governance failure that enables every other one.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Organisations planning AI infrastructure investments and PQC migrations are running two separate programmes. The intersection between them is the governance gap that both will eventually hit.
AI Research
Running 24 AI agents in production raises an immediate question: how do you know if any of them are doing good work? Our answer is a three-dimensional scoring system, an exemplar library, and a training loop that gets better with every failure.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
A board briefing on quantum risk that covers the timeline, the business impact, the regulatory obligations, and the governance decisions that need to be made before 2030.
Commercial Strategy
The Series A board composition question is usually framed as 'who do we need.' The governance-relevant question is 'what does the board need to be able to do.' These produce different answers.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
The first week of a security breach is where most board-level governance failures occur. The failures are specific, predictable, and consistently more expensive than the breach itself.
AI Research
AI agent failures are not random. They cluster into six recognisable types, each with a distinct diagnostic signature and a different fix. Recognising which type you have is faster and more reliable than debugging from first principles every time.
Commercial Strategy
RiverSoft, SMARTS, Voyence — three acquisitions by IBM and EMC. The commercial decisions that determined each exit were made years before the term sheets arrived.
Causal Analysis
Most governance failures are diagnosed at the symptom level. Causal analysis is the methodology that finds the structural failure three or four steps upstream. Boards that apply it to AI governance govern better.
Commercial Strategy
From root cause analysis software to post-quantum cryptography — 30 years on the commercial side of technology has produced a short list of things that are consistently true.
Advisory Validation
The nomination committee looking for an AI-credible non-executive director is often searching for the wrong credential. Here is what actually predicts governance effectiveness.
AI Research
Most AI agent failures are not model failures. They are specification failures — the agent was not told precisely enough what to do, what not to do, and how to handle the boundary cases. Fixing this before deployment is considerably cheaper than fixing it after.
AI Governance
Most boards think they need an AI strategy first and governance later. This is the wrong sequence. Governance defines what questions the strategy must answer.
Commercial Strategy
The technical product is often better than the competition. The deal is lost in the gap between what the engineering team built and what the economic buyer needed to hear.
AI Governance
August 2, 2026 is not a soft deadline. Boards of companies with AI deployments in scope need to have answered the governance question before that date, not on it.
AI Governance
Most boards ask reasonable questions when approving AI investments. They are also insufficient. The governance architecture is where deployments fail — and the right questions are rarely asked.
Quantum & Cybersecurity
The Dots Those dots mark only a fraction of Greenland’s mineral endowment. They ring the coast because the interior - buried under ice up to 3 km thick - is...
AI Research
I write for business readers, if you would like the math and science I have linked the papershereandhereand at the end of the article. Imagine Your Brain as...
Commercial Strategy
From Warships To Quantum When people ask where I’m from, I usually tell them: engineering and hustle. It isn’t a slogan; it’s the truth. I grew up...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Quantum technologies are moving from research to early production, and for existing software companies this is strategically impactful. Within 24-36 months,...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
These three VCs dominate the drone-tech venture space in the USA currently. With such heady valuations its easy to see why they have ploughed in cash as...
AI Research
Building the Mechanical Parrot 1 | Is The Lid of Pandoras Box Wide-Open? In relation to both Quantum and AI, Pandora’s box is no longer ajar; it’s on the...
AI Research
Imagine attempting to squeeze every volume from the great library into Frodo’s tiny little backpack. A few books might fit, but soon the seams burst,...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Verifiable Delay Functions: Why Are We Making Computers Wait? Link to the paper for the scientifically minded. Imagine you’re playing a game with your...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Many leaders still think quantum security is just a quick software update with a bit of AI magic. For most organisations, It isn’t. That fantasy is a recipe...
AI Research
I think I may have been reading Quantum papers for too long, I am starting to fall deep down into a chain of rabbit holes and instead of a trippy smiling...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Why Your Quantum Secrets Might Pop Like a Soap Bubble - The Last Mile Problem Explained Imagine you’ve invented the world’s most secure envelope: it’s...
AI Governance
The Sneaky Truth Hidden in Video Editing Platforms’ AI Rules and Quantum Technologies Impact Picture this: You craft a cracking good video, maybe you are...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
If you think the Artificial Intelligence (AI) wave is disruptive, hold on to your hat - Quantum Technology is surfing in right behind it, only this wave...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
TL:DR - Not quite, but they are positive step forward. Why the Panic? Let’s get one thing straight between us: cryptography is everywhere. It’s the digital...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
I write for business people, if you are scientist you may get more enjoyment from the following paper : Surface-code Pauli-based Architectural Resource...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
I write for a business audience, if you are a scientifically minded physics geek and great with numbers please read this new paper linked here. Quantum...
AI Research
Picture this: you're cycling through the hills of quantum technology, trying to power your way uphill, downhill, and around tight corners. Unlucky for you...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Nobody likes bad news. Imagine your house has a solid front door with a lock so strong that even the Hulk couldn’t smash through it. Now imagine someone...
AI Research
I write for a business audience, if you are a Physics boffin I suggest you tuck straight into this paper here. For the rest of us.... A team at Google...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
My first mobile phone at work was a 1992 Motorola Solutions DYNATAC 8000F, it was as heavy as a brick with an aerial like a breadstick strapped to the side....
Commercial Strategy
Innovation doesn’t always knock on the front door. More often, it slips in through the basement window—uninvited, surprising, and led by individuals who...
AI Research
For business leaders, innovators, and strategists: if you want a glimpse into what could reshape industries before 2030, this is worth your next 5 minutes....
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Let me give you a scenario. Your daughter—let’s call her Society—is violently smashing her head against a brick wall. Panicked, you rush to stop her. She...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
This is a snapshot summary of Post Quantum Cryptography Innovation April 2025. The reality is that Quantum Technologies will be a threat to Cybersecurity....
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Encryption has always been critical, but its becoming a bigger more important "Thing" for the boardroom - why and who is benefiting?. In case you haven’t...
AI Research
I write for a business audience, if you are a PHD you may just want to hit the paper here, clearly it has nothing to do with Peanut Butter, ish...PB=MBL For...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
A new paper from the boffins at JPMorganChase suggests quantum computing could soon beat classical solvers-under realistic conditions and with about 73...
AI Research
Scientific boffin - skip my narrative and read the paper here. For the rest of us.... In yet another month of grand claims from quantum companies, it seems...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
If you are a scientific person then read this paper, for the rest of us.... Imagine This... You're at a party. You want to tell two of your friends a juicy...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Technical Whizz? Don't bother yourself with my simplified explanation, instead read Stephen Holmes enlightening paper "Impact of post-quantum signatures on...
AI Research
Neural Networks and Grassmann Algebra: Strap in. I write for business people, some may think that Grassmann Algebra is a new type of craft ale. If you are a...
AI Research
Scientific Code Boffin? - Read the paper here, I write for non technical business people, this article may annoy you. For everyone else that needs to...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
What is Q Day? Well there’s a storm brewing in the world of encryption. Quantum computers - those futuristic computational wizard boxes — are edging...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Quantum Boffin? Here is the paper. For the rest of us: Imagine you’ve just bought the most advanced self-driving car in the world. It can predict traffic...
AI Research
Read the scientific paper here, or take it easy with a no math explanation. Fast Amplitude Embedding for Quantum Machine Learning So let's imagine that you...
AI Research
I have deliberately avoided jumping on the announcement bandwagon over the past weeks. Especially regarding this one (Read the paper) to discuss D-Wave For...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Read the scientific paper " Simulating charging characteristics of lithium iron phosphate" or simply read the following if you are not a super boffin. Has...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Here is the paper if you are scientifically minded. The Big Mystery of Secret Numbers Imagine you have a big magical treasure chest, locked with a code made...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Imagine you’re at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The challenge? Fill your plate with just the right mix of foods—enough protein, the right amount of carbs,...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Quantum technology used to be something only theoretical physicists cared about—like black holes, Schrödinger’s cat, and why socks disappear in the laundry....
AI Research
If you are a Quantum Scientist then click to these papers. [A Review of Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computing] [Large Language Models Can Help...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
The Chinese Quantum Processor That Leaves Supercomputers in the Dust (Apparently) If you’ve come across me before, you’ll know that I write for business...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
I watched this speech today and wanted to put it down on paper—purely for my own records—knowing it will soon vanish into the ether of short-lived social...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Imagine walking into a market where widgets cost £1 on one stall and 50p on another. You buy from the cheaper stall, sell to the expensive one, and pocket...
AI Research
[ I write for a non technical business audience, but physics boffins can check out the full research paper here:[arXiv:2502.21055v1 [quant-ph]...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
TL:DR- YES, and its not probably not good. 2025 is the Year of Quantum - a new technology set to change everything - and the likelihood is that China will...
AI Research
Ever Heard of the "Too Much Talking" Problem? Imagine you ask a friend for directions to the nearest shop, and instead of a quick "Turn left, then right,"...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Microsoft’s Quantum Chip: Hype, Reality, and the BS Detector The Quantum Industry is Buzzing This week, the quantum world has been lit up after...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
The Future of Cybersecurity: Quantum-Resistant VPN Imagine if burglars could break into safes in the future with a master key they don’t have yet. Sounds...
AI Research
Imagine trying to fit an elephant into a suitcase. Tough, right? That’s kind of what AI researchers are doing—making massive AI models smaller and more...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
I’ve never been a fan of overly hyped up claims about technology. Amara's law says we tend to over-egg technologies impact in the short term but...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Every Sunday in our home, my father would cook dinner whilst the Beatles or the Rolling Stones would blare from our battery-powered tape player. A modest...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Attention PQC and PCI Project Leaders: The truth is that working in CyberSecurity and Network Engineering / Operations especially at an entry level can...
AI Research
NB: If you are a highly technical PhD type software person, best to skip this and go straight to Dr Javier Mancilla Montero, PhDpost hereand then readthis...
Commercial Strategy
AI: The New Email – Why Artificial Intelligence Might Be a Loss Leader for Tech Giants Imagine this: It’s the early 2000s, and you’re signing up for a...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Is Bitcoin Safe from Quantum Computers? You probably shouldn’t drink the fear-hype Kool-Aid about your Bitcoin being gobbled up by quantum computers just...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Before I jump into this article, I just want to make it clear that Quantum Technology even in its earliest nascent form is about to "up-end" financial...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Quantum Computing: The Future Is Here (And Everyone’s Missing It) Let’s cut to the chase. Quantum computing is not some futuristic gizmo trapped in the...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
I have stated before that I am somewhat of a Web3 philistine, having been able to avoid it until now. That being said, I am starting to become a fast...
Commercial Strategy
If you’re in deep tech—Quantum, AI, software, advanced cyber security, or any other magical world-changing endeavour—you already know you’re brilliant. But...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
So it’s happened. If you’re imagining Scotty beaming Captain Kirk down to some unpronounceable planet right now—trust me, I was doing the same. When I saw...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Today I read through the Bank of England’s document, Enhancing the Privacy of the Digital Pound. I must admit, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are really...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
How to Communicate Genuine Information Without Indulging in the Hype or Spin Around Post-Quantum Cryptography This is my late-night effort to pen a...
Commercial Strategy
Reviewing pitch decks from teams chasing quick, easy profits with Artificial Intelligence without any consideration for societal benefit has become part of...
Commercial Strategy
I must admit, it can be a bit frustrating to see large VC firms frequently pushing out the same graphics about the importance of TAM, SAM, and SOM. This...
AI Governance
I’ve long advocated for AI’s potential to deliver societal and economic value, from healthcare to education. However, it’s equally important to recognise...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Understanding Market Transitions and Quantum Technologies The Sequoia Arc Product-Market Fit(PMF) framework categorises the relationship between products...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
Take a look at this post from Andreas Horn, Head of AIOps at IBM. Shared by Benjamin T. I firmly agree that quantum computing's capability to tackle NP-hard...
AI Governance
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the dangers of over-optimising AI in social media, arguing that it will undoubtably destroy value rather than create it. So...
Commercial Strategy
A New Chapter Begins Yesterday marked my final day at Mad Monkey. Surprised? You’re not alone. Given the company's remarkable journey over the past 13...
Quantum & Cybersecurity
As many of you now know, I stepped away from Mad Monkey recently. For the past twenty years I have been fascinated with Quantum Science. My background...
AI Governance
The digital landscape has long been lauded as a veritable goldmine for advertisers, with social media platforms at the forefront of this revolution,...
AI Governance
Today, you can use AI to post on social media. For around $10 a month. You can also use AI to respond to people's posts and make comments. Also around...