Scaling AI on Main Street: From Demos to Bottom Line

Most companies think they're scaling AI. What they're actually scaling is experiments. In this session, I will argue that Main Street industries, from banking and insurance to healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, retail, and communications, have seen enough demos. What they're missing is AI built into the everyday workflows where cycle time, cost, risk, and revenue actually move. Drawing on two decades as a CIO and what we are building at Vibrant Capital through our Growth Partners Network and CIO Fellows Society, I will share a more operator-led playbook for moving from pilots and hype to repeatable deployment. My view is a bit contrarian: the winners will not be the companies with the flashiest models, but the ones that redesign work around AI, govern it well, and make it accountable to business results.

If you are a tech operator trying to make AI stick inside a real enterprise, you will leave with a sharper lens, a few uncomfortable truths, and a practical way to act.