I’m fortunate that I get to speak with hundreds of customers every year. These enterprises span the technology adoption curve—some who thrive on the leading edge, and others who prefer being as risk-averse as possible. But the AI era—ever-churning and bursting with exuberance—has united nearly all of them at this moment. Experiment time is over. Enterprises are focused on moving beyond theoretical AI pilots to operationalizing it at scale, optimizing costs, and governing its actions.Beyond those corporate mandates, which are important, I think what’s refreshing about my conversations with customers is that there’s an air of excitement about AI. About harnessing new ideas and seizing on opportunities not thought possible even a short time ago.For example, at global bank BNP Paribas, their objective is to industrialize AI at scale—not just experiment with it. They have thousands of use cases already live, but they’re not stopping. They’re currently building an AI factory to deliver AI capabilities across the company with an emphasis on business value. This includes key elements such as fraud detection, “Know Your Customer” (KYC), client onboarding, and chatbots, plus capabilities for internal productivity, such as AI for developers. And they’re adamant that the focus has to be on measurable business outcomes.What I love about BNP Paribas is how they demonstrate the power of adaptability combined with the requirement of good governance. This is exactly how automobile-maker Nissan is making the transition from software-defined vehicles to AI-defined vehicles, where AI workloads are a core product enabler. With compute, the most important requirement is flexibility, Nissan says. AI workloads will continue to evolve, so Nissan’s focus is on the ability to adapt compute—on-board, off-board, or hybrid—without locking software to a specific chip generation. And with data, AI raises the bar even higher. Data handling is critical not only to improve models, but to ensure accountability, trust, and continuous learning across Nissan’s AI-Drive and AI-Partner products—always with security, privacy, and governance built in.