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How To Make Successful Decisions In AI

January 21, 2026 · 24 min

Show notes

With Durai Rajamanickam — Senior AI Leader

How do leaders make better decisions about AI when the technology, risks and expectations are changing so quickly?

In this episode, Ben Parker speaks with Durai Rajamanickam about what it takes to turn AI ambition into something organisations can trust, scale and create value from.

They explore why AI initiatives can go wrong before technology is even the problem, the danger of hype-driven decisions, and why clear business objectives and leadership alignment matter.

The conversation also examines build vs buy, balancing speed with governance, when leaders should trust AI outputs, and the decisions organisations can't afford to delay.

You’ll hear practical insights on:

  • Why organisations misdiagnose the problems they want AI to solve
  • How to make better build-vs-buy decisions
  • Why promising AI initiatives fail
  • Balancing speed, innovation, governance and trust
  • When leaders should trust or challenge AI outputs
  • The AI decisions organisations need to make now

Chapters

00:00 Why AI strategies go wrong
01:09 Meet Durai Rajamanickam
03:46 Build vs buy in AI
05:36 Avoiding hype-driven AI decisions
07:41 Aligning AI with the business
09:11 Building trust and governance
12:22 Balancing speed with control
15:22 Making better decisions with AI
21:03 Advice for AI leaders

Thank you for listening!

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