The following commentary is contributed by JL Lerit, who is a digital transformation and technology consultant based in Sydney, working across technology delivery, business transformation and client engagement in Australia and Southeast Asia.
I have spent almost two decades working in technology, much of it on the side that comes after the promises: Requirements, delivery, testing and user acceptance testing, where the people who will actually use the technology make sure it works for the business.
It is the part where something that looked straightforward in a presentation suddenly has to work with real systems, real processes and real people. It is also where you discover everything the demo could not show you: the older system nobody wants to touch, the process that somehow belongs to three different teams, the workaround that was meant to be temporary five years ago and the exception nobody mentioned because it only happens occasionally, but when it does, everything stops.
Delivery teaches you very quickly that technology does not operate in a perfect environment. More recently, as my work has moved closer to early client and technology conversations, I have started seeing more of what happens before delivery begins: the demonstrations, the possibilities and the moment someone in the room starts imagining what a new application, automation or technology capability could mean for their business.
That shift has changed what I look for.
I still appreciate a great demo. Watching something that once took hours happen in seconds is impressive. Seeing a business application come together far faster than expected is impressive. New digital tools and automation can completely change what an organisation believes is possible.
But a great demo answers only one question: What can the technology do?
The harder question is whether it makes sense for the organisation sitting in front of it.
When the technology meets the business
Some of the most useful technology discussions I have been part of do not begin with the technology itself. They begin with the business.
What are we actually trying to change? Where is the friction today? What is taking too long? What are customers or employees repeatedly working around? Most importantly, if the organisation invests in changing something, what should be noticeably better afterwards?
Those questions sound simple, but they are often the difference between introducing technology and creating meaningful change.
A demonstration happens in a controlled environment. A business does not.
Inside an organisation, technology has to work with systems built years apart, information stored in different places, processes that have evolved over time and people who already have established ways of getting things done.
None of that makes new technology less valuable. It determines where the value actually is.
The answer does not always have to be replacing everything. It may begin with the part of the organisation creating the most friction: A customer journey that takes too long, a process that depends heavily on manual effort, an application that can no longer keep up with the business or an older system that has become increasingly difficult to change.
Technology gives organisations options. The thinking around it determines which option is worth pursuing.
Making the wrong thing faster
One of the easiest mistakes to make is assuming that automation automatically creates improvement.
It does not.
Technology can automate a process, but if the process itself is unnecessarily complicated, we may simply make the wrong thing happen faster. We can build a better digital experience for customers, but if the teams behind it are still moving information manually between systems, the interface may have changed while the underlying problem remains.
That is why good technology decisions need to start with the problem rather than the capability.
The technology has not necessarily failed in these situations. The technology has simply met the business.
That is where the quality of the thinking around it starts to matter.
AI makes the question even more important
Artificial intelligence (AI) has added another dimension to this conversation. AI can now perform tasks that only a few years ago would have required significant manual effort, and what it can do in demonstrations is increasingly impressive.
But AI is still part of the broader technology landscape, and the same rules apply.
An AI system may perform extremely well in a demo, but inside an organisation it may need access to the right information, connections to existing systems, clear approval rules and a defined point at which a decision should return to a person.
The question is no longer simply whether AI can perform the task. It is whether using AI there creates enough value to justify changing the way the organisation works.
That value should be visible. Customers may complete something faster. Employees may spend less time on repetitive work. Information may move more easily between teams. The organisation may be able to launch something sooner.
If nobody can explain what should be different after the technology is introduced, the conversation may still be about capability rather than value.
This does not mean organisations should become more cautious about innovation. It means being more deliberate about the problems worth solving.
Sometimes the answer will involve AI. Sometimes it will be a new application or automation. Sometimes it will mean improving part of an existing technology environment rather than replacing everything.
Good technology strategy is not about using everything available. It is about applying the right capability where it can create the most value.
What delivery changes about the way you see technology
Having spent almost two decades closer to delivery has probably made me slightly harder to impress, but I think that is useful.
I can appreciate a strong demonstration while knowing that eventually somebody has to make it real. Someone has to turn the idea into something the business can use, connect it with what is already there, understand the exceptions, test what happens when the perfect scenario does not happen and work with the people who will actually use it.
Eventually, someone will ask whether the technology made the business better.
That question should not arrive six months after launch. It should be part of the conversation from the beginning.
For me, that is where the most interesting technology conversations are happening now. Most organisations already know they need to modernise, automate and understand where AI fits into their future. The harder question is where to begin and how to make sure the investment still makes sense once the technology meets the reality of the business.
Because the most valuable technology is not necessarily the technology that looks most impressive for twenty minutes. It is the technology that still makes sense when the presentation ends, the systems are connected, the users log in and the business has to live with it.
And once the technology makes sense for the business, the next step is to move.
