Executive briefing
Where the organisation sits across four stages of adoption, and the three decisions that follow from that position.
The question this turns on
Ask ten people what they used AI for last week. How many different answers, and how many were already known?
The distance between those two numbers is the subject of this discussion.
Where the organisation sits
| Stage | What it means in practice | The test |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Assistive | Licences issued. Staff draft with AI; people still perform the work. | Can anyone state the hours released, and where they went? |
| 2. Embedded | AI completes a defined step inside a live process. People handle the exceptions. | Has the throughput of a named process changed? |
| 3. Agentic | Systems take action across other systems within set limits. | Does anything write to a system of record without a person approving it? |
| 4. Redesigned | The process is rebuilt around the capability rather than the capability added to the existing process. | Has any process been retired, rather than accelerated? |
The common position
Licences issued, staff drafting, people still performing the work.
Field observation across engagements. Not a measured study.
What stage one looks like from the inside
Stage one produces the impression of progress without the evidence of it. Reported time savings frequently convert into prompting and small decisions rather than removed work.
Part II
Stage two in practice
File assembly, adverse media screening and summarisation, with the analyst confirming the conclusion. The periodic review backlog is the largest single queue in most Malaysian banks.
First-level context gathering and a recommended disposition, confirmed by an analyst. The queue shortens while the decision stays where it is.
Full coverage in place of sampling, with complaint categorisation feeding regulatory reporting.
Each replaces analyst preparation time while the judgement stays with the analyst. Quantification requires the institution's own volumes (to confirm).
The pattern
Unstructured, unclassified and inconsistent source material.
Retrieval inherits existing access. Over-shared locations become searchable.
It sits between technology and the business, and neither holds it.
Nothing was set that the pilot had to demonstrate before it began.
The one to test first
The mechanism
Why it lands here
Verifiable in the institution's own environment within days, and the recommended starting diagnostic.
Next 90 days
A single accountable executive for adoption, reporting to a named forum, with a budget that is not split between technology and the business.
In place of a portfolio of stage one pilots. Specify what the process must demonstrate, and by when, before work begins.
Define which decisions must always involve a person. A risk appetite question rather than a technical one.
Each requires saying no to something, which is why none of them delegates.
Leave with this
Show me the inventory. Show me the measurement. Show me what it can do without a person.
Three questions for the management team. The answers locate the starting point.
Detail, and the questions in full
Governance framing draws on AI Governance Principles for Boards, KPMG International and INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre, publication 140336-G, April 2026. Illustrative working material. It does not constitute legal or regulatory advice.