AI Hype vs. Real Value

<p><em>Manish Dasaur</em> is a Managing Director at PwC with over 20 years in data and AI, having helped 100+ clients navigate AI disruption and extract real business value from data, AI, and agentic AI initiatives. In this episode, he breaks down why most enterprise AI programs stall — and the playbook the winners are using instead.</p><p><br></p><p>Huge thanks to <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics.html" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">PwC</a> for supporting this episode!</p><p><br></p><p>💰 The 30% benchmark — What &quot;good&quot; actually looks like: real efficiency gains clients are reporting across engineering, finance, HR, and supply chain</p><p>🔄 Workflows, not use cases — Why isolated pilots and POCs never show up in EBITDA, and how end-to-end workflow redesign does</p><p>🧪 Champion vs. challenger — Running a control group against your AI-automated process so ROI is demonstrated, not guessed</p><p>📞 Why customer care agents are still freaking hard — Context, CDP integration, billing systems, and voice-to-voice latency</p><p>💸 Tokenomics &amp; FinOps — Consumption-based cost surprises, model selection, prompt engineering, and enforcing cost-per-workflow budgets</p><p>🔍 Auditing agentic behavior — Using AI to test AI, the missing &quot;SOC 2 for agents,&quot; and certifying agents for sensitive use cases</p><p>👤 Human in the loop as an evolving scale — From reviewing 50% of outputs down to 10% as trust builds</p><p>🧠 88% do AI, 33% scale it — Building a culture of innovation, and why AI usage is showing up in performance reviews</p><p>💼 Jobs, reskilling &amp; the operating model reset — Why 75%+ of jobs will be reskilled, not replacedIf you&#39;re an AI leader, platform engineer, or exec trying to turn AI experiments into P&amp;L impact, this one&#39;s for you.</p><p><br></p><p>Links &amp; Resources:</p><p>Connect with Manish: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishdasaur/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/manishdasaur/</a></p><p>PwC AI: <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics.html" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics.html</a></p><p>PwC&#39;s 2026 AI Business Predictions: <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics/ai-predictions.html" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/ai-analytics/ai-predictions.html</a></p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>[00:00] AI Hype vs Business Value</p><p>[00:44] API Spend Tracker Widget</p><p>[02:18] Tokenomics and FinOps for AI</p><p>[06:19] Measuring AI Impact Objectively</p><p>[11:07] AI in Support Workflows</p><p>[18:05] AI Innovation Culture</p><p>[27:16] MCP Servers and SOC 2</p><p>[29:14] Human in the Loop in evolving scale</p><p>[35:44] AI and Workforce Efficiency</p><p>[39:59] AI Transformation and Mindset</p><p>[42:19] Wrap-up</p>