Stop Buying AI Projects Backwards w/ Michael Baillargeon #430
You've Been Heard, Wednesday, June 17th, 2026
Michael Baillargeon argues organizations should treat AI as an operating practice, not a SKU, sequencing strategy before vendors.
In this episode of the You've Been Heard IT leadership podcast, Michael Baillargeon challenges organizations to approach AI strategically rather than as a product purchase, insisting "there is no SKU for AI."
He advocates a five-part sequence, stakeholders, outcomes, data, guardrails, and ROI, implemented before vendor selection.
Practical quick wins include analyzing recorded customer calls at scale to score agent performance and surface product demand signals. He stresses cleaning up conflicting "sources of truth" before deploying AI and warns about employees exposing sensitive data on public AI platforms, suggesting redacting LLM aggregators as a safer option. The discussion acknowledges the "trough of disillusionment" requiring sustained commitment.