The Sequencing Error Behind Most Failed AI Programs with Brandon Micci
In the third episode of Simform’s Enterprise Cloud and AI Forum (ECAF), Brandon Micci, Head of AI Strategy & Business Transformation at a leading global financial institution, joins host Rameshwar Balanagu, Co-Founder, Dallas CTO Club, for a conversation that doesn’t start with the AI use case but with the decision most enterprises skip before they ever build one.
Brandon has seen why AI programs fail from the inside, across capital markets, banking, and aviation. The failure point is almost never where technology leaders go looking first, and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more expensive the lesson gets. He goes ahead and makes a case most financial services leaders aren’t ready to hear.
Key Takeaways for the Viewers
Most enterprises are picking AI use cases in the wrong order
Brandon has a specific method for deciding which use cases are actually worth building. The one it surfaces is almost never the one the business was loudest about.
The governance board that had never seen an AI use case before
Eight months into production-readiness, a major merger reset everything. What broke in the governance process and what Brandon would do differently tells you more about AI rollout risk than any framework will.
Asking employees how much time AI saves them is the wrong question
Brandon's team tried it. The numbers came back unusable. The method they replaced it with produced a sharper ROI story, and the real number turned out to be better than the estimate.
The thing standing between financial services and agentic AI isn't the model
Brandon pushed for it three years ago and pulled back. What stopped him hasn't gone away, and most enterprises building toward full automation still haven't accounted for it.
The AI FinOps reckoning financial services has seen before
One company burned through its entire AI budget in under a quarter on token spend. Brandon has watched this cycle play out before, in a different technology, and he knows exactly where it goes next.
The human cost of getting AI sequencing wrong
Companies laid off employees to absorb productivity gains AI hadn't delivered yet. Brandon has a pointed view on what comes next for the leaders who moved too fast.
Stay updated with Simform's weekly insights.
Certified to deliver on Microsoft’s highest standardsÂ
As an Azure Expert MSP and Microsoft Solutions Partner across key solution areas, Simform meets Microsoft’s most rigorous benchmarks for architectural excellence, operational maturity, and customer impact. Each designation reflects validated technical depth, successful enterprise deployments, and a consistent track record of delivering measurable business outcomes.
