Veteran Consultant: I've Become an AI Cleanup Shop, and Business Will Boom in 2027
DavidLinthicum · x · 2026-10-09
Enterprise consultant David Linthicum says his practice has quietly become an "AI cleanup consultancy": most engagements now trace back to failed AI initiatives. The failure modes repeat with remarkable discipline:
- Pilots that never escape the demo stage
- Models nobody owns
- Use cases invented to justify the technology rather than solve a business problem
- Platform spend that quietly dwarfs the value produced
His work is triage: restoring real governance, achievable scope, and architectures that account for humans still being in the loop — sometimes recommending backing AI out entirely. His forecast: the current experimentation wave is manufacturing sobering realities, so the cleanup business will boom in 2027-2028.
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