AnswerRocket

Laying off workers and crediting AI isn't a strategy. It's a lazy proxy. That's the argument Andrew Sweet makes in a new piece from St. Louis Magazine (written by Eric D. Schmid), and it's one we think every enterprise leader should read. The companies seeing real returns from AI aren't the ones cutting headcount to hit a news cycle. They're the ones asking better questions: Where is time being lost to repetitive work? What could our people accomplish if that time came back to them? As Andy puts it, saving time through AI doesn't automatically mean reducing headcount. It means redeploying people toward the work that actually requires humans. The piece also features Michelle Hamilton who recently joined the AnswerRocket team, on why AI enablement done poorly is a security risk, not a shortcut. Worth a read, link in comments. #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #AIAdoption #AITransformation

"Forward deployed engineer" gets a bad rap. But Stewart Chisam makes a point worth sitting with. The best people in these roles don't just solve Customer A's problem. They abstract it. They generalize it. They build something that then helps customers B, C, D, and E. That's not a support function. That's a product flywheel. And the engineering skills that matter most aren't about slinging C++. They're about thinking systematically. Knowing where the abstraction points are. Designing a solution with clarity before a single line of code gets written. Watch the clip below. 👇 Link to the blog in the comments. #EnterpriseAI #AIActually #SolutionEngineering #AgenticAI

A milestone worth sharing: AnswerRocket is among the first organizations with Claude Certified Architects, formally vetted through Anthropic Academy's new certification program launched just last month. We're proud to now have 14 Claude Certified Architects on our team, a strong signal of how seriously we're betting on Claude for the enterprise. That technical depth is what our clients feel. Every certification represents an architect formally recognized by Anthropic to design, build, and deploy production agents on Claude. For the CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, and operations leaders we work with, that translates into: ✅ Architecture decisions made by people who know Claude inside and out ✅ Faster decisions, shorter timelines, fewer expensive missteps ✅ Full-arc support from activation training to solution architecture, agent development, and adoption ✅ A track record of moving faster than larger SIs When the success of your AI agenda depends on the platform underneath it, you want a partner who has put in the reps, not one who's still learning on your time. Proud to be an Anthropic partner, and prouder of the team that built this depth of expertise. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e5HfNvXS

Our April 2026 edition of the Rocket Report is available now 🚀 Key Highlights Include: • A closer look at our strategic partnership with Anthropic and what it means for our enterprise clients. • Jim Johnson hosts Stewart Chisam, Shanti Greene and Nicole Kosky on the latest episode of the podcast as they define and examine the Forward Deployed Engineer role. • Our Gateway to Innovation session, "AI Doesn't Have a Technology Problem. It Has a Partnership Problem." is now available on demand. And so much more!

78% of employees are bringing their own AI tools to work. Only 30% say their company has any guidelines around it. That gap is shadow AI. And it's already inside your enterprise. Our CTO Michael Finley wrote about this for RTInsights, and the framing is worth sitting with: the problem isn't recklessness, it's impatience. Workers have experienced what AI can do in their personal lives and they're not willing to go without it at work. So they improvise. The answer isn't prohibition. It's getting ahead of it. Mike lays out what that actually looks like: centralized access, clear policy, and an agent infrastructure that finally puts dormant ML investments to work. Worth the read: https://lnkd.in/eb9Yuy2y #ShadowAI #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #AIGovernance

When companies blame AI for layoffs, Andrew Sweet calls it what it is: a lack of imagination. At the 2026 Gateway to Innovation conference, Andy joined Shanti Greene, Michelle Hamilton, and Robert L Childs Jr to tackle the real reason enterprise AI initiatives stall. It's not the technology. It's the people and partnerships around it. In this clip, Andy makes the case that the organizations winning with AI aren't the ones cutting headcount. They're the ones asking better questions, finding adjacent opportunities, and bringing creativity to the table. The full session covers data readiness, semantic layers, real-world examples from AB InBev and Ameren, and what IT leaders should do in the next 30 days. Watch the clip, then catch the full session at the link below 👇 https://lnkd.in/e3um42sh #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy #AIAdoption #GatewayToInnovation #AnswerRocket

Episode 19 of AI, Actually is live. The "forward deployed engineer" is everywhere on LinkedIn right now. But our team thinks the term is getting in the way of the real conversation. Jim Johnson, Nicole Kosky, Shanti Greene, and Stewart Chisam dig into what this role actually demands: business fluency first, technical range second, and the ability to synthesize a problem before ever writing a line of code. A few threads worth following in this one: - Why Nicole argues "forward deployed consultant" is closer to the truth - The business analyst role: what it was supposed to be, and why it's relevant again - What AI actually frees you to do when you stop treating it as an easy button - The org structure challenge that's bigger than most leaders want to admit Watch the full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eBXDpDww #AIActually #EnterpriseAI #FutureOfWork #AIStrategy #AIPodcast

Who owns AI success? That question packed a room at the 2026 Gateway to Innovation Conference last week. AnswerRocket sponsored and hosted the panel, with Michelle Hamilton moderating a conversation featuring Andrew Sweet, Shanti Greene, and Robert Childs Jr and it was exactly as urgent as the crowd suggested. A few takeaways worth carrying back to the office: • AI success isn't a technology problem, it's a people and imagination problem. The organizations winning with AI are the ones bringing business and IT to the table together, starting with outcomes, not tools. • The shift is real: business is no longer waiting for IT to lead AI adoption, they're demanding it. That means IT and business need a stronger partnership than ever to move fast and move smart. • Governance doesn't have to kill momentum. The key is building the right guardrails, a semantic layer that teaches AI your business rules, so you can move fast and trust the answers you're getting. #GatewayToInnovation #EnterpriseAI #AnswerRocket

Some employees are quietly doing 10x more with AI. Meanwhile, their organizations are still waiting for the right moment to start. In Episode 18 of AI, Actually, Pete Reilly, Michael Finley, Nicole Kosky, and Michelle Hamilton dig into why that gap exists and what it actually takes to close it. Swipe through to hear what they had to say. 👉 🎙️ AI, Actually | Episode 18: https://lnkd.in/d6Rhj_qm #AIActually #EnterpriseAI #AIAdoption #ChangeManagement

Shadow AI isn't coming. It's already here. Our own Michael Finley breaks down why blocking AI tools entirely is actually the riskiest move enterprises can make and what leaders should do instead to bring AI out of the shadows without sacrificing security or compliance. Worth the read if your organization is still defaulting to "no." 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eq8eEEyf #ShadowAI #EnterpriseAI #AIGovernance #AIAdoption