AI day prompts focus on data, fraud & infrastructure
Thu, 16th Jul 2026 (Today)
Executives across the technology and finance sectors are using AI Appreciation Day to question simple adoption metrics and highlight the deeper structural pressures artificial intelligence is creating in the enterprise.
Commentary from leaders in data infrastructure, cybersecurity and networking suggests a shift away from counting users and pilots toward measuring data quality, the resilience of digital foundations and the strength of fraud defences.
Akshay Raj, Chief Executive Officer of Unolabs Technologies, said many boards still treat generative AI rollout as an end in itself. He argued that this masks a persistent gap between experimental tools and day-to-day decision-making.
"Everyone measures AI success by how many people are using the tool. That's the wrong scoreboard. I've seen dozens of GenAI pilots get glowing adoption numbers and change nothing about how the business actually runs, because the model was never the bottleneck. The data underneath it was messy, ungoverned, and disconnected from how the organization actually makes decisions. RAG and KAG aren't technical nice-to-haves anymore. They're what determines whether AI touches real business outcomes or just produces a good demo. Until enterprises fix the intelligence layer, adoption numbers are just vanity metrics," said Akshay Raj, Chief Executive Officer of Unolabs Technologies.
His comments reflect a growing focus on retrieval-augmented generation and knowledge-augmented generation in large organisations. As companies move beyond proof-of-concept chatbots and copilots, technology leaders are examining data quality, knowledge graphs and governance frameworks.
Data infrastructure is emerging as a similar fault line. Joe Ong, ASEAN Vice President and General Manager at Hitachi Vantara, linked AI progress in Asia and Oceania to concerns about uneven data readiness.
"AI Appreciation Day is a timely moment to recognise AI's progress, but enterprise AI will not scale on adoption alone. With AI moving into more business-critical workflows, companies need to know that the data behind it is accurate, available and governed. Without that foundation, AI risks becoming another layer of complexity rather than a source of reliable business value. The next phase will be defined not by how much AI is being used, but by how reliably organisations can turn it into trusted business outcomes," said Joe Ong, ASEAN Vice President and General Manager at Hitachi Vantara.
Security leaders describe a similar inflection point on the defensive side as fraudsters weaponise the same tools. Shai Gabay, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Trustmi, said finance teams now face AI-generated attempts that blend seamlessly into legitimate workflows.
"For years, companies have focused on securing systems while attackers targeted those systems. AI is changing that dynamic. Today's fraudsters don't always need to break into a network. They can generate flawless invoices, convincing documentation, and highly personalized payment requests that fit perfectly into legitimate business processes. The real shift is that attackers are increasingly targeting business decisions rather than technology itself. That's why AI Appreciation Day shouldn't just be about celebrating what AI can create. It should also be about recognizing how AI is changing the way organizations defend trust. As AI-generated fraud becomes more convincing, the question is no longer, 'Does this look legitimate?' The question is, 'Has this been independently verified?' Organisations that succeed in the AI era will move beyond trusting what they see and start validating the behavior, context, and risk behind every payment before money moves," said Shai Gabay, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Trustmi.
Attention is also turning to the networks and edge environments beneath AI workloads. Richard Boudria Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BCN, said the sector should use AI Appreciation Day to look beyond models and applications.
"Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day shouldn't just be about appreciating AI. It should be about appreciating the digital infrastructure that makes AI possible. Around the world, organizations are discovering that AI is only as intelligent as the networks, edge environments, and data ecosystems supporting it. The next wave of AI innovation won't be won by whoever builds the biggest model. It will be won by whoever can move data faster, process intelligence closer to where it's created, and deliver secure, real-time insights at global scale. That is why network technology and edge computing have become strategic enablers of AI rather than background infrastructure. As AI moves from centralized cloud environments to factories, hospitals, retail locations, financial institutions, and smart cities, intelligence must move closer to the edge, where milliseconds can determine outcomes and resilience becomes a competitive advantage. AI Appreciation Day is also a reminder that innovation carries responsibility. Building trustworthy AI requires secure networks, transparent governance, resilient infrastructure, and human oversight at every stage. The future of AI won't be defined by algorithms alone. It will be defined by the quality of the digital foundation beneath them and by our ability to combine human expertise with intelligent systems to solve global challenges responsibly," said Richard Boudria Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BCN.