About The Event
This 1-hour executive briefing, the second in our three-part series, gave senior leaders a structured framework for making confident, strategic AI decisions and offered a window into the thinking and tools used in the Executive Education course.
Not a tech demo. A high-signal conversation for decision-makers.
The Question We Tackled:
Executives are under pressure to "do something with AI."
But without a clear framework, most organisations face the same three options; build in-house, buy off-the-shelf, or wait and observe without truly understanding the trade-offs in cost, time, capability, risk, and long-term flexibility.
This session gave senior leaders the tools to evaluate those options with clarity and confidence.
The Key Insight:
"It's not a skills gap, it's an imagination gap."
The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't technical ability. It's that senior leaders often don't yet know what AI can do for their organisation. The panel challenged conventional thinking on risk, data readiness, and competitive pressure:
- Data readiness isn't about having lots of data, it's about whether you can trust it enough to make decisions with it.
- Waiting may feel like the safest strategy, but it's often the riskiest.
- Fragmented adoption, solving isolated pain points without a unified strategy, is one of the biggest threats to long-term value.
The Bottom line:
The build vs. buy vs. wait decision is not a one-size-fits-all answer.
It depends on your data maturity, risk profile, strategic ambition, and organisational readiness.
But one thing is clear: organisations that are investing and prioritising now are pulling ahead and the gap is widening.
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A Chartered Surveyor and Digital Champion for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Bola is an industry disruptor specialising in Digital Twin solutions, built asset assurance, and regulatory compliance. He has successfully procured and delivered over £8 billion in capital projects across multiple sectors with extensive UK public sector procurement experience.
Bola was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to Diversity and to Young People in the Construction Industry.
He advises the UK government on the Golden Thread in the Building Safety Act, chairs the Real Estate Data Foundation Data Standards Steering Group, and teaches data strategy at OSCRE Academy. With 30+ years delivering data-enabled transformation across technology and real estate, Chris authored "The Anatomy of Occupancy Analytics" and brings deep expertise in building the data foundations that enable successful AI implementation. His work spans corporate real estate, social housing, and commercial property, making him uniquely positioned to discuss the practical realities of AI adoption in the built environment. Chris is also an Acuity Data mentor, supporting the next generation of data leaders.
The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't technical ability. Senior leaders often don't yet know what AI can do for their organisation, let alone how to implement it.
Implication for leaders:
Before investing in training or tools, invest in understanding. Explore possibilities before committing to a path.
The most important finding from the panel:
- Availability: Do you actually have access to the data?
- Quality: AI won't fix bad data, it'll just help you be wrong faster
- Meaning: Machines need semantics, not just structure
Why it matters:
Data readiness isn't about volume, it's about whether you can trust it enough to make decisions with it.
The build vs. buy vs. wait decision depends on:
- Your data maturity and governance
- Your risk profile and regulatory environment
- Whether you're solving a real problem or chasing FOMO
The pattern:
Organisations prioritising AI investment now are pullling ahead and the gap is widening.
"So long as we have problems, we will have jobs."
The consensus:
- Solving isolated pain points without a unified strategy creates silos
- Duplication of effort erodes the productivity gains AI promises
- Human-in-the-loop remains critical, augmentation, not automation
The risk:
Moving fast on narrow use cases while neglecting a cohesive, organisation-wide AI strategy.
This webinar is the first in a broader collaboration with UCL Centre for Sustainability and RealTech Innovation, designed to support leaders who want to move beyond experimentation and build credible, responsible AI strategies.
For those who want to go deeper, this session connects directly to our Executive Education course, where participants apply these frameworks hands-on to their own organisations with expert guidance.
The webinar gives you the foundations.
The course helps you implement them.
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