“ What I find in a lot of executive conversations is what’ s holding us back is imagination,” says Phil Le-Brun, AWS Enterprise Strategy Director and former McDonald’ s International CIO.“ It’ s the ability to think bigger about the opportunity. We’ re still running some 19th-century processes in the 21st century.”

This imagination deficit has created a growing divide between how startups and established corporations approach AI. Recent research from AWS reveals

that while over a third of startups use AI to develop products and services, only 15 % of large enterprises have implemented comprehensive AI strategies – all despite businesses adopting AI technologies at the rate of one organisation every minute.

Speaking to Technology Magazine at AWS’ s annual Summit event in London, Phil believes most enterprises remain stuck in efficiency-focused applications rather than using AI to transform their core business models.“ Traditional enterprises are contributing 48 % of turnover. If you look at the progression of the use of AI, a lot of enterprises have applied AI to stage one, which is,

42 July 2025