Jason Harrison, COO of The Up&Up Group, argues that enterprise AI spending often reflects FOMO rather than genuine strategy. He highlights hidden costs that rarely appear in CFO spreadsheets: policy and governance overhead, reputational and legal risks from AI errors, runaway autonomous agents discovered only when cloud bills arrive, and AI's broader energy footprint. Harrison recommends a 'test and learn' approach with many small experiments before scaling, and insists governance must sit close to the work rather than only in the boardroom. Despite his cautionary stance, he remains optimistic about AI's transformative potential in Africa, suggesting African organisations may use AI to develop thinking skills rather than just retrieve answers.
