In-depth opinion piece (point of view) published on **sfeir.com** on June 24, 2026, by **Didier Girard** (Managing Director, SFEIR). **Central thesis**: in 2024 everyone was betting on **AI4Business** (AI in business processes) as the great value reservoir; by 2026 the picture has **reversed** — it is **AI4IT** (AI to produce the information system: code, SDLC, software factory) that is creating **measurable** value. The article *grounds* this thesis in the firm's tech watch: AI4Business disappointment (the MIT study "95% of pilots without ROI," contested but revealing; an **organizational** blockage / Mollick's Hayekian problem) versus quantified AI4IT evidence (Salesforce, Intercom, Raiffeisen, AWS/Bedrock, Atlassian, DORA). Mechanistic explanation: **code verifies itself** (compilation, tests, CI) whereas business processes have neither a compiler nor an immediate feedback loop. **2027 budget consequence**: a **CapEx→OpEx** shift, token price dynamics (rising peak — Fable 5 at 2× Opus — vs inference ÷280 and downward pressure from open weights/desktop), and **AI FinOps** driven by **cost per outcome**. Closes with **4 recommendations for the COMEX**.
#AI4IT#AI4Business#reversal
**Didier Girard** — Managing Director (CTO / DG) de **SFEIR** · ESN française (~1 000 personnes, France · Belgique · Luxembourg · Suisse). Auteur de l'article ; voix éditoriale du cabinet sur la transformation IA des DSI.
Op-ed by **Olivier Rafal** (Consulting Director Strategy at **WeNvision**) published on **February 23, 2024** on **CIO-Online** (*Tribune* section), advancing a thesis still counter-intuitive at the time: **generative AI is more a matter of technology product than an AI/data science project**. **Argument 1 — data science is not the core issue**: building a *foundation model* from scratch requires *« several months, millions of euros, and access to enormous quantities of data »* — reserved for players with specific, monetizable datasets (e.g. **Bloomberg** and its **BloombergGPT** for finance). For nearly all companies, the right reflex is therefore not to hire data scientists. **Argument 2 — skills mismatch**: what is mainly needed is **development and integration engineers** (back/front), **strong cloud skills**, and **DevOps**. Client quote: *« You don't necessarily need to be a data scientist, but you need to understand the basic concepts, have back-office development skills, and strong cloud skills. »* **Argument 3 — platform architecture (orchestrators + APIs)**: building an enterprise **plateforme d'IA générative** via orchestrators and APIs makes it *« possible to work with the best LLMs on the market and switch between them as their respective capabilities evolve, without reworking the applications »* (anti vendor lock-in). **Argument 4 — from project to product**: *« The platform […] must be regarded as a product in its own right »*; instead of a one-off investment, plan for a **monthly funding stream** (continuous iteration, ongoing innovation). **Argument 5 — governance & shadow AI**: the unprecedented democratization of GenAI generates *« as much shadow AI as strong expectations toward the CIO office »* → governance to capture business needs, **prioritize products by value**, and oversee proper operation. **Paradigm shift** announced: *« the shift is from classic algorithmic programming to agents Langchain that handle part of the decisions »*. **Relevance to the watch**: a **founding text (2 years ahead)** of WeNvision's doctrine (product > project, platform/API, flow-based funding, governance, shadow AI), later extended by [[wenvision-ai-agents-enterprise-deployment-2025-10-01]], [[habert-ia-agentique-production-2025-10-29]], and rafal-wenvision-tokenomics-foundation-finops-ia-2026-06-04 (FinOps/token, flow-based funding → financial governance). It also foreshadows the *harness/platform around the model* (Dropbox/Okumura: *systems around the model*) and **model independence** achieved through an orchestration layer.
#generative AI#technology product#product vs project
**Olivier Rafal** · *Consulting Director Strategy* chez **WeNvision** (cabinet de conseil FR). Tribune publiée dans la rubrique *Tribune* de **CIO-Online**. Auteur déjà présent dans la veille (cf. fiches WeNvision/Atlas/Tokenomics). Publié le **23 février 2024**.