Jeff Tropeano, Executive Vice President, Global Technology Consulting at COPC.
I live in beautiful Colorado, where my weather app lies to me just as often as it tells the truth. I’ve stared at my phone and confidently told my wife, “It’s sunny outside,” while she points out the window and says, “It’s literally hailing right now.”
There’s a difference between “map” and “terrain.” The map is an abstraction—it helps you plan the route and pack the raincoat. The terrain is the lived experience—it decides whether you actually need to wear it. You don’t put the coat on because your app said so; you put it on because you’re getting drenched.
Technology readiness works the same way. The “map” is your governance, data and plans. The “terrain” is your change control, measurement and adaptability when things hit production and get real. When you balance both, you build something rare: A company that learns faster than it breaks.
Regardless of the latest technology trends, five key disciplines are essential to any technology readiness journey.
1. Governance
Governance gets a bad rap because we have all suffered from the worst of it: needless bureaucracy. Forms for the sake of forms, approvals that exist mostly to diffuse blame. It’s where good ideas go to die before they can make a difference in the world.
Good governance is the opposite. It’s just big enough to ensure consistency, safety and quality, but with as little burden as possible. You don’t build governance so people can hide behind process; you build it to codify good judgment, not to replace it.
Start by naming one accountable owner so that there is a person who can’t hide if things go sideways. Define how decisions are made and who is empowered to resolve issues. Make accountability visible, whether it’s a RACI, a scorecard or a single page that shows who owns what. Then, add the guardrails—privacy, security, brand, ethics.
Lastly, talk with your ears. Listening is how you find consensus before conflict, how you learn where processes have friction. Governance designed from the top down calcifies into bureaucracy. When it’s shaped from the bottom up (by the people closest to the friction), it becomes a shared tool instead of a management weapon. The benefits spread wider because the solutions come from those who benefit most from solving the problem.
Good governance shouldn’t slow you down; it should keep you on course. This is the first layer of the map: Knowing which direction is actually forward.
2. Data Access And Quality
Good data is less about volume and more about trust. Much of AI is about the promise that a high volume of training data can lead to truth, but AI models may make things up (with confidence).
Build a simple data dictionary but not a manifesto—just enough to keep everyone speaking the same language. Define how fresh “fresh” really is. For some decisions, a day-old number is fine, and for others, it’s already ancient history. Then, make it visible and easy to access. Data should be self-servicable and auditable, not locked behind the one analyst who “knows where the file lives.” A business that runs on manual data pulls is a business waiting for a mistake.
When people trust the data, they stop debating reality and start improving it. That’s the second layer of the map: Truth you can navigate by.
3. Change Control
Innovation dies when everything feels like a fire drill. The teams that seem to move fastest aren’t actually reckless; they’re disciplined. They build safety into speed. Separate development, testing and production. Version control everything—models, prompts, configurations—and keep rollback ready.
Know what’s running, what changed and how to roll it back. Build instrumentation for what matters: usage, outcomes, error rates, cost, etc. You can’t steer what you don’t measure.
The goal isn’t to eliminate mistakes but to make them survivable. Every system should be designed so that when it fails, it fails positively and in a way that teaches you something. Document what happened, fix it once and make that fix automatic next time.
This is the third layer of the map, and the first that defines how you act from the terrain: Adapt to what’s real, not what was planned.
4. ROI Validation
Every initiative needs a baseline before it begins: What it costs, how long it takes and what “good” actually looks like. Otherwise, you’re shooting an arrow and drawing a bullseye around where it lands.
Pilot with a control group, but you must define success before kickoff. Involve finance early so the math is credible and the metrics are defensible. “Return on investment” is a promise to prove impact, not just to declare it.
When the results come in, treat them as feedback, not a final verdict. The best teams don’t spin the data to match the plan; they adjust the plan to match the data.
This is the fourth layer of the map, where you create discipline from ambition, which gives you accountability.
5. Exit Strategy
Vendors seem like they’ll be around forever until they’re not. Write down how you’ll extract your data, configurations and learnings. Ensure your contracts have commercial outs, usage caps and step-down options. Estimate the time and cost to rebuild elsewhere. You don’t have to plan to leave, but you do have to be able to.
This is the fifth and final layer of the map—the point where planning and terrain meet. Freedom is the reward for doing everything else right.
Applying It To AI And CX
Most companies want to adopt AI. The smart ones start with the map—strong governance and clean data—before stepping into the terrain, where AI meets customers. They chart the journeys AI will support, the handoffs to humans and the safeguards that preserve trust.
AI maturity isn’t new. It’s the same discipline that’s always worked:
• Governance gives you control.
• Data gives you truth.
• Change control gives you speed.
• ROI gives you credibility.
• An exit plan gives you freedom.
And together, they create something bigger: A culture of value.
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