Latest / 10X AI with Julius Neil / Why Enterprise AI & ERP Transformations Fail (And How to Fix Your Architecture First)

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Why Enterprise AI & ERP Transformations Fail (And How to Fix Your Architecture First) · 10X AI with Julius Neil

• Augie Santa Maria: there's no shortage of information today, that's almost sort of the the issue. That the challenges Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Can you explain structural debt using a company everyone would recognize? Augie Santa Maria: structural debt is kind of like the institutional complexity If the people can actually go at it with the AIs and prove them wrong, that would be a definite very powerful ability for people and companies. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Good day everyone, I'm here now again for another episode of 10xAI. Our next guest is Augie Santa Maria. He is from Florida, USA. He is a vendor neutral ERP systems advisor and expert in data analytics architecture assessment. And then he is also consulting for CFOs and CSOs with a portfolio of manufacturers between 25 million to 150 million. Okay, so Augie, can you introduce yourself to our listeners and viewers? Augie Santa Maria: Hello, yes, I'm Augie San Maria. I'm here in Palm Beach County, Florida. my company is Cognigence Services. I am an ERP and systems advisor and I help companies address their systems, technology, and architecture before they embark on implementation projects, which can be very costly and disruptive to to companies, so I try to do a lot of work upstream with them to make them prepared and have a lot more success when it comes to those projects. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: All right, thank you for that quick introduction. for the context for our listeners and viewers, so what does ERP means for manufacturers? Augie Santa Maria: In the field of manufacturing, well the ERP is the enterprise resource planning tool and it's used in manufacturing for all of their their operations, their their fine financials, their budget, inventory, everything like that, what they use to run their business. And it's it's very critical to the operation of the business and for you know manufacturers especially they it's very tied to their their operational model and their processes and how they how they work and flow are very tied to the the ERP system. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So ERP system, is this something like SAP or SAP systems? Augie Santa Maria: Yes, yeah, right you're exactly right. That's like, you know, probably one of the biggest ones in the market is SAP. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So, when I saw your profile, you said you are independent architecture assessment for CFOs and COOs. You started with CFOs. Why CFOs first before the COOs? Because usually if you say ERP, it's more on the processes, know, systems inventory, you know, all this. And then why CFOs, which is more on the financial side first? Augie Santa Maria: It's it well it's the you know the CFO's the financial decision maker when it comes Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Augie Santa Maria: down to it. The the COO's like number two that would come before you know, talking to the the CIOs and the CTOs, even though it's a you know it's a technology system. because you know the it it's a major financial capital decision for companies to make, so that will usually come down to the CFO and the COO really can really understand the you know the operational pains that they're experiencing as a re result of the the ERP that they're using and he would have a lot of say as well in in the in the decision. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: So assuming that CFO already approved, okay, this is the budget for the, this is the KPEX for the ERP system. So the next stage is the CFO. How do you, it's a very dynamic, it's really hard to do that, you know, to exchange or, know, defer your strategy when you are pitching. For CFOs, it's more on the financial side. And then how do you switch that again from CFO, okay, I'll talk to you about the financial gains, you know, the economics of this ERP systems. you know the CEO, the CEO doesn't really care about the financial, he cares about what can you do this, what can this ERP system can do to our operations. How do you pitch that? Augie Santa Maria: yeah, you're you're definitely pitching to different sides of the business and you're trying to create you know coherence across the the enterprise with with the system that's being selected. And it's it's really important to make the best decision for the entire business when it comes to the ERP because it it's gotta get buy in. you know, across the company for it to be truly successful. So I would say that the way to pitch it, obviously there there can be a lot of cost savings involved when you're you're picking the right ERP that you know creates a lot more efficiency with your business and really improves your operations and Yeah, as far as the the COO you know, I try to tie the the selection of the ERP to the operational model that they're aspiring to go to in their their future state. You tie the ERP to the operational model. You don't have you don't adapt the operational model to the ERP. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so that's one thing. And then now you're talking about the ERP. How are these going to improve their systems? Economically, you discuss it with the CFO. So how are you going to improve that? How are you going to pitch now that aside from ERP, then AI will come? How do you integrate this ERP systems, which is traditional or legacy systems? And then on the layer, you're going to pitch, okay, we need to do AI. Augie Santa Maria: Yes. the AI is obviously it's it's a a very big component of everything technology wise today. And I I think you just have to not treat AI like it's a a software purchase. you have to look at how you can incorporate AI into your existing processes. You you have to understand You have to ask yourself the question, is our is our businesses, our processes ready for for AI, not to just make sweeping broad changes and replacing everything with AI or or trying to use as many different AI tools as are available. I think you have to be very selective and you just Treat it like it's a a component of your business and your your technology. It's not a a new software product that's, you know, replacing something else. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: In my experience, usually it's really hard to pitch new softwares that are not yet proven, especially new softwares or new initiatives to the financial officers, know. So it's really Augie Santa Maria: Okay. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: hard for me to be able to convince them that this makes financial sense. So in your experience now, between that 25 million to $135 million manufacturers, do you experience the same? Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, you definitely experience a lot of resistance. Does this make financial you know sense to do this? And you know I I've taken the approach of kind of being more a little more conservative, that my my advisory and in consulting can maybe allow the company not to make as drastic changes as they perhaps first thought that they needed to make. I try to bring about a realization that th they're they're not suffering from as much of a technology problem as they think they are. They have you know more business and operational problems that need to be a fr addressed first and when you do that kind of like strengthening of the architecture, that creates a a lot you know, more fertile ground for implementations and and migrations to new new software products. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What are the top three questions that you were the hardest questions that was asked that was asked to you by a CFO or a CEO during a conversation about the RB systems, you know, the architecture assessment of your end of pitch. Augie Santa Maria: toughest questions I would say is this really going to is this really going to solve our our business problems and me having to explain you know how that will how that will come about for the company. other difficult questions is yeah, is this gonna be worth the the investment? that we make and how is your how is your advice and your your consultation going to help us in in making these decisions. And I I explain that I'm I'm a vendor neutral, unbiased advisory. I'm I'm that's sort of my differentiator that I bring because I'm not pitching one particular system, so I you know, convince them that I am you know have their only their interests in mind and I'm you know acting solely on their behalf. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: between the 25 million dollar company and 150 million dollar company, which between the two is harder to convince to invest in AI. Augie Santa Maria: it's kind of varied. but Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha Augie Santa Maria: yeah it kinda depends on what what is being considered, you know, full EIP ERP replacement, or you know, other sort of you know different sort of development to to address their their issues, but the I'd say the twenty five million dollar company can be just as hard to convince as a hundred and fifty do million dollar company, and vice versa, just because they kind of a lot of just have the same you know, ha have the same mindsets about you know their business and you know protecting their their capital and everything like that. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so moving on to the architecture assessment. most of these companies will have their own architectures right now or they have been using some ERP systems or some other systems that they have now. So how do you start assessing the architecture? What is the framework that you use to be able to assess which is the right ERP system that they need to integrate and what type of AI systems that they need to purchase? Augie Santa Maria: Well actually my framework doesn't start with considering what is the the right ERP system. My initial framework is a diagnostic across their existing systems architecture around the ERP and I do a a systems reality mapping as I call it. I map out all of their existing systems that they're using and how they're connected and where the gaps are and where the bottlenecks are and reveal to them what are the you know biggest challenges that they're dealing with and what really needs to be addressed before we go into the the phase of the selection of a new ERP and f you know the finding of the the right implementation partner. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so for example, can you give me an example of a use case or you don't have to disclose the name of the client? So for example, you give me one example of your client that you have pitched about architecture assessment and what are the findings or the recommendations that you have given? Augie Santa Maria: the findings, recommendations that that I've addressed to them is that certain instances I revealed that their system had capabilities that they weren't even aware of. their their ERP, you know, they they weren't even aware that it could perform a a certain function which they thought they were needing to you know, implement a new ERP system for. a lot of pr a lot of times they're just dealing with a lot of misalignment in their systems and systems being siloed and and not talking to each other and they just need more integration. they need to kind of be you know brought together in more of a a a co cohesive architecture. and that allows, you know, like certain functions and and processes that they thought maybe they weren't able to handle to to be accomplished and n not in all cases but in a lot a lot of times there's you know like I said they're they're thinking they have a technology problem but really it's it's just kind of a business alignment problem. no one in the company maybe was aware that that they could do certain things already with what they had. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, can you, if possible, if you still remember, can you give me that one specific, you know, one specific processes or one specific siloed system that you have found out at this company that you're consulting with? They have no idea that that exists. Augie Santa Maria: like companies with their their inventory system and their their ERP, not knowing that they could be you know not having them connected, you know, and and not not being aware that they're you know there's an A API that can bridge those two systems together to be able to bring numbers into alignment and and bring you know disparate data sets together to create the kind of you know cohesive dashboards that they're required to to get their the the metrics that they need to you know properly assess their their business performance. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You mentioned about API. So when you have this API and you connect these two systems, how does AI comes into that model? Augie Santa Maria: well the the AI is definitely very beneficial in terms of helping me, guiding me on the the processes, all all the different variations that could be encountered using different APIs. it's definitely beneficial. you know, Claude Claude Cowork comes to mind with i it's abilities to really you know perform perform tasks and and do a lot of a lot of stuff, you know, much, much Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Augie Santa Maria: easier, much quicker than, you know, I would have been done been able to do on my on my own. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so for the after the assessment, okay, so you you assess that okay, this is going this is the things that I have found out. These are the recommendations that I wanted you to do. So what's the next space? What what is the after does what what is your next, you know? Augie Santa Maria: A after the assessment and you know, I present my my findings and my report of the biggest issues that they're they're dealing with and they need to address, I bring I bring the next stage of the the how to how to fix these things. And we head into that stage which can be you know, two to three months of you know b bolstering their their architecture and bringing things together that were were out of alignment and really preparing their their infrastructure to b be added on to with a new ERP or to be migrated to a new ERP. So that's that's kind of the the second stage that comes before the The the ERP selection phase. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so once you have that, what is usually the top criteria when it comes to choosing the ARP that you have based on the historical data that you have? What are they usually, you know, the framework? Augie Santa Maria: The biggest criteria are obviously the the cost factor, the size of the the size of the organization, their their scaling where they where they plan to be in the next three to five years, all of the different modules that they that they may need, and Yeah, that's basically a lot of the the factors that that go into deciding what is the next ERP that they need. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay, okay. So, can you give me one process that was successful when you suggested, when you have the recommendation? One process, you don't have to tell me which company, just tell me which process in which industry and then what is the outcome that made it successful? Augie Santa Maria: in a a supply chain business overhauling their their analytics platform that you know that was tied to the tied to the ERP and it was a pro it was a dis their their distribution process, their their supply chain routing and optimization by bringing them onto this new platform that really really overhauled their their their process and their their routes that they were running to really really become more efficient and beneficial to them. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, your background is data analytics. So how has your background helped you analyze the data that the companies have now? Which are the data that really matters? Which are the bad data? And then how do you clean up the data? Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, the the data is is extremely important before going into a new ERP. really if you go if you if the company has has bad data and they try to go to a a new ERP they're really only gonna to compound their their issues. getting the the data clearly defined with the Yeah, governance governance policies and clear accountability of ownership of the data across the enterprise i is definitely is definitely critical and getting you know the data the data cleansed and and you know having you know not no no duplication in the data no no missing missing fields in in the in the data sets, things like that are are very important and just having the complete awareness of where all the data lives across the enterprise. And my processes can you know often involve you know a lot of a lot of consolidation and and bringing the data together kind of in one place bringing it from across being in like, you know, s spreadsheets and and share points across the the business and things like that, which is is very common in companies. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so we're talking about the data. So you know that a lot of companies are worried about the data integrity, the AI Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: governance. So how do you handle the AI governance when these companies are worried about how are these data going to be handled? And then how is the integrated integrity of the AI in the system? Augie Santa Maria: Mm-hmm. well the the data it like I said just needs accountability across the enterprise. It needs it needs champions and and data stewards to be responsible for it and the the insurance of standardization wherever wherever possible is is very important and the the accountability and the the governance needs to come down to you know everybody involved in the company and you know especially at the highest the highest levels Julius Neil Buenconsejo: When it comes to data integrity and then data governance, who is usually accountable for this? Is this the IT department? Augie Santa Maria: accountability of the data. it can't it really can't be just the IT department. I think everybody needs to be involved, especially like the the finance and accounting, with the you know being the subject matter experts that are you know handling and producing the the numbers that you know come out of their their systems. I think need need to be involved as well. It needs to be really a a a joint effort across departments and that really highlights the the need for cohesiveness and and communicate communication across departments, which is, I mean, one of the core issues that that leads to systems issues like this. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so when you are recommending or suggesting enterprise AI models, like for example, OpenAI or Claude, so do you have some, do you have difficulty or resistance from the management of using this? And instead they wanted to use, for example, if they're using Microsoft already, they just used to call Pilot or something like that. Do you have, do you encounter something like this? Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, I I say you definitely encounter you know loyalty to you know certain models like yeah a lot of Microsoft shops they'll you know be using copilots there's you know, there's so many different models out there. A a lot of concern around privacy and data security with you know open open models. a lot of concern for s or a lot of you know thinking of sovereign AI deployments across enterprises that you know, that that shield and and protect the company's data and you know their their identif identifiable information, things like that are definitely big considerations that you know are I think are are good decisions for companies. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, okay. Are you confident suggesting these open models like OpenAI or Cloud instead of the enterprise AI that is being used right now, mostly Microsoft? Augie Santa Maria: I I'm I'm pretty comfortable using it. You just have to have a lot of a awareness and conscientiousness around the data, the information that you're you're sharing with it, the you know confidential information, your your own personal information, you try to not keep that you know keep that out of out of the hands of of AI but Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Augie Santa Maria: I think Yeah, I I I'm trusting of of of AI models. I mean with how how reliant I've become using them, that yeah, I can't get away from using you know, chat GPT and Claude every day. So yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so you argue that AI can actually accelerate this function instead of fixing it. So what's the biggest illusion executives have about AI today that no one is willing to admit? Augie Santa Maria: the biggest you said solution or Julius Neil Buenconsejo: the biggest illusion. What's the Augie Santa Maria: the biggest Julius Neil Buenconsejo: biggest illusion executives have about AI today that no one is willing to admit? Augie Santa Maria: yeah, I I have a lot of you know, thoughts around that and I think I I was trying to say things like that earlier about how you know you not not treating AI as a as like a a software purchase. I think the biggest illusion is that it's going to I mean obviously there's there's a lot of fear around it replacing people and replacing people's jobs but I think it'll never replace true judgment and it will always need it will always need a a human involved in that. I I don't I don't think it will give to get to the level of of human human consciousness and human judgment. and I I treat it as a sort of a a thinking partner. I it's not like replacing my think thinking, it's just kind of improving it and and allowing me to do a lot more thinking in the in the day to day basis and get a lot more done. It kind of almost Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so. Augie Santa Maria: creates a it almost creates a a a brain drain in itself with the amount of produ productivity that you you have using AI. It's it's Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Augie Santa Maria: doing so much, but it kind of can become overwhelming to you in your head when you're you're still y you're kind of in charge of all these things it's doing and you're you're thinking about all these different things all the time. It can become almost like a a a brain fry. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: I know, I know because... That's another issue when some people are talking about the cognitive outsourcing to AI. When people are not actually thinking and they just outsource everything to AI. The good point about what you're saying is the judgment should be yours and the people who are using AI should be able to understand that what you put in that AI garbage in, the answer would be also garbage out. So the analytical Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: process, the creative process will still start from you, from the person you AI. If you put quality prompt, quality structured data, then you will get also the same thing with AI. Okay, so based on your average before, in a historical average when it comes to dealing with companies, so how many companies are actually AI ready versus just AI curious? Augie Santa Maria: God, how many are actually AI ready? I'd probably say like ten percent of companies. Something like that. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Augie Santa Maria: a lot yeah, a lot of companies are just AI curious or have AI FOMO and they are just scrambling to get involved with it, but I I really think it it needs a measured approach. I just I just hear so much that so many companies with their AI pilots they can't they can't get them off the ground or you know most most AI initiatives are are failing currently and I think that kinda has part to do with the the rush the rush into it. So I I I definitely preach a more like measured measured approach to it. That's the kind of the way that that I've approached it. I you know I I don't I don't fear AI. I just use it to embellish my my thinking and and increase my productivity but I'm at the I'm at the heart of what it what I'm doing. Everything I'm doing is still coming from my head, everything that I'm choosing to do with my business comes from my head first and then I go to the the AI with it and I just think companies need to think about just what they're what they're currently doing with in their business, their their tasks and their processes and their strategy and initiatives and everything like that and they need to s just pick and choose where can where can AI get involved in this and and where what is what if our processes are are you know candidates for you know being automated with with AI and augmented with AI, I think they just have to be have to take a lot more a lot more of a lens to to what they're actually doing first. It's kind of like my architecture before AI slogan. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so you mentioned about this. So many, a lot of AI initiatives are failing or stalling right now. So you say most ERP failures happen before implementation even starts. So if you could sit beside every CEO before they sign an ERP contract, what would you stop them from doing? Augie Santa Maria: yeah. Most of them yeah, I I've stopped them before they're before they're signing that contract right now because they probably haven't done enough due diligence beforehand. yeah, they they need to you know kind of fix fix what's broken first before you can go into a new ERP or go into to AI. You you're you're just you're just locking in the say the dysfunction or the misalignment, if you don't do that beforehand. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, I heard a lot of issues about communication between departments being siloed. So most of this are stemming into the structure or the company culture. you mentioned also now that they need to think about which ERP systems, if there is a broken system, they need to fix that first. So in your experience, what are those broken systems that you have pinpointed before they sign? Like one or two, can you give us an example? Augie Santa Maria: God. everything. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hahaha! Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, like virtually every system I've encountered everything from their yeah, their their ERP, their C their C RMs, their HRIS, their you know, their data warehouses, their got everything accounting systems, everything like that. I Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Augie Santa Maria: found that There's yeah, it it's never like being used to its full potential. there's always lot of like gray area mi you know, misunderstood or unknown you know, functions in in the in the systems and I think yeah, i i there's always opportunities to enlighten and learn learn more about what you're what you're currently using and and what you're doing first and and then think about where where you're going from there. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so I think this is a hard truth about companies. So most of the executives, they actually have a surface level of what is going on, you know, on the ground. Augie Santa Maria: Okay. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: And then they always think that since we have all this, you know, legacy systems and systems that are way, you know, way very expensive and very popular in the industry, they always, they always think that everything is working well. So a Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: lot of that data is not coming, it's not coming to their end. But in reality, when you do this assessment, you will see that, you know, the more systems that you have, the more silo systems that you have, the more things that you have to fix because most of these systems works on their own and you have to fix that. You have to connect that to be able to have a what you call this a high ROI when it comes to AI. Yeah, so Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, definitely. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: you made a fascinating point about capability decay. Are we accidentally creating professionals who can produce answers but can't actually think? Augie Santa Maria: well yeah, that's that's a a bigger question they maybe say has been developing over decades with you know, the rise of the internet and search engines and now now AI is that you know, can can we think for ourselves anymore and our you know, who who is the last the last people left that that had to think before before the we had these these tools that are disposal. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Augie Santa Maria: and yeah, I I think yeah, you just have to use it like like I said as like a a thinking partner. you know, still allow all of the the thoughts to come from you, all all of the the the beginnings of of initial you know thoughts of what you wanna do to to come from you first and then You know, then you bring the the AI and everything else into the picture. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, I read one article about a Brown, I think it's Brown, or Columbia University professor. So most of the students are remote. they're all usually getting 99 % of their grades very high. And then this Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: professor got a gut feel that they're using AI for their exams or assignments. So what he did, he invited everyone. he invited everyone face to face to take the exam. And you know, the result is tremendously very low, like 49%, Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: 48%, most of them. And those people who got very high scores before, it's not even, you're not even 50%. So this is what is actually having, this is now the problem with AI, when you give the tools to the people who doesn't understand how to use that. They just want AI Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: to give them the answer. But the problem is sometimes AI is also hallucinating. Sometimes AI is also giving you the wrong answers. So you have to be able to distill which ones of the sources you can trust, or which ones of the sources that you have to reject. So imagine that. It's an Ivy League school. supposedly these are the students are very Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: smart very capable and still using AI you know Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Yeah, the yeah, the the AI you know, they they say AI, you know, is gonna replace us and and everything like that. It's but I mean the the AI still needs a human first. I mean it can't just start it still can't just like start off on its own, so it it still needs an operator as of of right now, even with AI agents and all all the things you can do with that, building teams and them working together, but you still They still need to be created first. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so having discussed this way earlier about you said that so many people are now having negative thoughts about AI because AI is going to replace their jobs or there's a lot of layoffs coming into the news. then so for now, every senior expert was once a junior who struggled. Then if AI removes the struggle, what happens 20 years from now when we need the next generation of leaders. Augie Santa Maria: What happens when we need the the next generation? Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: the next generation of leaders because everybody's not thinking anymore. We develop our skills based on the experiences, the real experiences, real struggles, we committed mistakes, then improve ourself, and then from our learnings, we improve whatever things that we think that are weaknesses. So we have AI. and everybody's using AI, the struggle will be less. They just Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: ask AI, this is what I am, these are my problems right now, can you give me a solution for this? And then the users will just follow that. So what happens 20 years from now, when we need the next generation of the leaders, what type of leaders we are going to see? Augie Santa Maria: It it's it's tough to say i if Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha Augie Santa Maria: AI will be leading us by that point because yeah, I I don't know, I s with the way that that we're relying on on AI now, it it's really tough to say what the the leaders of the the future will will be doing. It's hard to it's hard to imagine that they're gonna be thinking independently of AI in the future. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Could AI become the world's fastest amplifier of organizational dysfunction? Augie Santa Maria: it is the fastest amplifier of organize organizational dysfunction currently, I would say. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha Augie Santa Maria: That's kind of my that's my philosophy. And if you you need you need clarity. You need to bring clarity first. If you've got complexity and and dysfunction AI will only speed that up drastically. if you find clarity then you can then you can work with AI, you can you can move forward with that. But you've you've got to you've got to do the the the hard work of untangling the the complexity and you know resolving dysfunction before before you can see the the benefits of AI. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You also said that implementation firms aren't incentivized to tell companies they're not ready, who actually benefits when organizations rush into transformation. Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, the the the implementation teams, the vendors, the the ERP vendors, they they they benefit because they're they're gonna be the companies will be paying for for more support and their projects will be dragging on longer and you know the the the costs will just keep going up. So they they definitely benefit from that and so that's why I say you need to you know speak to you know unbiased and neutral advisors first to fix and and address a lot of your your issues that are creating this complexity and dysfunction. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Can you explain structural debt using a company everyone would recognize? Augie Santa Maria: structural debt is just that kind of i it's the like the institutional complexity that that just kind of accumulates over time from your processes becoming more broken, more more fragmented, just that little bit of inefficiency that that kinda creeps in over time as as processes repeat over and over again and yeah the the the structural debt just can can become a weight on on the operation of the the business and it's what's often mistook for for technology problems and we need to we need to just, you know, buy buy a new ERP or buy a new AI system. I think structural debt needs to be addressed first. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: I know you've been into a lot of meetings and we've been to lot of boardroom meetings and presentations. So I've been also in this kind of situation wherein I go into a company and then I see their dashboard just really beautifully, know, beautifully Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: posted and all this. All of the data is all there. It looks beautiful, but how come most of them makes the worst decisions? At what Augie Santa Maria: Ha. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: point does more data actually become less intense? religions. Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, there's no shortage of information today, right? I mean, that's that's almost sort of the the issue. That the the challenges used to be you know who who could get the the best information and now everybody's got just this overabundance of information and now the question is who can build the most organizational coherence across amongst all of this know, this this sea of information that we that we have. So that that is the I think the the key challenge today to like over overcome in business that really separates you know the the leaders from from the followers. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You also mentioned before a while ago during our discussion that there are so many companies who have so many different softwares or platforms like they have HRIS, have ERPC systems, have CRMs which do not talk to each other. So you observe Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: this, you observe that organizations adding technology but somehow slowing down. What's actually happening behind the scenes? Augie Santa Maria: what's actually happening behind the scenes with the the organizations Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Augie Santa Maria: with all of their systems, yeah, they're it's yeah, it's just definitely becoming I would say like an overload for for companies with all of the the systems that they're employing nowadays. I I think it becomes a need to to consolidate and sort of edit your your your system's landscape to to become more efficient. There's there's a there's a tool for for everything now and now you know companies just have to become more selective and and you know not just go for every shiny object that they that they see that comes presented to them. So I think the The key goal should be should be streamlining your your your architectures across your your business. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so I agree on that. And based on this, you know, based on this also, you mentioned about that AI can never replace human judgment, right? Augie Santa Maria: Mm. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, so if a judgment is built through ambiguity, failure and experience, is there a ceiling AI can never cross? Augie Santa Maria: D did you say ability, ambiguity, okay. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ambiguity, yeah. Failure and experience. Is there a ceiling AI can never cross? Augie Santa Maria: yeah, I I I think yeah, y th that's a good word, ambiguity. and there's another word I'm kind of searching for that that goes along with that. But yeah, the I I think the AI will never get that you know that sense that that sense of human ingenuity, that true creative ability of humans. just that that special you know special sense that that humanity can bring to you know that that's obviously guided us for ages that I think you know AI is is definitely not there yet and I I don't think I I think it will reach a a ceiling that you know that the humans will always be better at. Yeah. I would say. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. So you mentioned also before this hour, before this earlier that, you know, many, many of your consulting, consulting meetings, you usually tell the CEO when they need to stop and not buy it right now. Right. So, Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: yeah. So I just would like to ask, so six months before an ERP or AI project fails, what patterns do you already see? Or have you seen some patterns of projects that failing because they have not prepared like what you said architecture assessment first yeah Augie Santa Maria: They can't agree on on what their data means, I would say th a way of putting it. And they they don't understand what their their true problems are that they're dealing with or they haven't they haven't like identified them yet or or truly verbalized them. and I think that's You know, that's a important part that I I try to to bring about in in you know businesses before they before they make these these huge decisions is that yeah they you've got to really understand what is you know truly the the problem with your business and bring about you know, the real solutions first. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Most of the companies now is, know, it is the FOMO. They wanted to be, you know, to be there. They wanted Augie Santa Maria: Mm. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: to be, they wanted to make sure that the company is, you know, in that, in that, you know, in that level of AI, you know, AI transformation or AI integration into their companies. So do you think companies are so obsessed with automating work when they should first be redesigning how work happens? Augie Santa Maria: Yeah, I I definitely yeah, I definitely agree with that. they should definitely before before automating they definitely need to understand what their goals and objectives are and define their their processes around that and that's where you know not only defining the processes but you know working on process optimization and process improvement I think which you're you're involved in. I I think that that's definitely it goes it goes hand in hand with with you know the the technology upgrades and in migrations and in the people and the change management aspect of things. it's definitely people, process and technology all together. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so, you mentioned that you're one of your, one of your differentiation in the, in the market right now is you are vendor neutral. So I'm just Augie Santa Maria: Yes. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: like, yeah, I'd just like to ask, ask you this. What's the biggest lie enterprise software has sold us? Augie Santa Maria: Yeah. Well they I they they have you believing it'll will do it'll just about anything for you. It'll you know, Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Augie Santa Maria: toast bread for you, you know, a everything like it's it's it's wild, what they what they make you believe. But yeah, I I think I mean a lot of you know, c coming from like the data background, a lot of, you know, understanding I I think there's a lot of belief or or not not lack of realization that you know the data needs to be migrated, the data needs to be cleansed and and it's not just, you know, purchasing this new ERP tool is gonna like just automatically or like magically fix that for you. immediately. So I think that definitely maybe gets omitted or does doesn't get mentioned in a lot of you know vendor presentations to to CFOs, Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hehehehehe. Hehehehe. Augie Santa Maria: I would say. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's good. That's good point because of course they wanted to sell and of course they will, you know, they will promise heaven and earth, you know what I mean? Like this is what Augie Santa Maria: That's okay. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: they're going to do and in reality sometimes it's not the real case because it's all sales, you know. It's all sales we need to sell this. So in this AI world, so you wrote about that the future may belong to organizations that can still think clearly without AI. What does the organization actually look like? Augie Santa Maria: The the the ideal organization actually looks like one where there is collaboration across business units. there's clear communication, there's clear KPIs and and metrics and there's clear goals and objectives. for for the companies. I I think y the AI is not gonna is not gonna do that for you. I I think companies just need to strengthen their their you know their inner architecture across you know across the enterprise and strengthen it to you know be able to to allow for AI to to augment what they're doing. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You've been into clients, you've talked to CEO, CFO, CEO or any other CXOs in a company. And you often say companies lack the alignment before they buy the technology. So if no one owns clarity, whose responsibility is it? Is it the CEO, the CFO, or the COO, or anyone in the C level? Augie Santa Maria: I would say I mean it's everybody's responsibility Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Hahaha. Augie Santa Maria: across the the enterprise. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Augie Santa Maria: but definitely the the C level and yeah I think they they you know a lot of a lot of consultants and and advisors can can help them you know, finding finding clarity. I think they need to look Yeah, they need to look outside their enterprise for for impartial viewpoints and yeah, really really try to you know bring that clarity into into focus. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, on into the future. I would like to know your insights about will the highest paid employees in 10 years be the people who know AI or the people who know the AI is wrong? Augie Santa Maria: I think. If they know the AI is wrong, that's definitely Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha Augie Santa Maria: more valuable, right? If they Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Augie Santa Maria: can know and they can prove that, I'd say they'd they'd definitely be the more valuable people. If the people can yeah, if they can actually go go at it with the with the AIs and and prove them wrong, th that that would be a definite very powerful ability for for people and companies. Yeah. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah, all right, so this is my last question before we go to the rapid 10x round. imagine it's 2035. One company embraced AI as fast as possible. Another move slower but focused on building judgment, governance and architectural clarity first. Which company survives the next decade and why? Augie Santa Maria: Well that the the latter company, that's definitely my kind of company. That's that's my my outlook and yeah, I think definitely a very measured strategic approach to integrating AI, not just following every trend and trying to to stay on top of it on a on a daily basis, what what the latest tool is. I think the companies that really have a a very introspective approach, viewpoint of their their business and how AI can can penetrate in into you know the right areas is the is the definite gonna be the winner in the long run. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, all right. Augie Santa Maria: Kind like the tortoise and the hare. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: All right, thank you very much for that, you know, last question before I wrap it then next round. So we're now in the final punch. So my first question, what's one AI tool you actually use every day? Augie Santa Maria: okay I say a few, I mean I I use Whisperflow for for dictation, like get my ideas out you know, faster and and more succinctly. granola for my meetings, definitely lets me be present in the meetings totally and and taking the notes from me and that helps me with you know, all the follow ups and and takeaways that I need to handle afterwards and then yeah chat GP ChatGPT is just like I I have a clone project of myself. I use that every day and that's like I said like my thinking partner for everything I'm doing, you know, creatively and technically with with my business. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, question number two. What's one task AI has already 10x or exponentially improve in your life? Augie Santa Maria: what what ways AI has already ten X'd my improve my life. it's Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Yeah. Augie Santa Maria: definitely in in my yeah my creativity and my my communication, I think it's definitely allowed me to reach and connect with a lot a lot broader audience, create a lot bigger network around me of of partners and connections and yeah, that's definitely it's definitely had a huge impact for me. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so what's one human skill AI can ever replace? Augie Santa Maria: that that would be judgment for me, like I was saying earlier. I think they'll AI will never have I mean it'll never truly eliminate the the hallucinations and and I think it it will never quite have that cohesive grasp of of reality that that we have right now. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so number four, if you could automate one annoying thing forever, what would it be? Augie Santa Maria: God. What would it be? one annoying Julius Neil Buenconsejo: You Augie Santa Maria: thing I could automate forever. just yeah, dude t taking my notes for me after my meetings and and writing a writing a a follow up and a summary for me of all Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Mm-hmm. Augie Santa Maria: my meetings. Just do that. Do that for me forever. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Number five, what's the biggest misconception about AI right now? Augie Santa Maria: the biggest misconception about AI is that it I don't if it's I don't think people really think it's it's conscious, but it it's not this like you know, this i it's not this true like real time like intelligence that's you know, constantly, you know, thinking while while we're, you know, asleep. I think people have that sort of misconception about it. it's really yeah, it it's really you know, the the the L L and the you know, the machine learning and and I think yeah, people have that kind of misconception about it. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, what advice would you give someone who wants to become 10x starting today? Augie Santa Maria: one one you wanna become ten X I would say you have to believe trust trust in yourself, trust in your own your own desires and your own goals and yeah, just trol totally you know, follow your o your own path, be be a a true individual and try to create your own reality for yourself. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What would you tell your younger self about the future? Augie Santa Maria: tell my younger self, there a lot I see it d definitely yeah it becomes a lot more futuristic in ways Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Ha ha ha! Augie Santa Maria: that you can't that you can't understand. A lot a lot of stuff come comes about that you you could never have predicted with with technology and the way the world operates today. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: What's one book, podcast, or resource that shaped your thinking about AI or innovation? Augie Santa Maria: Well, a book I'm reading right now is called My Big Toe by Thomas Campbell. And it's really a b a book about you know, consciousness and the nature of reality, but it kind of makes me think about AI because people, you know, ask the questions of what is AI? Is it is it conscious? Is it is it truly thinking and I think it's just a a a very cool parallel for kind of the the the current state that we're in today kind of you know redefining you know our world with with AI. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: If you had to bet on one AI trend that will be massive in three years, what is it? Augie Santa Maria: I would say well it's definitely gonna be like the AI teams of people growing, AI teams of agents rather, growing and kind of collaborating with each other. I think they're gonna become, you know, much more intertwined with each other, these these you know, distinctive agents that perform their their you know, their specialties and their their functions and th I think they're like the interaction of them is gonna become more just definitely more you know widespread. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so my last question. What does 10x mean to you personally? Augie Santa Maria: Ten X means to me, really go for it and just try to try to be be your full be your full self and reach for your your you know your true goals and and desires and and you will definitely you know re you will make your mark and you'll reach that level in your Julius Neil Buenconsejo: All right. Thank you very much for that advice to our viewers and listeners. So if people wanted to work with you or wanted to ask for your advice or wanted to hire you for their AR transformation project or ERP system, so where can people connect with you or learn more about your work? Augie Santa Maria: you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I have my own URL Florida Augie, Augie Santa Maria. I have my company page, Cognition Services on LinkedIn, or you can go to cognition services dot com forward slash site to see my work with me page. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: Okay, so thank you very much for that insightful discussion with you. So I'm sure that our audiences, our listeners and our viewers had a lot of insightful things that we take up during our conversation. And those of you who would like to do ERP projects integrating the AI, I think Augie is the best person to do that. Please do contact him in his LinkedIn page or go to his website to be able to know more about their work. So again, thank you. very much Shogi. I enjoyed our conversation. It's a totally different perspective and different industry for me. I never had somebody who has expert in ERP systems. Now I have an overview of the systems about ERP, how the industry is integrating it now into their legacy systems. And how is a data analytics person come to go about this type of programs or frameworks when it comes to AI in the AI world. So thank you very for having for your time in this for this podcast so for the viewers Augie Santa Maria: Yes. Julius Neil Buenconsejo: and listeners yeah thank you for watching 10xai remember the future doesn't belong to AI it belongs to the people who use it see you next episode