Around the same time, the Financial Times published a piece noting that while investors are betting on AI-fueled chaos and disruption, history tells a different story. Past technological revolutions—from the PC to the internet and cloud—rarely wiped out incumbents. Savvy established players adapted, integrated the new capabilities, and often emerged stronger.

Reading these together crystallized something I’ve been observing in our work at Datarella and across the broader tech landscape: the most probable path for AI in business is neither a dystopian job apocalypse nor a chaotic upending of entire industries. It’s a pragmatic, evolutionary integration — one that rewards organizations willing to embrace AI’s inherent “weirdness” while building solid foundations to prevent disorder.

As someone who has spent decades building companies and helping enterprises navigate digital transformation, I believe this balanced view is crucial. AI won’t replace everything overnight, but it will reshape how we work — if we let it.

Why AI So Often “Dies” in Traditional IT Settings

Mollick’s diagnosis rings especially true because we see this pattern repeatedly in enterprise environments. AI isn’t deterministic software with predictable, repeatable outputs. It’s generative, highly context-dependent, and frequently surprising. When handed over to IT teams whose primary mandates are security, compliance, uptime, and cost control, the instinctive reaction is understandable but often counterproductive:

• Wrapping every experiment in lengthy approval processes
• Demanding detailed ROI projections before any meaningful pilot
• Forcing AI into legacy tech stacks without rethinking underlying workflows
• Prioritizing only the safest, most obvious use cases

The outcome? Countless pilots that never scale. Recent analyses, including Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise, show that while employee access to AI tools has exploded, the move from experimentation to full production remains limited. Issues like poor data quality, skills gaps, and overly cautious governance continue to create friction.

Harvard Business Review has noted a similar phenomenon: widespread AI usage paired with disappointing returns, with adoption often stalling at the integration stage. The core mistake isn’t poor execution—it’s treating AI like just another CRM or ERP module rather than a fundamentally new way of thinking and working.

History Offers Reason for Optimism

The Financial Times article provides a reassuring counterpoint. Technology revolutions rarely play out as pure creative destruction. Incumbents who invest in complementary capabilities—new skills, redesigned processes, and updated organizational structures—tend to adapt and thrive.

In 2026, I expect the real winners won’t be only the flashy AI-native startups. They will be established companies that intelligently combine their deep domain expertise and proprietary data with AI’s capabilities. Those who redesign workflows for genuine human-AI collaboration (sometimes called “co-intelligence”) and scale thoughtfully from pilots to enterprise-grade agentic systems will gain the edge.

Reports from PwC and others speak of a “disciplined march to value”: clear strategies, measurable outcomes, and governance frameworks that protect without suffocating innovation.

What the Most Likely Future of AI in Business Looks Like

Looking ahead to late 2026 and 2027, here’s the trajectory I consider most probable:

1. Scaling from pilots to production — More organizations will move a significantly higher share of AI projects into live use, particularly through agentic AI systems that handle multi-step workflows autonomously.
2. The J‑curve of productivity — Expect initial periods of flat or even negative returns as companies rewire processes and roles. Once the complementary changes (new data pipelines, decision protocols, and team structures) are in place, gains should accelerate sharply.
3. Governance maturing — Robust frameworks for responsible agentic AI, data quality, and risk management will become standard. “Shadow AI” will gradually decline as secure, enterprise-ready platforms improve.
4. Incumbents leveraging their data moats — Organizations with clean, well-governed data and strong domain knowledge — especially in regulated or complex industries—will often outperform pure AI disruptors.

This isn’t a utopian revolution or a total failure. It’s an evolutionary transformation, provided we avoid the trap of over-standardizing AI too early.

Five Practical Principles for Embracing AI’s Weirdness

Drawing from Mollick’s insights, historical patterns, and the latest enterprise reports, here are the principles I believe forward-thinking leaders should adopt:

1. Deliberately embrace the weirdness — Create space for teams to experiment and discover unexpected applications. Encourage “labs” or crowdsourced exploration. Treat AI as a creative collaborator rather than a simple automation engine.
2. Invest in rock-solid data foundations — Data quality and governance remain the biggest barriers. Without trustworthy, well-integrated data, even the most advanced models produce unreliable results. This is an area where specialized expertise in unifying silos and building real-time, compliant pipelines makes a decisive difference.
3. Redesign workflows for human-AI co-intelligence — The goal isn’t to automate jobs out of existence but to augment human strengths. Let people focus on judgment, creativity, and relationships while AI handles analysis, drafting, and routine tasks.
4. Deploy governed, secure agentic systems — Autonomous agents represent the next frontier, but they require thoughtful orchestration, threat modeling, and compliance built in from the start.
5. Measure what truly matters and iterate patiently — Look beyond vanity metrics. Track real business impact—revenue, cost efficiency, customer outcomes—and accept that returns often follow a J‑curve.

Reflections from the Trenches

At Datarella, we’ve been helping organizations move past the hype and pilot purgatory for years. Our focus on secure AI agent development, full-stack modernization, privacy-preserving architectures, and (where appropriate) decentralized approaches is designed precisely for this moment: enabling companies to harness AI’s strange power without inviting chaos.

Whether it’s building production-ready autonomous agents, creating reliable data platforms, or integrating AI into complex legacy environments, the key is combining technical depth with practical business judgment.

The future of AI in business isn’t about tearing down your existing structures or gambling on total disruption. It’s about evolving how your organization learns, decides, and creates value—by thoughtfully embracing AI as the odd, powerful tool it is, while strengthening the data, governance, and cultural foundations it requires.

If you’re ready to move from interesting pilots to scalable impact—without letting AI “die in IT”—I’d be happy to explore how we can support your journey.

Let’s connect.

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We‘ve developed Track & Trust, a tracking solution for humanitarian aid logistics that leverages satellite communication. In the mobility sector, we have created SSI apps and smart parking solutions to enable secure P2P communications, streamline traffic flows, and minimize CO2 emissions. With 16 other companies, we’re part of the Gaia‑X consortium moveID that will create the decentralized digital infrastructure for mobility in Europe. And much more!

And, in 2020, we decided to leverage our tech stack and created the Datarella Web3 Company Builder Model.

RAAY Real Estate

In 2020, we have launched RAAY Real Estate (RAAY RE) as our first standalone project, together with two partners from the real estate industry. Our RAAY RE joint venture with Hammer AG and Wertgrund Immobilien AG was the first to tokenize a commercial property, fully licensed by German regulator BaFin – Connex Coin was a breakthrough! RAAY RE will become the legal framework of our future IMMOBIX project and token.

MOBIX Marketplace

In 2021, we launched our micromobility marketplace MOBIX. By using the MOBIX app, more than 350,000 daily active users in over 120 countries are earning MOBIX Miles while riding eco-friendly vehicles, such as scooters, bikes, eBikes, eMopeds, or cargo bikes. By incentivizing users to swap their combustion engines with zero-emission transportation, MOBIX helps to decrease CO2 emissions and to make cities more liveable. In the meantime, MOBIX has evolved into the MOBIX Marketplace GmbH, a Munich-based company owned by Datarella, and Fetch.ai.

MOBIX family

The latest brainchild of Datarella’s Web3 Company Builder Model is MOBIX family – a decentralized gig economy network. MOBIX family is the first project in the Company Builder Model that will be driven with the support of an external team. Whereas RAAY RE and MOBIX have been built by internal Datarella resources, a young team of aspiring entrepreneurs from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has taken care of the Family’s first steps. The team has presented the first MOBiX family MVP during START Ideasprint 2022, a 4‑day hackathon based out of Munich.

NOMIX

Later in 2022, the next project – NOMIX –  will launch its BIOCLOCK app. Leveraging the same tech stack as other Datarella Web3 companies, NOMIX will help users around the world maximize their healthspans, i.e. living longer while staying healthy!

We at Datarella are very happy to see more and more teams using our Web3 tools and applications, and creating new ventures! If you are interested in joining an existing Web3 team or you want to pitch your own idea, please contact us!

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In partnership with Fetch.ai, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence lab, we today announced the launch of M‑ZONE, a smart city zoning infrastructure trial in Munich. Using AI-powered software agents to optimize resource usage and reduce the city’s carbon footprint, we predict the mass implementation of smart city infrastructure will result in 34,000t annual CO2 emission reduction.

Landlords and the City Council are interested in optimizing the parking space management to allow for available parking for all corporate tenants employees while organizing the traffic flow and preventing commuter traffic jams. Our system incentivizes community use of public transport through a tokenized incentive system while reducing the congestion that accounts for a great deal of Munich’s CO2 emissions.

Multiple Benefits for Stakeholders

• Individual commuters and drivers save time, money, and reduce driver stress.
• Property owners will get simplified approvals for new development projects.
• Tenants can lower their rents through dynamic parking spot sharing.
• The city council can optimize traffic flows.
• The environment benefits from saved CO2 emissions

M‑ZONE users are incentivized to reduce their number of car trips to the “Blockchain Building Connex” and adjacent corporate buildings through a reward system, measured by the utilization of parking spaces. Each registered user who is a regular car park user will be rewarded with a certain amount of tokens per minute for not parking at the parking lot. As soon as a car (or its related wallet address) is registered as ‘parked’ by the parking agent, the token flow to this wallet stops.

A Massive Reduction Of CO2 Emissions

Assuming a 10% reduction in car usage across Munich alone, the city would see a 34.000 tonnes annual CO2 emission reduction. Scaled up to cover all of Germany, which equates to 1.7 million tonnes CO2 reduction annually. This smart city solution can penetrate huge markets simply by tapping into wasted data and utilizing it efficiently.

Users are incentivized to reduce their number of car trips to the Connex and adjacent corporate offices through a reward system, measured by the utilization of parking spaces. Each registered user who is a regular car park user will be rewarded with a certain amount of tokens per minute for not parking at the parking lot. As soon as a car or its related wallet address is registered as parked by the Carpark AEA, the token airdrops to this wallet stop/slow. The number of tokens rewarded per wallet and minute depends on the current utilization of the parking lot.

Open, Decentralized, Self-Sovereign

In contrast to other smart parking projects, M‑ZONE is an open-sourced, decentralized smart city infrastructure project that values the individual by implementing a self-sovereign identity (SSI) framework. Besides the general openness of the used code that enables other developers to use it and build their applications on top of it, M‑ZONE uses our partner Fetch.ai’s public blockchain technology. In combination with Fetch.ai’s Autonomous Economic Agents (AEA), M‑ZONE is made to be implemented worldwide. The underlying Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework, which will be implemented in the next phase, allows for a completely non-proprietary, privacy-focused system that provides the individual with full control over her identity.

A Promising Collaborative Approach

The latter aspect contradicts enterprises’ traditional assumption that user data could be used freely and exploited. We at Datarella and Fetch.ai think that the individual should be in full control of who uses her data and for what purposes. We know that many incumbents are still attached to the legacy, platform, or ‘dirigiste’ thinking. However, there are also large enterprises that share our beliefs and are moving towards self-sovereignty. We think that M‑ZONE can serve as a good example for strengthening the individual perspective, and we have reasons to believe that we will be joined by like-minded partners soon.

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The magic sauce of RAAY RE lies in the combination of technology / digitization and the understanding and profound expertise in property management, as well as the real estate investment area. The folks at Hammer AG develop and run their own commercial properties, over at Wertgrund Immobilien AG billions of Euros are managed in residential real estate funds.

I was invited by Wertgrund CEO Thomas Meyer to elaborate on our vision of the Digital OS for Real Estate (German). Based on the successful launch of our Connex Coin, the first tokenized investment token in Germany, we are looking forward to launching more tokens in 2020 and see the first installation of our Smart Wallet, enabling users to handle financial transactions based on Blockchain technology. Tokens — or, programmable money — are the basis of several products and services we are offering with RAAY RE. I’m excited to be part of this digital revolution!

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Since the token qualifies as investment token (“Vermögensanlage” in german), it is not tradeable on cryptocurrency exchanges. Token holders receive a fixed interest of 3% and may sell the token back at nominal value.

Why Tokenization?

Traditionally, real estate has been financed by owners, banks, or external investors participating in real estate funds. The investment process in real estate is complex, takes time and effort. By using blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies or tokens, this process can be simplified and made much more efficient.

Liquidity

First, there is the securitization aspect of tokenization:: by making an illiquid real estate asset completely liquid, this type of investment is made accessible for a much larger target group of potential investors. Traditionally, mainly wealthy individuals or companies could invest in real estate. With a liquid asset, such as the Connex Coin, an individual can become a real estate investor starting with a 10 EUR investment.

Besides having a bank account in an EU country and a registration, nothing else is required to buy this investment token. Since Connex Coin is a non-tradable, stable investment token, the token holder receives a 3% interest paid directly to her bank account. Information about the personal holdings is displayed in the personal account. By using tokens, securitization is made easy and efficient.

Programmability

Tokenization is much more than securitization: a token can be described as programmable money. In other words: tokenization adds programmability to an asset. This way, business logic can be introduced, reducing the need for manual settlements and smart contracts can have functions for automatic transactions, formulas for calculating asset prices, and other specific features at marginal costs. So, what kind of business logic can you add? Simple answer: any. And exactly this large number of degrees of freedom makes it somewhat challenging to start with.

At RAAY RE, we have started by leveraging our proprietary (Crypto) Smart Wallet by adding features that allow token holders making use of specific property-related functions, such as granting access or allowing for the use and payment of facilities. We will elaborate more on this aspect of programmability in the next post. From our perspective, the programmability of formerly static assets provides great opportunities for the real estate industry.

Immutability

A digital, integer trail of transactions proves a history of ownership and eliminates data misuse and fraud, such as double-spending. Furthermore, the consistent historical record of all transactions allows for realtime, frictionless reporting. Just ask your asset managers and CFOs about their administrative headaches that traditionally could only be healed by tremendous accounting efforts. With a guaranteed complete historic data set of all transactions, this headache can be eliminated completely. Tokenization helps to minimize administrative efforts, timewise, and with regards to costs.

Tokenization And Asset Tradeability For A Digitized Real Estate Industry

For RAAY RE, the tokenization of a share of the Connex building is the first proof of functionality in our tokenization module, which is one part of our Digital Operating System for the real estate industry. There will be more assets tokenized – as well as in terms of securitization, and, specifically regarding the programmability aspect of tokenization: our tokens will come with built-in business logic that will unleash the full value of real estate assets.

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At EXPO REAL 2019, Europe’s largest real estate fair, we presented the first details. We now received the final approval by German financial regulatory body BaFin and have started with the sale of Connex Coin, open to Friends & Family. Here’s the story of Connex Coin.

The idea of Connex Coin was born in 2018. Then, we discussed digitization projects in the field of real estate funds with Thomas Meyer, founder, and CEO of Wertgrund Immobilien AG, a residential real estate fund manager. Shortly afterward, we started a similar conversation with Hans Hammer, founder, and CEO of Hammer AG, a commercial real estate developer. It became clear within weeks: we should have these conversations together, as a team.

Fast forward: In July 2019, we founded our new company RAAY Real Estate (RAAY RE) as a joint venture of Hammer, Wertgrund, and Datarella. The purpose of RAAY RE is to offer blockchain-based products and services to the real estate industry, which itself is a late adopter regarding digitization efforts. We decided to start RAAY RE with the tokenisation of a Hammer-owned property, located in central Munich. With the Connex building, we have a first-class property in one of the best real estate locations in Europe, with first-class tenants — in short: the best product you can imagine for the start of a product category in your company! 

By tokenizing this property, we provide the perfect investment opportunity — especially for retail investors — since individuals can become real estate investors starting at 10 EUR. The Connex Coin token sale will take place from March to May 2020. Connex Coin owners will receive an interest of 3% on their investments and can sell Connex Coin back to the issuer. In the first phase, there will be no public trading of Connex Coin, since at the moment there are no EU-compliant cryptocurrency exchanges that offer trading security tokens. As soon as there is approval from financial regulators, Connex Coin will be one of the first security tokens listed on exchanges in Europe.

Connex Coin is the first token issued by RAAY RE, others will follow. We are planning to launch more token sales for self-owned real estate properties in 2020. Additionally, we will offer tokenization as a service to players in the real estate industry. This offering comprises the complete tokenization process, including technical, legal, and regulatory elements, based on an existing long-term real estate expertise.

In addition to our tokenization service, at RAAY RE we offer a variety of tools and products that can be used by real estate developers, owners, and funds, ranging from KYC onboarding processes, to smart digital (crypto) wallets. Our clients benefit from the in-depth technical expertise of Datarella, known for running large blockchain projects on a global level.

With the launch of Connex Coin, RAAY RE can prove that blockchain technology can be leveraged to make payment and transaction processes within real estate more efficient, thus paving the way to a digitized future for the real estate industry.

The acquisition of this investment involves considerable risks and can lead to the complete loss of the invested assets.

Risk Disclosure § 12 VermAnlG

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