Tech Lead Journal

#233 - Data Beats Hype: Measuring Your AI Adoption Impact - Laura Tacho

42 snips
Sep 29, 2025
Laura Tacho, CTO of DX and expert in developer productivity, dives deep into the impact of AI adoption in engineering. She reveals the 'disappointment gap' between AI hype and reality, and why traditional metrics like acceptance rates can mislead leaders. Tacho introduces the AI Measurement Framework™, emphasizing utilization, impact, and cost. The discussion also highlights practical AI use cases that save time, the importance of treating AI agents as team extensions, and the biggest challenges AI has yet to solve beyond coding.
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INSIGHT

Disappointment Gap Between Hype And Reality

  • There's a broad "disappointment gap" between sensational AI headlines and real organizational outcomes.
  • Laura Tacho urges leaders to beat hype with data to close that gap.
INSIGHT

Adoption Is Far From Universal

  • Median AI adoption across studied companies was ~50%, with P75 around 62%.
  • Larger companies often face slower adoption due to complexity and compliance hurdles.
ADVICE

Make Adoption An Organizational Priority

  • Treat AI adoption as an organizational readiness problem, not just individual curiosity.
  • Invest in enablement, policy, and support to make adoption stick.
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