The AI in Business Podcast Turning AI Ambition into Infrastructure Reality – with Julian Tang of BlackRock
Nov 12, 2025
Julian Tang, Chief Operations Officer for the Innovation Office at BlackRock, shares his vast expertise in financial technology and AI infrastructure. He discusses how enterprises struggle to scale AI due to unclear goals and siloed operations. Julian emphasizes the importance of smooth workflows and strong governance, advocating for early involvement of legal and security teams. He also suggests practical steps for legacy firms, the viability of hybrid cloud solutions, and lessons learned from past tech trends. Crucially, he highlights the need for transparent data practices to foster trust.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Silos Kill Enterprise AI Outcomes
- Enterprises often lack clear AI objectives and operate in siloed business units, which prevents scalable ROI.
- Julian Tang argues that without enterprise-level goals and coordination, multiple disconnected POCs will fail to deliver value.
Bring Governance In Up Front
- Bring legal, compliance and InfoSec into projects early and codify their requirements into a playbook.
- Julian Tang says predefining what each governance group needs prevents shoehorning controls at the end.
Use KY3P And A One‑Page AI Plan
- Use existing third‑party diligence muscles (KY3P) to onboard AI tooling and stakeholders.
- Create a one‑page enterprise AI chart, prioritize a few strategic POCs, assign owners, and remove roadblocks.