From the boardroom to the back office, business leaders are racing to adopt AI, but many are overlooking a dangerous truth: the very digital infrastructure they’ve built from the last two decades of digital growth is now holding them back.
Years of rapid transformation have left behind sprawling systems, thousands of disconnected apps, siloed data, and outdated architectures that can’t support the demands of modern AI. AI demands speed, scale, and precision, yet most organizations are operating in digital environments that were never designed to support it.
In his new book that hit store shelves today, Digital Impact: The Human Element of AI-Driven Transformation (Wiley; ISBN: 1394295243), Boomi CEO and Chairman Steve Lucas offers a playbook for CEOs and change agents to tackle the root cause of failed AI efforts: digital fragmentation. Drawing on decades of executive experience (former Adobe, SAP, and Marketo) and conversations with CIOs, CTOs, and transformation leaders, Lucas outlines his bold framework for building intelligent, adaptive enterprises that are ready for the future.
“AI is only as smart as the systems and data it runs on,” said Steve Lucas. “Right now, most organizations are trying to build data skyscrapers on sand. They’re pouring millions into AI while drowning in bad data, siloed systems, and chaotic architecture. But it’s not all bad news when integration is done the right way, the way that puts human beings first.”
Today, many sectors are being fundamentally reshaped by AI, and the book offers an inside look at how enterprises across industries are navigating this transformation. From global banks restructuring how they handle data across legacy systems, to logistics giants building real-time supply chain intelligence, to government agencies digitizing and providing critical aid after natural disasters, the book lays out a blueprint for how organizations can operationalize AI with purpose and precision.
Building Your Digital Impact Mission
Lucas wants every leader to center on what he calls the Digital Impact Mission, his take on a leadership-driven commitment to unify technology, cleanse and connect data, and re-architect how organizations operate in an AI-powered world. The book outlines his strategic imperatives to help leaders turn their digital chaos into AI readiness:
- Lead the Mission from the Top: CEOs must personally champion transformation, not delegate it. AI success starts with boardroom accountability.
- Fix Fragmentation First: Integrate siloed systems and data to ensure AI has clean, connected, real-time access to the information it needs.
- Rethink SaaS: In an AI-first world, software licenses give way to intelligent automation and outcome-based value models.
- Build for Human-AI Collaboration: Stop thinking about AI as a tool and start building systems that empower people to do their best, most impactful work.
- Design for Speed, Scale, and Precision: Legacy systems can’t keep up. A composable, connected digital infrastructure is the only way forward.
Digital Impact features behind-the-scenes case studies and candid conversations with leaders across industries, revealing how global banks, logistics giants, healthcare organizations, and public agencies are laying the groundwork for sustainable, human-centered AI transformation.
The book includes insights from business luminaries including:
- Larry Quinlan, former Global CIO, Deloitte
- Mark Fields, former CEO, Ford Motor Company
- Betsy Atkins, corporate board leader and three-time CEO
- Dr. Vishal Sikka, founder of Vianai and former CEO of Infosys
- Paul Cormier, former CEO, Red Hat
