Media Query Source: Part 55 - Forbes (US digital magazine); Barriers that prevent companies from using new technologies

• Forbes (US digital magazine)
• Barriers that prevent companies from using new technologies
• Corporate culture & (perceived) regulatory constraints
• Other factors come into play, but often aren't drivers

The query responses I provided to Reworked on July 2, 2025:

Forbes: I am seeking comments from tech and leadership experts about the biggest barriers that are preventing companies from using the latest technologies, such as AI—and why.

Gfesser: From my longtime consulting experience as both an engineer and a director (from corporate startups to turnarounds and from mid-market to the Fortune 100 and the Big 4), it's absolutely no question that the two biggest barriers I've repeatedly seen are corporate culture and regulations.

Corporate culture consistently has a direct impact on whether the latest technologies are used in the workplace, especially when an organization has increased in size, because systems have already been put into place and the manner in which things are done has taken a foothold, often leading to inertia.

It typically takes a champion who can think outside the box of their current culture to escape this inertia. It's common to introduce outsiders by way of either new hires or consultants who can more effectively introduce new ideas without the constraints that corporate culture can tend to build over time, but implementation of these ideas additionally requires the buy-in of other stakeholders within a given organization. Without these legs, new ideas typically die.

Corporate culture tends to introduce self-imposed constraints from within over time, but constraints from the outside, often in the form of regulations, can also have an impact on whether the latest technologies are used in the workplace.

Unlike the inertia of corporate culture, which can technically be changed should an effective champion challenge the way things have always been done, regulations are different in that an outside entity is imposing constraints, and stakeholders can fear misinterpretation of what is and isn't permitted, due to the legal or financial penalties which might result. Similarly to corporate culture, it typically takes a champion to escape this perceived dilemma.

From my experience, one of the most consistently effective methods to adopt new technologies is to experiment in a limited capacity by solving a problem with relatively low hanging fruit that is substantial enough that other stakeholders will value it. Once a new technology is seen in action, and it bears fruit, additional implementations of it can be built out.

In contrast, one of the most consistently ineffective methods to adopt new technologies is to try to tackle too many things at once before proving out whether problems can actually be solved, and before understanding any limitations inherent with the new technologies being considered.

Arthur C. Clarke once said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", but new technologies, including AI, shouldn't be considered magic when it comes time for adoption. Stakeholders should understand what they're getting themselves into, and the way to get there is to conduct targeted experiments of value on a small scale before attempting to implement anything across the board.

Note that I've intentionally not discussed other factors such as cost, because I've seen too many times that cost, while it eventually becomes important, typically isn't a driving factor. For example, I've introduced numerous open source technologies into many workplaces, and open source technologies in themselves don't introduce additional cost.

In order to get to a place where open source technologies are accepted and implemented, these first need to be understood and shown to provide value before anything else can happen, and it takes one or more stakeholders to see past the constraints of corporate culture and perceived regulatory constraints in order to get to a place where exploration is even being considered.