Clouded Judgement: Authority Is the AI Bottleneck

The article argues that enterprise AI's transformational value depends less on model sophistication than on whether AI systems are granted decision-making authority versus remaining advisory. Most organizations deploy assistive AI (AI suggests, humans approve), which provides incremental efficiency gains but fails to deliver step-change outcomes; authoritative AI (AI decides and acts) requires organizational restructuring around data quality, observability, and accountability but unlocks exponential ROI. The piece includes comparative valuation multiples and operating metrics for top SaaS public companies, demonstrating how growth and profitability correlate with market valuation.