- AI will transform how businesses operate without replacing what makes them valuable.
- As AI gains autonomy, operational sovereignty and control become increasingly critical.
- The winning model combines common AI infrastructure with highly bespoke services where differentiation matters.
There is something slightly (ok, very) odd about the way corporate America talks about AI.
We frame the question in terms of what AI can do: How many jobs can it replace? How much faster can it make the last standing human professionals irrelevant?
But I increasingly think those are the wrong questions.
The more consequential issue is control: Who controls the data? Who controls the processes? Who remains responsible when autonomous systems begin making decisions, and sometimes gets them wrong? And, ultimately, how does a business adopt AI without accidentally handing over the things that make the business distinctive and valuable in the first place?
That is why my conversation with John Machado, chief technology officer of Elite was so interesting. Elite has spent almost 70 years providing the technology underpinning the business operations of law firms. Few industries have a higher requirement for confidentiality, accountability and trust.
Machado's argument is refreshingly pragmatic: AI matters enormously, but the revolution isn't necessarily occurring where everyone thinks it is. For law firms, the biggest transformation ultimately happens not in the practice of law, but in the infrastructure and processes supporting it.
That distinction applies far beyond legal services.
AI isn't the business — it serves the business. It is becoming part of the operational machinery beneath it. And that means the winners won't be those that automate the most. They will be the organizations that best understand what to automate, what to retain and what they absolutely cannot afford to surrender control over.
The real AI question is control
STEVE SAUNDERS: Elite has been around for a remarkably long time. Give us the quick version of what the company does.
JOHN MACHADO: Elite has been around for almost 70 years with one real purpose: supporting law firms and helping them manage the business operations of law.
SAUNDERS: And now we have this tsunami of disruption around AI. Most of the conversation in law and financial services seems to be about either replacing people or making professionals more productive.
But AI also creates dependency. I wonder whether the challenge isn't really more intelligence, but maintaining control over what that intelligence is doing.
MACHADO: To a certain extent, I agree. It's less about the pure intelligence aspect and more about understanding how to orchestrate and operate in a world where we've had a paradigm shift in technology.
How we operate with that technology is where I think the new discussion is.
SAUNDERS: Law firms handle some of the most sensitive information imaginable. The bar for security and confidentiality is incredibly high, yet we're simultaneously introducing AI into everyday workflows.
How should firms retain control over their data and operational processes rather than simply trusting the LLM because it appears intelligent?
MACHADO: It starts with the data. It always has.
We now have many more choices about how to leverage that data, but the key doesn't change. Governance and the care with which we handle data remain incredibly important. In fact, they're probably more important because the data is becoming more accessible and more real-time than ever.
Humans make mistakes too. We always have. Whether the data is being handled by a human or an agent, the responsibility still persists.
My recommendation is to handle it with the same care you've always handled it with, but understand that just as humans were open to those challenges, agents are too.
They're not perfect. They probably never will be.
SAUNDERS: So does that mean deliberately keeping humans in the loop rather than simply maximizing the amount of technology?
MACHADO: We give firms that choice because everybody is at a different point. Everyone has different compliance requirements, and even firms practicing similar types of law can think differently about it.
The first thing I recommend is meeting them where they are in their journey.
Humans are still in the loop somewhere. They might be directing, editing or checking, or involved at every step. Even if they're no longer involved in the old sense of pressing a button, humans are still involved in creating the instructions that make agents do only what they're told to do.
There is still a lot of human presence in AI.
Beyond data sovereignty: owning the process
SAUNDERS: There's an industry-wide conversation about digital sovereignty, but what we're describing sounds more like operational sovereignty.
It isn't simply where the data resides. It's whether the organization continues to control the data and the processes acting upon it rather than effectively surrendering them to a third-party AI. Does that distinction resonate?
MACHADO: Very much so.
But I also think organizations have to determine where that line is. What is the intellectual property that I genuinely need to protect because it creates value? And what are things that we historically thought of as operational differentiators that perhaps aren't?
AI is forcing firms and companies around the world to look again at what really differentiates them for their customers and how they preserve that differentiation through this process.
A lot of people thought the way they operated was itself the differentiator. Now they're realizing that some aspects are, but not all aspects of operations are differentiators.
I think we'll eventually look back at this as an operational transformation.
Standardize the foundation, customize the differentiation
SAUNDERS: Does that mean everything becomes bespoke? When you meet a new client, are you effectively creating an individualized AI program for that firm?
MACHADO: I'd say it's more like 80% the same.
We start with the data. Make sure you have a platform that gives you context around that data and as much control over it as possible. Then build your workflows, outcomes and processes from there.
For most firms, about 80% of that conversation will be very similar.
The other 20% is about the differentiation that makes each organization more valuable. That's where we spend more time being bespoke.
Bespoke absolutely remains a benefit. It's just a question of where you apply it.
And where you do need bespoke, you're going to want it to be really bespoke. In other areas, organizations will become much more comfortable using a common playbook for things they previously did in unique or individualized ways.
SAUNDERS: That's an important distinction because your clients are ultimately putting a significant amount of responsibility onto Elite's shoulders.
What are they asking you about AI today, and where do you think they'll be five years from now?
AI's biggest impact may be operational, not professional
MACHADO: Right now, we're hearing a lot of "help us." Help us understand.
The practice of law is evolving rapidly, and firms generally have a very specific understanding of how that should operate.
The business of law, which is where Elite spends more of its time, is different. There the question is: How do we change the way we operate to keep up with the way the practice is changing?
When we look back five years from now, I think the biggest changes may actually be in the operation of firms rather than the practice itself.
Things such as having a full view of matters, billing practices and how firms ensure they're getting paid — processes that have operated in broadly similar ways for many years — could look surprisingly different.
SAUNDERS: So there's a dividing line. AI can transform the operational functionality and efficiency of the business, while above that line lawyers still have to lawyer.
We've already seen embarrassing examples of people using generative AI in legal proceedings and citing precedents that don't exist.
But that's not really the transformation you and I are describing, right? We're talking about structural change in how these businesses operate while maintaining security, sovereignty and control — and without allowing AI to take over the actual function of the business.
MACHADO: Exactly.
A law firm's IP is its lawyers. I'm running a technology company, so my IP is software. The people who build that software are part of it, but it's more abstracted than at a law firm, where the lawyers themselves drive the delivery of the firm.
We'll always look for tools that enable and empower them.
But the bigger story is how firms operate post-AI.
Things are going to move much faster and much more in real time. Expectations around how firms operate to support their customers will increasingly become part of the overall value they deliver.
It's going to become a much more holistic story.
SAUNDERS: That's what I see across industries. Whether you're talking about a white-collar business or ports, railways or car manufacturers, AI can become integral without becoming the purpose of the company.
A car manufacturer still has to design and manufacture a good car.
The revolution isn't necessarily the function of the business. It's the operation of the business.
So are we overestimating AI? Is this genuinely as disruptive as the arrival of the internet?
MACHADO: In the end, I don't think we're overestimating it.
I just don't think it's going to be as fast and immediately impactful as people like to suggest.
Neither was the internet.
We're still extracting value from the internet and building on top of it. In fact, without it, the AI evolution we're experiencing now couldn't happen at this level.
I think we'll eventually say something similar about AI.
It is a paradigm shift. It is a fundamental new platform that changes things.
It has the potential to be as large as the Industrial Revolution. But even the Industrial Revolution didn't happen overnight.
I think we'll eventually look back and realize AI wasn't the entire revolution.
It was one part of a much larger digital evolution.
Learn more about AI infrastructure
Opinion: Who will control the control plane of the world?
Carrier 2.0 - Who Governs The Agents? - YouTube
Stephen M. Saunders MBE is a communications analyst and USPTO-registered inventor examining how digital infrastructure — 5G, cloud and AI — is reshaping industry, power and society, as well as underpinning the emerging, ubiquitous global digital economy. As anchor of FNTV and a longtime industry insider, he focuses less on growth narratives and more on execution, risk and how hyperscale technology is distorting markets, governance and society at scale.
Opinion pieces from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.