Tech chiefs urge safer, sector-specific AI adoption
Fri, 17th Jul 2026 (Today)
On AI Appreciation Day, technology chiefs are calling for more accountable, sector-specific approaches to artificial intelligence. Senior executives from Earnix, Kognitos and Classie say businesses should prioritise safety, governance and domain expertise over broad hype.
The comments reflect growing concern among AI-focused firms that enterprise deployment is outpacing internal controls and industry-specific design. They also point to a shift in tone around public celebrations of AI, with leaders urging greater focus on risk management and alignment with business needs.
Robin Gilthorpe, Chief Executive Officer of Earnix, said insurers now face a choice between general-purpose tools and systems built for the realities of regulated financial services. Earnix develops AI-driven analytics for pricing and personalisation in insurance and banking, competing in a market where regulators are paying closer attention to algorithmic decision-making.
"AI Appreciation Day is a good opportunity to move beyond the hype and ask a more important question: what kind of AI do insurers actually need? General-purpose AI can generate impressive answers, but insurance isn't a general-purpose business. Every pricing decision, underwriting recommendation, and customer interaction needs to reflect regulation, business strategy, portfolio performance, and customer context. That's why I believe the future belongs to vertical AI, purpose-built for insurance. AI becomes genuinely valuable when it understands the business it's helping to run, not just the language people use to describe it," said Robin Gilthorpe, CEO, Earnix.
Gilthorpe's comments reflect a broader trend in financial services, where firms want AI that works alongside actuarial models, risk frameworks and existing systems of record. The emphasis on "vertical AI" aligns with efforts by banks and insurers to embed automation in product pricing, credit and underwriting while meeting compliance requirements.
Other leaders are taking a sharper line on the tone of AI celebrations. Binny Gill, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of automation specialist Kognitos, compared AI to foundational technologies such as fire and electricity and called for a safety-first mindset.
"AI Appreciation Day feels a little like throwing a party for fire. Fire cooks your food and heats your home, and it also burns the house down. What fire deserves isn't applause, it's respect, and a smoke detector. AI is the same. Every prior general-purpose technology - electricity, the automobile, aviation - got safer because we treated it as dangerous first and useful second. With AI we've reversed the order, and that worries me. If we want a day worth celebrating, make it AI Accountability Day. Appreciate the systems that can be audited, that ask before they act, and that keep a human in the loop. Those are the ones that earn it," said Binny Gill, Founder and CEO, Kognitos.
Gill's call for an "AI Accountability Day" reflects ongoing debates over regulation of general-purpose AI systems and how far enterprises should automate processes without human oversight. It also underscores the importance of audit trails and explainability as organisations scale AI beyond experiments and pilots.
Governance concerns are also front of mind for emerging vendors in the knowledge and documentation space. Start-up Classie focuses on AI-driven knowledge ecosystems for companies, and its leadership warns that unmanaged adoption can create operational blind spots.
"AI Appreciation Day shouldn't just be about celebrating what AI can do. It should also be a reminder to use it responsibly. Across many organizations, AI is spreading faster than the policies, knowledge, and governance needed to support it. That's creating a new form of shadow AI where employees rely on disconnected tools, inconsistent information, and prompts that no one can oversee. AI delivers its greatest value when it becomes part of a trusted knowledge ecosystem, not when it operates in isolation," said Poonacha Kongetira, Co-founder and CEO, Classie.
The warnings about "shadow AI" echo earlier concerns about shadow IT, when staff adopted cloud tools without central approval. Vendors and enterprise technology teams are now under pressure to put clearer guardrails around AI use while still allowing staff to experiment with new tools.
Together, the executives' comments suggest industry leaders see AI Appreciation Day as a chance to reframe the discussion around safety, vertical specialisation and governance. Their focus on regulation-aware systems, auditability and integrated knowledge management points to where many expect the next phase of enterprise AI investment to concentrate.