Ideas I'm Exploring

Emerging research in AI, operations, and customer experience.

A working list of ideas Donna is currently exploring, writing about, or testing with executive teams. This page grows continuously.

Enterprise AI beyond pilots

What separates the enterprises that scale AI from those that stall at proof-of-concept — and why the answer is operating model, not model selection.

Healthcare workflow automation

Prior authorization as the cleanest case study in fragmented ownership, and where administrative AI actually earns ROI across payer, provider, and patient.

Operational Intelligence™ as an operating layer

Treating operational intelligence as a durable enterprise layer — not a dashboard project — that connects workforce, CX, and AI to business outcomes.

AI governance beyond technology

Governance that reviews accountability, not just tooling — closing the Ownership Gap before AI scales whatever is broken underneath it.

Outcome ownership at the enterprise level

Engineering ownership around outcomes customers actually care about — resolution, effort, trust, retention — and governing them the way finance governs spend.

Private equity and CX

What the Thoma Bravo / Verint / Calabrio consolidation signals for AI, WEM, WFM, and the future operating model of contact centers.

Future of product marketing

Operator-grounded PMM as the antidote to slideware — how competitive intelligence and voice-of-operator reshape category positioning.

Contact center evolution

From volume × AHT to outcome-based workforce planning — and what happens when resolution rate becomes a first-class planning input.

Workflow Intelligence™ in healthcare

Instrumenting healthcare workflows so administrative automation compounds instead of creating new operational debt.