The 10/20/70 rule for AI budgets that actually pay off | Priyanka Vergadia, Microsoft

Most AI deployments stall because leaders treat the tool as the whole investment. Priyanka Vergadia, argues technology is only 20 percent of the equation, and the returns show up once you fund people, training, and change management.

Priyanka, Senior Director of AI Transformation at Microsoft, breaks down her 10/20/70 budget split, why documenting processes beats chasing tools, and how hackathons surface the use cases that actually become agents.

Topics discussed:

• Why technology is only 20 percent of AI ROI

• The 10/20/70 budget split for AI investment

• Documenting every process before building any agent

• Running hackathons to surface real agent use cases

• Combining senior engineers and interns to build better agents

• How the developer role shifts toward directing coding agents

• Why taste becomes the differentiator for designers and PMs

• Forward deployed engineering as the evolved solutions role