ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Technology Executives Review® July 2026 Month-End Edition Includes Special Report: The Enterprise IT AI Spend Crisis
Host: Alex Jarett, Founder, Technology Executives Club®
Guest Analyst: Tom Drez, former CIO, CISO & CPO, Christian Brothers Services
AI in the Enterprise continues to move quickly, but Technology Leaders are still working through the practical realities of token spend, ROI accountability, shadow AI, and agentic workflows.
In this July 2026 edition of the Technology Executives Review®, Alex Jarett is joined by Tom Drez, former CIO, CISO & CPO of Christian Brothers Services, to review the top headlines in AI in the Enterprise, Advanced Technologies, Technology Leadership and Industry News.
This episode includes a special report, "The Enterprise IT Spend Crisis: Balancing Shadow AI Token Spend with Hard ROI Gains," where Alex and Tom unpack why token costs have become one of the fastest-growing, least-controlled line items in enterprise IT budgets — and how leaders can get ahead of it.
In this episode:
* Why the AI model price war is pushing inference costs to historic lows, even as shadow AI token spend blows through annual budgets
* Why only about 6% of companies using AI report clear, measurable financial returns How surging global AI spend is pressuring CIOs to show hard ROI, not just adoption metrics
* Why investors and boards want fast accountability, with many expecting positive ROI within six months
* Why CEO job security is increasingly tied to AI spending outcomes How change management, not technology, remains the biggest adoption barrier
* Why some organizations unintentionally reward token "activity" over real value How cross-divisional AI councils help CIOs break down silos and lead strategy
* Why open-source models are gaining ground on cost, but still need compliance review How agentic, multi-step architectures are reshaping enterprise software and raising new security concerns
The program also features insights from recent Technology Executives Club® Leadership Briefings, including:
↪Jeff Scheetz, CIO, City of Avondale - Empowering Governance of Local Government Through a People-Centered Strategy
↪Biff Myre, Director of Industry Solutions, CBTS - What Technology Leaders Are Really Concerned About with AI
↪Josh Rose, Founder & CEO, Zagger.ai - How Zagger.ai Turns Unstructured Business Data Into Productive AI Workflows
➡️ Watch all of our Leadership Briefings and get weekly AI & Technology Leadership briefings plus exclusive invitations by joining the TEC Insiders Community: www.technologyexecutivesclub.com
