The common denominator, as enterprises race to actionize artificial intelligence, is balancing its raucous hype, potential risks and realistic opportunities. At Okta Inc., striking that balance in AI adoption has meant a pragmatic blueprint that codifies discipline rather than pointless experimentation, said Jenna Cline, senior vice president of business technology at Okta. Before scaling, Okta formed an AI governance committee to ask tough questions and identify blind spots. Its slower approach meant possible subsequent kinks were ironed out before tool rollout. This measured start helped Okta establish “paved paths” — frameworks and guardrails that allow teams to innovate with confidence, according to Cline. By focusing first on employee productivity use cases, the company gained early wins while ensuring safe, controlled growth. AI is inseparable from data strategy, Cline added. That’s why Okta united its technology and data teams under one umbrella. This organizational design has enabled closer collaboration, making it easier to prepare data for AI and build reusable modules. The result? Faster acceleration and democratization of AI across teams, without bottlenecks or silos