Entrepreneur / CEO / COO / General Manager building great technology product and services businesses in cloud, enterprise software, SaaS and related products/services. Passionate early-adopter and evangelist for cloud computing - and all things cloud-native -  and its ability to transform IT. Strong across multiple competencies - sales, marketing, technology, finance & operations.

John. Treadway

I believe there’s a parallel between the autonomous driving market and internal AI strategy. Let me know what you think.

Elon Musk has said he doesn’t understand why other automakers won’t license Full Self-Driving (FSD) from Tesla. Some automakers, notably Rivian, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz, have determined that this technology is so central to their businesses that they cannot just abdicate it and let another company control their destiny. While this makes for more work and higher upfront risk, they are not wrong to want to "own" something so fundamental.

In 2026, we are seeing a similar shift in the enterprise. The bigger companies are often avoiding "renting" external AI stacks tied to a single vendor (OpenAI, Salesforce, etc.) in favor of building a sovereign internal AI stack. Here is why the "Own vs. Rent" debate is shifting:

- Data Sovereignty & Security: You keep your IP and customer data behind your own firewall, not a third-party black box.

- Operational Control: You aren't at the mercy of a vendor's pricing hikes, model deprecations, or roadmap pivots. Control your roadmap, control your destiny.

- The "Unified Brain": An internal stack connects all your siloed data (CRM, ERP, Slack) into one cohesive intelligence layer.

- Unit Economics: While "renting" is cheap at first, building your own infrastructure avoids the compounding "SaaS tax" at scale. If you have 2,000 employees, even part of the stack will be $720k per year (at $30). Add in the siloed AI add-ons from Salesforce, ServiceNow and others and that number can quickly balloon! You can "own" your own stack for a lot less - and use the savings to fund enablement, process change and other super-important efforts. 

- Custom Moats: Generalist vendor AIs are a commodity; an AI stack fine-tuned on your proprietary processes is a competitive advantage.

The takeaway: If AI is going to be the "engine" of your company, do you want to own the engine, or just lease the same system your competitor is using?

#AIStrategy #EnterpriseAI #SovereignAI #Innovation #DigitalTransformation

John Treadway

CEO of AI Technology Partners, provider of governed, adopted, enterprise AI—deployed in our client’s environment and under their control

Higher Logic

Software Development Manager

WynneRope LLC

AI Solution Architect

AI Technology Partners

Delivering business solutions using best in breed Generative AI platforms.

CapTech Consulting

Director - Architect

Director

Virginia Information Technologies Agency

Cloud Services Architect

Cloud Technology Partners

• Hybrid-Cloud and Managed Container Solutions
• Cloud Strategy and Economics
• Security and Governance
• DevSecOps

Architecting and developing modern cloud-native and hybrid-cloud solutions for real-time and streaming processing of Big Data, and complex patterns, on the leading cloud platforms.  This includes Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure.

Principal Solutions Architect

Tractabil IT LLC

Big Data, SOA and Virtualization Architect

Techstone Technology Partners LLC

Principal Consultant

Deloitte Consulting

Enterprise Architect

Software AG

SOA, SaaS, Enterprise Integration Architect.

With over 25 years of experience in mathematics and computer science, I am a Technology Leader providing business solutions using best in breed Generative AI and Cloud platforms. I work with development teams to design and implement innovative and scalable solutions that leverage serverless computing, cloud services, and generative AI technologies. Previously, I was a Director and an Architect at CapTech Consulting, where I led and supported multiple projects involving data engineering, machine learning, and cloud architecture. I am a Google Cloud Platform Fully Qualified Developer, and I have skills in Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Python, SQL, and Spark. I am passionate about solving complex problems with cutting-edge AI tools and delivering value to customers and stakeholders. I am also committed to continuous learning and professional development, as well as sharing my knowledge and expertise with others in the field.

taplio

The Battle

John. Treadway

Jason Parsons

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJohn. Treadway's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

John. Treadway

Jason Parsons

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}John. Treadway's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJohn. Treadway's LinkedIn Performance