About The Book

A quick introduction to The Shadow Balance: The Technology Leader’s Guide to the Hidden Costs and Risks of AI

What motivated this work

When I began this work in late 2025, artificial intelligence (AI) was dominating every newsfeed, boardroom conversation, steering committee agenda, and technology roadmap. The marketing message was pervasive and persuasive: integrate AI everywhere, immediately, or risk becoming obsolete.

Having always been an enthusiastic type of early adopter, I was surprised to find myself both eager to adopt the tools and constantly trying to understand the implications – the costs and risks – that came with AI’s benefits. At the same time, I was meeting with leaders who were being pushed to adopt and integrate AI into their products at a speed that left little time for them to consider the long-term impact on their businesses.

So, I began working to understand the things that the glare of marketing attention was casting into the shadows. The things I learned were hard to find and even, at times, felt purposely obscured. I became an impossible coffee or lunch companion: always vigorously explaining the latest issue that I had learned about.

I also suspected that other leaders might not have the time to dig into these topics. As with all new technologies, taking an uncritical approach to adoption could put them in high-risk situations being aware of it.

To support these leaders, I wrote The Shadow Balance: The Technology Leader’s Guide to the Hidden Costs and Risks of AI. This work brings hidden costs, structural risks, and implementation barriers out of the shadows and into the light.

Who this book is for

The Shadow Balance is designed for software product leaders who are actively building or integrating AI features into their platforms, as well as IT professionals whose vendors are aggressively augmenting enterprise offerings with artificial intelligence.

The book is designed to be consulted when you are first planning adoption frameworks with your operations team or when you need to construct a resilient, reality-grounded business case to present to leadership. My goal is to provide an antidote to uncritical adoption, equipping you with the terminology, mental models, and critical questions needed to challenge the enthusiastic claims of management consultants and software vendors.

Note on professional scope:

While this book is designed to support better decision-making and rigorous due diligence, it should not be considered formal professional advice. Every organization operates within a unique context, and leadership teams must ultimately weigh these insights against their specific business, technical, legal, and regulatory environments.

Designed for you: a busy technology leader

My audience does not have time to wade through massive reports, so I chose to make this information as accessible as possible. The Shadow Balance is published across multiple formats: as a book, a serialized blog, and a companion podcast.

Every cost, risk, or operational barrier is isolated into a focused, modular topic designed to be read or listened to in about 5 minutes. The core book is structurally streamlined so it can be comfortably read in a single evening, while the podcast groups related topics into thematic listening tracks. I’ve also put effort into mimizing academic jargon to help technical concepts be more approachable.

Finding a balance between breadth and depth

Most of my audience has deep expertise in one or more of the areas that I have chosen to examine. As a result, sections of this book are likely to annoy those who are already familiar with the topic.

Taking an incremental delivery approach

The first version of The Shadow Balance was published in September 2026. It included 25 of the 100 target topics that I identified. Each topic is complete, well edited and researched. The book is, however, much shorter than it will be if it finds an audience and I continue to invest in this project.

Please feel free to provide your feedback early and often!

Braving the shadows

“Doors and corners, kid. That’s where they get you.” James S.A. Corey, The Expanse.

If your organization is currently drafting an AI strategy, evaluating vendor pitches, or attempting to balance the promise of exponential acceleration against the reality of hidden infrastructure costs, The Shadow Balance has been designed to help you.

The first 25 topics are available in the book and will be published incrementally here on this blog, and in the podcast series. Dive in, examine the balance sheet, as I work to bring AI’s hidden costs and risks into the light.