The race to experiment, implement, invest and show off AI capabilities is a run away train. Yet most leaders recognise a cautionary tale in the making when they see one. In extracting the most value from AI, particularly generative AI, organisations who lay solid foundations for their new investments will reap longer-term rewards. Those foundations include good data practices and governance, and a smart series of automation layers to enable the right information gets to the right place at the right time in the right format that AI can utilise further, thus freeing up time, budget and resources for the team. What do those automation layers look like, and what do leaders need to know to optimise their own?