Don't Panic! It's Just Data · 2026-06-02 · 33 min
AI investment is growing fast, but proving its value remains one of the biggest challenges facing data leaders today. Dashboards are built, models are deployed, and yet when the budget question arrives, most teams still can't clearly demonstrate return on investment. Speaking on Don't Panic, It's Just Data with host Christina Stathopoulos , Nadiem von Heydebrand , CEO and co-founder of Mindfuel, identified where most organisations go wrong: the interface between data teams and the business. According to von Heydebrand, the reason is straightforward: no use case, no value. "We get a demand, we believe we've understood it, and we start executing immediately," he explained. Months pass, and nobody can answer why the project exists or what problem it was supposed to solve in the first place. The fix isn't more technology. It's better use case management. The 3 Pillars of Effective AI Use Case Management One of von Heydebrand’s core principles is straightforward: before you build anything, you need to really understand the business challenge you're trying to solve. "You have to fall in love with the problem, not with the solution," he said.
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