Justin Greis

08/28/2026

☑️ AI can make an organization extraordinarily busy without necessarily making it more productive.

That may be the most important lesson for executives from Meta’s reported experience trying to dramatically reshape its workforce around AI.

In his latest Computerworld article, Evan Schuman examines what happened when ambitious expectations for AI collided with the realities of enterprise ex*****on. The story offers three important takeaways for leaders:

1. 📊 Measure outcomes, not just AI activity.
More code, more analysis, more content, and more automated actions can look like productivity. But volume is a poor substitute for business value. Leaders need to connect AI investments to measurable improvements in revenue, cost, speed, quality, resilience, or customer experience.

2. ⚙️ Automation can create work as quickly as it eliminates it.
Every AI-generated output may require validation, security, integration, governance, maintenance, or correction. The productivity equation needs to account for the entire lifecycle of the work, not simply how quickly AI can produce it.

3. 🛠️ The opportunity is still enormous, but ex*****on matters.
This is not an argument for slowing AI adoption. It is an argument for getting smarter about it. Organizations that establish clear outcomes, redesign workflows to leverage human and machine strengths, and scale proven use cases have an opportunity to create significantly more value than those that simply pursue automation for its own sake.

💬 As acceligence CEO Justin Greis told Computerworld:

“AI can make an organization extraordinarily busy without necessarily making it more productive. We have spent decades teaching technology leaders that lines of code, closed tickets, and launched projects are imperfect proxies for business value. AI makes that measurement problem much more acute because it can manufacture activity at machine speed.”

📌 The executive question is:

“What measurable business outcome improved because AI produced it?”

⭐ That is a much higher bar than asking how much work AI can generate. It is also where the real opportunity begins.

🔗 Read the full article here: https://hubs.la/Q04vwX7n0

08/27/2026

🔎 Disaster recovery has a funny way of exposing risks you didn’t know you had.

Jeff Valdes, CBCP and I wrote about one of the biggest: the explosion of hidden third-party dependencies across SaaS, cloud, AI, communications, infrastructure, and increasingly, the systems that quietly keep the business running.

But the opportunity is bigger than better DR planning. A rigorous recovery exercise can become the forcing function to map critical dependencies, understand where control really sits, identify concentration risk, and make smarter decisions across cyber, resilience, compliance, and even M&A.

The best tabletop exercises don’t just ask, “Can we recover?” They help leaders understand what the business actually depends on, and that knowledge is incredibly valuable long before disaster strikes.

🤔 Why is disaster recovery always such a disaster?

💡 A new piece from Jeff and me in acceligence insights at: https://acceligence.com/insights/2026/08/27/why-is-disaster-recovery-always-such-a-disaster/

💡 acceligence insights: Why is disaster recovery always such a disaster?

There are many reasons for the DR difficulties, but the most daunting is the staggering increase in hidden third-party dependencies. Few tabletops bother to meaningfully identify most of them.

🔗 Read the article by Justin Greis and Jeff Valdes at: https://hubs.la/Q04vg_NX0

08/17/2026

Very grateful to be recognized by Crain's Chicago Business as a 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law.

More than anything, this recognition has me reflecting on the people who have shaped my journey over the past 25+ years. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with clients, colleagues, mentors, and friends (many of whom check all of those boxes) who have trusted me, challenged me, and helped me grow along the way.

And, of course, I’m especially grateful to my family, who have always been the “why” behind the journey.

Thank you to Crain’s for the recognition, and congratulations to all of this year’s honorees. I’m proud to be included among such an amazing group of Chicago business leaders.

🙏 A BIG THANK YOU TO...

Andrew MacKenzie • Angela C. Williams • Bob Patton • Brian Kelly • David Neuman • Dillon Dieffenbach • Edna Conway • Ian Schneller • Jason Lipschultz • Jeff Valdes, CBCP • John Orlando • Karianne Michelle • Kevin W. Farrell, Ph.D. • Mark Gerstein • Dr. Mary Kay V., SPHR • Michael Yadgar • Michael Casey • Mike Chibbaro • Neil Novich • Nidhi Luthra • Norman Lonergan • Patrick Hopkins • Paul Bierbusse • Pilar Dostal • Ramesh Venkataraman • Ryan Sparks • Stephan Nicklow • Tom Coburn • William Lin • Yuri Goryunov • acceligence • EY • McKinsey & Company • NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) • Ravinia Festival • Indiana University - Kelley School of Business
..I would not be here today without you! ❤️

📣 acceligence press release: Justin Greis named 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law by Crain’s Chicago Business

Chicago, Illinois - August 17, 2026 - Justin Greis, founder and CEO of acceligence, has been named a 2026 Notable Leader in Accounting, Consulting & Law by Crain’s Chicago Business.

Crain’s Chicago Business’ 2026 feature recognizes 135 professionals across accounting, consulting, and law whose work shapes business, civic life, and the courts. The honorees guide clients through high-stakes matters involving transactions, regulatory change, growth strategy, and other critical business decisions. Justin Greis is among this year’s honorees.

🔗 Read the full press release at: https://hubs.la/Q04t8tf70

08/09/2026

🎤 Wow, what a night! Chance The Rapper was incredible, and it was amazing to see Ravinia Festival come alive and sparkle. Experiences like this remind us of the power of music to bring people together and turn an evening into a lasting memory.

👇 Check out one of my favorite photos in the comments below.

One of the things I love about experiences like this is the reminder that music is more than a hobby or interest; it's a universal community. Across generations, backgrounds, and tastes, a great performance creates a shared moment that stays with you long after the final note.

🎶 And the season is just getting started. Tonight (August 9, 2026) features Hugh Jackman with the Chicago Philharmonic, followed by Brian McKnight & Gladys Knight on Tuesday. The lineup continues with incredible artists like Joe Bonamassa, Ricky Martin, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Snoop Dogg, Rod Stewart/Richard Marx, Jacob Collier, and so many more.

Ravinia truly has something for everyone. Whether you love rock, jazz, classical, pop, hip-hop, country, or anything in between, it remains one of Chicago’s greatest summer traditions and a place where the musical omnivore can always find something new to enjoy.

🗓️ Check out the full schedule at ravinia.org/events.

07/24/2026

🔦 Infrastructure has a way of exposing the things we’ve forgotten.

The upcoming DNSSEC rollover isn’t just another technical update. It’s an opportunity to uncover hidden dependencies before they become business disruptions.

This could even be a catalyst for quantum readiness!

Appreciate Evan Schuman and CIO Online for including my thoughts in this article. A good read for CIOs and technology leaders.

🔭 Enterprise resilience is built on operational visibility.

The upcoming DNSSEC Key Signing Key (KSK) rollover is an important reminder that every enterprise carries hundreds - or thousands - of technology dependencies that support critical business operations. Most run flawlessly every day. The challenge is knowing where they are before they become a problem.

💡 Our Top 3 Takeaways for CIOs and Technology Executives:

👀 Hidden dependencies deserve executive attention.
Legacy applications, third-party integrations, containers, automation, SaaS platforms, AI services, and custom-developed tools all contribute to an increasingly interconnected technology environment. Every additional dependency increases the importance of understanding how business services are delivered.

🔦 Operational visibility drives resilience.
Organizations with a clear view of their technology estate identify issues faster, respond with greater confidence, and recover more quickly. Visibility across infrastructure, applications, vendors, and business processes has become a core leadership capability.

🛠️ Infrastructure events create opportunities to strengthen the enterprise.
Major platform updates, technology refreshes, and industry-wide changes provide valuable opportunities to validate inventories, review operational processes, test recovery capabilities, and improve governance. Each event leaves the organization stronger than it was before.

Technology leaders who invest in visibility, governance, and operational discipline consistently put their organizations in a better position to navigate change with confidence.

Thank you to CIO for featuring our perspective on this important issue: https://hubs.la/Q04qFrXp0

Article title: "CIOs beware: DNS KSK rollover could kick off wave of mysterious outages"

07/16/2026

🏎️ Standards don't slow innovation (or at least they shouldn't). They SHOULD give organizations the confidence to move faster. AI is reaching the point where trusted governance and shared standards will become a competitive advantage, or at least the basis for differentiation.

I loved reading Yuri's perspective in Computerworld's latest article on this topic.

🎢 Every major technology platform eventually reaches the same inflection point: common standards become essential for broad enterprise adoption.

Artificial intelligence is approaching that moment.

acceligence CIO, Yuri Goryunov, recently shared his perspective with Computerworld on the proposal for a frontier AI standards body and what it could mean for enterprise leaders.

Three takeaways stood out:

🏅 STANDARDS CREATE CONFIDENCE
Enterprise adoption accelerates when organizations can evaluate technology against trusted, repeatable criteria. Consistent standards help boards, executives, and procurement teams make better decisions with greater confidence. But that criteria should always be the floor, not the ceiling as the foundation for secure and trusted adoption.

👯 SHARED EVALUATION REDUCED DUPLICATED EFFORT
Today, organizations invest significant time building their own governance processes, evaluation methodologies, and risk assessments. Credible industry standards could provide a common foundation while allowing enterprises to focus on business- or organization-specific risks.

💡 GOVERNANCE SHOULD ENABLE INNOVATION
Effective governance isn't measured by the number of controls it creates. It's measured by how confidently organizations can adopt new capabilities while maintaining trust, accountability, and oversight.

As Yuri notes, history offers successful examples of industries that came together around shared standards because the consequences of failure affected everyone. AI has many of the same characteristics. Well-designed standards can help convert uncertainty into informed decision-making and responsible adoption.

Thank you to Computerworld for including our perspective.

👇 Link to the article below

🔎 Find the article on Computerworld: "DeepMind CEO again pushes for a frontier AI standards body"

07/14/2026

🤝 A nonprofit structure does not automatically create trust...real governance does.

The decision by OpenClaw to establish a nonprofit foundation raises an important question for the future of enterprise AI: how do we create ecosystems that organizations can confidently build upon?

Technology matters, but trusted governance matters just as much. History has shown that the strongest technology platforms are often supported by clear principles, transparency, and a commitment to long-term stewardship.

I appreciated the opportunity to share my perspective with Evan Schuman and Computerworld on why governance, neutrality, and mission alignment will be critical as AI becomes increasingly embedded in the enterprise.

👇 A thoughtful conversation below for anyone thinking about where AI goes next.

🏛️ As AI becomes more embedded in enterprise operations, trust and governance will become just as important as technical capability.

OpenClaw’s decision to establish a nonprofit foundation highlights an important shift in the AI ecosystem. As AI agents become more central to how organizations operate, enterprises will need trusted foundations, standards, and governance models that enable adoption at scale.

The opportunity is significant, but history has shown that independence and neutrality require more than organizational structure. They require clear principles, transparent decision-making, and governance designed to withstand the pressures that come with growth, investment, and competing interests.

Three takeaways for enterprise leaders:

1️⃣ Open ecosystems require trusted governance
The technologies that become enterprise standards are often supported by foundations that create stability, transparency, and long-term confidence. The governance model behind the technology is as important as the technology itself.

2️⃣ Mission alignment must be protected as ecosystems scale
OpenAI’s evolution from a nonprofit research organization highlighted the challenge of maintaining mission alignment while managing growth, partnerships, capital, and commercial operations. Organizations pursuing nonprofit models must establish governance practices that can remain resilient under pressure.

3️⃣ AI agents will require enterprise-grade trust
As agents become increasingly autonomous, organizations will need confidence in identity, permissions, accountability, and oversight. The future of AI governance depends on creating trusted digital participants, not simply deploying more capable tools.

Thanks to Computerworld for including our perspective on this important conversation.

🔗 Read the full article here: https://hubs.la/Q04pp-FC0

Article Title: "OpenClaw becomes a nonprofit foundation as it seeks to be ‘the Switzerland of AI’"

07/10/2026

🎶 One of my favorite summer traditions is spending evenings at Ravinia Festival.

Looking back through some of my favorite moments from last season, I'm reminded that Ravinia is about so much more than great performances. It's about time with family and friends, unforgettable summer evenings, and connecting through the universal language of music. Looking through my photos, there are far too many memories to fit into a single post.

As we count down to Saturday's season kickoff, the anticipation feels even greater this year. The beautifully renovated Hunter Pavilion is ready to welcome audiences, the lawn is lush, and the park is buzzing with excitement. I can't wait to create more memories at one of my favorite places to spend a summer evening.

I'm also incredibly proud that acceligence is a Mainstage Sponsor for such an important, mission-driven organization. Ravinia enriches our communities, brings people together, and makes the arts accessible. Supporting that mission is deeply important to us.

If you haven't explored this year's lineup yet, I highly recommend taking a look at https://hubs.la/Q04p9qB40. Whether it's your first visit or your five hundredth, there's something special about discovering an artist you love - or a genre you've never experienced - packing a picnic, and enjoying an unforgettable evening under the stars.

🤘 Here's to another amazing season. I hope to see you there!

07/10/2026

🙆‍♂️ "Human in the loop" only works if the human has accurate information. As AI agents become trusted participants in the enterprise, governance has to extend beyond model behavior to include permissions, trust boundaries, and accountability. Thanks to Evan Schuman and CSO Online for including my perspective in the discussion.

🤔 What happens when the "human in the loop" is making decisions with incomplete information?

Most conversations about AI security focus on what the model knows. The more pertinent question is what the model is allowed to do.

As AI agents move beyond generating code and begin interacting with filesystems, development tools, cloud platforms, and enterprise applications, every permission they receive becomes part of your organization's attack surface.

This week's research on AI coding assistants is a reminder that AI agents are evolving from productivity tools into trusted enterprise participants. That changes the governance conversation.

We need to govern AI agents the same way we govern privileged identities:

📂 What can they access?
🎛️ What can they change?
💻 What systems can they invoke?
✅ How do we verify what they're actually doing?
🔍 How do we audit their actions?

The future of AI security will be defined as much by governance as model capability.

Thanks to CSO Online for including acceligence's perspective in the discussion.

👇 See link to article in CSO Online below: "AI coding tool hole illustrates a big problem with human in the loop"

07/09/2026

🧠 Most organizations are evaluating AI by its answers. The next horizon of AI governance will evaluate the reasoning and behavior that lead to those answers.

One of the biggest challenges in enterprise AI has always been that we could observe what models produced, but had very little visibility into what they recognized or understood before they acted.

Research like Anthropic's J-space points toward a future where AI governance goes well beyond monitoring prompts and outputs. It opens the door to richer signals that can help organizations better understand agent behavior, strengthen trust, and improve oversight as AI becomes increasingly autonomous.

I shared a few thoughts in CIO Online's article titled "Anthropic shines a light into the Claude AI black hole" about why I believe this research could eventually influence not only AI governance but also how enterprises evaluate and procure AI platforms.

The acceligence team summarized some of the key ideas below. I'd love to hear where you think enterprise AI governance is headed over the next few years.

🤖💬 What if AI could tell us not only what it did, but what it recognized before it acted?

That possibility moved one step closer this week.

In a recent CIO article exploring Anthropic's research into its new "J-space," acceligence CEO, Justin Greis, shared why this work matters far beyond AI research.

Today's enterprise AI governance largely evaluates prompts, outputs, identities, policies, and tool activity. The next generation of AI governance will increasingly incorporate richer signals about agent behavior, such as whether an AI recognized a prompt injection, identified sensitive information, detected conflicting objectives, or exhibited reasoning patterns warranting additional oversight before an action is taken.

Those capabilities have the potential to reshape how organizations think about:

📜 AI governance and policy enforcement
🔎 Enterprise observability and auditability
🎛️ Trust and risk scoring for AI agents
🔦 Human oversight and escalation
📊 Procurement criteria for frontier AI platforms

As enterprise AI becomes increasingly autonomous, organizations will need more than confidence in outcomes. They'll need meaningful visibility into how AI systems operate and stronger evidence that those systems remain aligned with enterprise policies and objectives.

Thank you to Evan Schuman and CIO for covering this important topic.

🔗 Link to article: https://hubs.la/Q04n-QKW0