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$2.5 trillion will be spent on AI in 2026. Just 33% of firms will see a return.

Mirage or Oasis is Harvey Nash’s new feature documentary asking the question every boardroom is quietly panicking about: is AI’s promised value real, or is it a mirage, always one horizon away?

Group Technology Evangelist David Savage draws on 11 years and over 1,000 episodes of Harvey Nash’s Tech Talks podcast, to take the question on the road; from Ai4 in Las Vegas, across the West Coast epicenter of the AI revolution, and this year’s Dreamforce. Along the way he interrogates the three barriers he hears more than any other:

• Sovereignty: a handful of West Coast companies now hold the keys to enterprise AI, data, and geopolitics.
• Cost: token prices are spiraling, and the “reasoning trap” is quietly bankrupting experimentation.
• Shadow AI: as AI democratizes, ungoverned agents are multiplying faster than anyone can track them.

But this isn’t just a film about the challenges facing leaders, it’s anchored by companies using AI to bring about societal change, a clear reminder of exactly what’s at stake if the industry gets this wrong.

Failure isn’t inevitable. But finding the oasis requires more than money. It requires readiness.