Summary: • Why 93% of employees use unauthorized AI tools while 54% of IT leaders think their blocking policies work (spoiler: they don’t) • The ”paved path” strategy: provide governed AI gateways (Portkey, TrueFoundry) instead of blocking—teams report 60% cost reduction from consolidation • Real AIOps ROI: GitHub Copilot delivered 55% faster task completion and 60-75% higher job satisfaction; one team cut alerts from 523/week to 22 (96% reduction) • Decision framework: when to embrace AI tools vs when to standardize, and how to balance developer productivity with governance • Platform engineering skills evolution: AI/ML operations, cost optimization, and security automation are becoming table stakes