REAL Talk With Sam Holcman

Welcome to Real Talk with Sam Holcman, where we connect ideas, innovation, and intelligent decision-making. Today’s reflection: irrational exuberance - a phrase coined by former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan in 1996 and revisited today through the lens of the AI revolution. Greenspan’s words warned of a human tendency - collective overconfidence - when belief outpaces evidence. It describes markets, but really, it describes us. Fast-forward nearly three decades, and you will hear the same energy around artificial intelligence: limitless potential, intense speculation, and a sense that this is the future.

TOGAF® is talked about and used, but an increasing number of major practitioners and researchers argue that it misses several critical ingredients for modern, outcome‑driven enterprise architecture. In the age of EA 5.0, these critical ingredients are lacking.  This broadcast will outline these ingredients that are lacking.

Today’s Broadcast. Billions were wasted, companies bankrupted, and governments embarrassed - all because of something we take for granted: software. This article is based on an outstanding article titled “Why Software Fails” by Robert N. Charette, in IEEE Spectrum, December 2025. You have probably heard the old saying “software is eating the world.” But what happens when software eats itself?

When evaluating Enterprise Architecture (EA) or Business Architecture (BA) advice, focus on whether the person, book, website, or post can demonstrate real decisions changed, risks reduced, or value created - not just fluency in frameworks and jargon. The most dependable advisors and materials walk through concrete situations, artifacts, and outcomes, and openly acknowledge what they learned. Remember that the time you spend consuming advice is often more valuable than the money you spend on it.

Agentic AI is accelerating all the trends that EA 5.0 and EACOE have been arguing for years: architecture must be business-led, continuously adaptive, and tightly connected to how work actually gets done. In this environment, the EA role does not disappear; it shifts toward orchestrating agents, data, and business capabilities in real time, which is exactly the role EA 5.0 is designed to formalize. www.EACOE.org