In this interview from Appian World 2026, Marc Wilson, chief executive ambassador of Appian, joins theCUBE's Dave Vellante and co-host Alison Kosik to discuss why enterprises racing to adopt AI risk missing the deeper strategic opportunity: closing the white space between departmental processes. Wilson draws on Appian's founding in 1999 amid dot-com exuberance to frame a cautionary parallel to today's AI cycle. He argues that the rush toward tactical AI gains mirrors past hype with RPA and IoT — technologies layered onto broken processes rather than fixing them. The real strategic challenge, he contends, is the accumulated white space between departments: the unmanaged handoffs and disconnected systems that prevent organizations from running truly end-to-end, mission-critical processes. The conversation also explores how Wilson positions AI as a complementary technology within a broader process orchestration layer — one that accelerates document ingestion, improves classification and expedites task routing, but cannot on its own reveal where collaboration breaks down across an organization. Real-world examples bring the argument to life: an Asia Pacific insurer using Appian's document center to streamline broker and underwriting workflows, realizing tens of millions of dollars in revenue gains and higher customer retention in just the first phase; and a large hospital system that redeployed registered nurses from administrative intake duties to direct patient care by automating front-door processes. Wilson also notes that many customers are now entering a second or third round of Appian deployments, folding AI in as a targeted accelerant rather than a wholesale replacement. From the convergence of bottom-up demand and top-down strategic pressure to the long-term vision of a digital twin that anticipates rather than merely records enterprise state, Wilson makes the case that process orchestration — not AI alone — is the essential foundation for measurable business outcomes.