---
id: "action-build-hub-and-spoke"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Effect #1: The “Technology-first” Trap"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/dont-let-ai-reinforce-organizational-silos"
source_title: "Don't Let AI Reinforce Organizational Silos"
tags: ["governance", "org-design"]
related: ["framework-hub-and-spoke-implementation", "concept-hub-and-spoke-ai"]
action: "Establish a centralized AI Center of Excellence while embedding execution teams within specific business functions."
outcome: "Balances centralized governance and shared infrastructure with decentralized, rapid problem-solving using domain expertise."
speakers: ["Graham Kenny", "Kim Oosthuizen"]
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-130-ai-reinforce-silos"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/dont-let-ai-reinforce-organizational-silos"
sourceTitle: "Don’t Let AI Reinforce Organizational Silos"
---
# Build a Hub and Spoke AI Model

**Action:** Establish a centralized AI Center of Excellence while embedding execution teams within specific business functions.

**How:** Set up an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) to provide centralized governance, best practices, and shared infrastructure, while embedding AI teams (“spokes”) within business functions to execute using domain knowledge. See the step-by-step [[framework-hub-and-spoke-implementation]] and the underlying [[concept-hub-and-spoke-ai]]; the exemplar is [[entity-bathurst-insurance]].

**Expected outcome:** Balances centralized governance and shared infrastructure with decentralized, rapid problem-solving using domain expertise — the antidote to the [[concept-technology-first-trap]].

**Open dependency:** budget/chargeback design is unresolved — see [[question-coe-funding-model]].