Which AI Squirrel Are You Following?

🐿️ Which AI Squirrel Are You Following?

Let’s be honest for a second.

If you work in tech right now, you are probably chasing a squirrel.

Not a bad squirrel.

Not a stupid squirrel.

Just… a squirrel.

A new model drops.

A new copilot launches.

A new “AI factory” gets announced.

Everyone pivots. Again.

And the funniest part?

The biggest corporations in the world are doing the exact same thing.

Squirrel heads chasing squirrels.

So let’s zoom out—one or two levels up—and ask a better question:

Which AI squirrel actually matters?

🐿️ The Squirrel Problem (Why Everything Feels Chaotic)

Most AI conversations live way too low in the stack:

• Which cloud?

• Which model?

• Which agent framework?

• Which UI?

That’s like arguing about the brand of running shoes while sprinting in random directions.

The truth is:

Most AI platforms are converging faster than people realize.

Different names.

Same patterns.

Same demos.

So instead of chasing every squirrel, let’s identify the three squirrels that actually matter—the ones that don’t disappear when the hype cycle moves on.

🐿️ Squirrel #1: Orchestration

“Who decides what happens next?”

This is the alpha squirrel.

Not the model.

Not the UI.

Not the chatbot.

Orchestration is about:

• Breaking work into steps

• Sequencing actions

• Managing state

• Handling failures

• Knowing when a human must step in

If AI is going to do real work—not just talk—something has to coordinate it.

If you don’t own orchestration, you don’t own delivery.

This is where cost control, reliability, and scale actually live.

Everything else plugs into this.

🐿️ Squirrel #2: Context (The Real Kind)

“Does the AI actually know what it’s touching?”

This one gets confused with prompts and RAG.

That’s not context.

That’s seasoning.

Real context is:

• Understanding the codebase

• Knowing dependencies and blast radius

• Respecting architecture decisions

• Knowing which APIs are allowed

• Understanding history, not just files

Models are good at reasoning.

Context decides what they reason about.

Without context, AI is just confidently wrong—faster.

This is the difference between an AI toy and an AI teammate.

🐿️ Squirrel #3: Governance (The Boring One That Wins)

“Who’s allowed to do what, and who’s accountable?”

Nobody likes this squirrel.

Everyone needs it.

Governance means:

• Permissions

• Approval gates

• Audit trails

• Cost limits

• Policy as code

• Kill switches

The moment AI can act, governance stops being optional.

No governance = demo

Governance = production

This is where enterprises either sleep at night—or don’t.

What’s

Not

a Real Squirrel (Sorry)

Notice what didn’t make the list:

• Models

• Clouds

• Frameworks

• Copilots

• Trendy agent names

Those are replaceable squirrels.

The real ones are structural:

• Orchestration = nervous system

• Context = memory

• Governance = immune system

If you build these right, the rest can change without breaking you.

Why This Matters (Especially Right Now)

AI isn’t slowing down.

But the thinking around it needs to speed up.

The companies that win won’t be the ones chasing every squirrel.

They’ll be the ones who:

• Build platforms instead of demos

• Design systems instead of features

• Stay calm while others panic-pivot

The squirrels change.

The forest doesn’t.

Final Thought

So before you jump to the next AI announcement, ask yourself:

Which squirrel am I actually following?

If it’s not orchestration, context, or governance…

you might just be running in circles—with really good shoes.