Tribal knowledge doesn't scale in the AI era. When AI needs to interpret transactions at the speed they occur, context can't live in people's heads — it must be embedded directly into the data itself, turning implicit knowledge into explicit, machine-readable meaning.
Key takeaways:
Tribal knowledge about data quirks and processing rules creates a bottleneck when AI needs instant context
Contextual information must be embedded into transactional data, not stored separately or in documentation
Even simple business terms like "fraud" often have multiple valid definitions that require explicit documentation
Mastercard evolved from privacy by design to data by design to context by design over six years
AI governance frameworks must include clear context and data definitions before building any model
