🤖AI is Not the Saviour

There’s a growing trend I’m seeing in boardrooms and executive meetings:

Everyone wants an AI strategy.

On the surface, it makes sense. AI is everywhere, from keynote stages to tech showcases. Consulting firms are selling it like it’s the magic wand your transformation needs.

But here’s the truth: AI is not the answer. It’s the enabler.

And in many organisations, you’re not ready for what AI really requires.

The Shiny Object Syndrome

According to recent S&P Global Market Intelligence data:

• The share of companies abandoning most of their AI initiatives skyrocketed to 42% in 2025 (up from 17% last year).
• Nearly half of AI pilots are scrapped before reaching production.
• Top barriers? Cost, data privacy, and security.

And yet, the promises keep getting louder:

“AI will solve for your strategy execution.”

“AI will automate decision-making.”

“AI will create your entire change playbook.”

“AI will provide our people with clarity of direction.”

“AI will increase productivity by at least 50%.”

I've sat in the room where these promises were made and watched the aftermath unfold.

What I’ve Seen Firsthand

In my work with organisations across sectors, I’ve:

• Led three enterprise AI adoption programs, each focused on real value, real clarity, and real impact. Through helping to draw a holistic and integrated roadmap across the organisation, create realistic AI use cases, define what good AI implementation looks like, and how to adopt and integrate it into day-to-day work.
• Helped roll back two AI implementations that were poorly scoped, rushed, and sold on false promises, costing $240K USD and $150K AUD, respectively.

Both were painful to watch. And they had one thing in common:

AI was brought in to fix what the business hadn’t built.

What AI Won’t Do

• AI won’t fix your broken strategy
• AI won’t solve your lack of leadership clarity
• AI won’t clean up your weak adoption practices
• AI won’t build your data maturity or decision rhythm
• AI won’t make people care

It will, however, amplify what’s already there.

If that’s dysfunction, you’ll experience even greater confusion.

If that’s a mediocre process, you’ll get costly complexity.

So What Does It Take?

If you’re serious about AI, you need to ask:

• Are we truly ready to adopt, integrate, and adapt?
• Do we know what problem we’re solving, and why AI is the right tool for it?
• Are our foundations, strategy, data, people, process, and change strong enough to support AI?

Because without that clarity, AI becomes another expensive distraction.

Final Thought

AI is a powerful lever, but it’s not your saviour.

It’s not a shortcut.

And it won’t replace the leadership and transformation work your organization needs.

So before you spend your next dollar, build your next pitch, or brief your tech team…

Pause. Reflect. Ask better questions.

If you’re exploring AI and want an honest lens on what’s needed to do it right, let’s talk.

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Till next week

Jess Tayel

Founder of the Transformation Leadership Institute and People of Transformation membership & community.

Enable Organizations to Become Future Fit Through their Transformations & Change efforts.

Elevate Change & Transformation high-performing leaders to soar above the sea of sameness and achieve new heights in mastery, influence, & impact without the drag of going solo or slow progression.