09/01/2026
AI is not the foundation. It is an accelerator and it will accelerate whatever is already there.
When I hear businesses talk about adopting AI, the expectations often sound the same: it will save time, reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve ROI.
With all the hype, AI can start to sound like the magic beans from Jack and the Beanstalk: plant the tool and watch the returns grow.
But AI does not work that way.
Put AI into a broken process, and you don’t fix it, you amplify it at scale. It will move faster, fail faster, and may cost more than the problem you were trying to solve.
AI cannot overcome unclear workflows, disconnected systems, unreliable data, or poor measurement. It also will not succeed if the employees doing the work are not involved in mapping the process and determining how AI should support what they do.
Before implementing AI, leaders must ask:
Where and why should we use it?
What outcome do we expect?
How will we test and measure it?
Are our processes, data, systems, and people ready?
Before planting the AI “magic bean,” make sure your operational roots are strong enough to support the growth.
