“We need to move faster on AI” has become the default response to competitive pressure. It sounds decisive. It sounds like leadership. But often, it’s anxiety wearing the costume of strategy.In many organisations, speed is compensating for something else: a gap in judgement about where artificial intelligence actually helps.
When leaders aren’t sure where the value is, the instinct is to deploy everywhere — more tools, more pilots, more announcements.
A press release about the new AI initiative. A slide in the investor deck. A line in the annual report about “AI-driven efficiency”.
And activity happens. Meetings get scheduled, vendors get selected, budgets get approved. But underneath, something else is happening: use cases don’t stick.
Six months later, half the pilots have quietly disappeared, and nobody wants to be the one to say so out loud.
