The grand entrance of AI into a broken organization is like watching a magician try to pull a rabbit out of a hat that is already on fire. AI might dazzle with its data-crunching prowess, but if the foundation is cracked and the walls are crumbling, the technology accelerates the problems rather than solving them.
AI is an amplifier. It makes fast organizations faster, organized organizations more organized, and clear-thinking organizations clearer. It also makes dysfunctional organizations more dysfunctional, faster. The outputs of a poorly structured process, fed through an AI system, produce poor outputs at machine speed.
Before any organization invests in AI implementation, the more important question is whether the human systems are functioning at a level that AI can meaningfully improve. That audit is uncomfortable. It requires honesty about organizational dysfunction that leadership is often motivated to avoid. But it is the only honest starting point for an AI strategy that produces real value rather than expensive noise.