The article points out a striking paradox in today’s enterprise world: while the pace of investments in artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating rapidly, actual transformational change remains elusive. Many organisations have launched projects, pilots, and experiments, yet very few have seen AI fundamentally alter core workflows or generate large returns on investment. In some cases, entire business units still grapple with what exactly “adopting AI” means in practice.
A key reason for the gap between ambition and reality, the piece argues, is that organisations often confuse adoption with integration. It’s relatively easy to deploy a chatbot or plug an AI module into a system, but far harder to re-architect processes, align data and governance frameworks, ensure workforce readiness and embed continuous learning and improvement. Without these, AI remains an adjunct rather than a force-multiplier.
The article concludes that the riddle of AI adoption isn’t just about the technology—it’s about timing, organisational readiness and strategic patience. It suggests that many firms may need to shift from the mindset of “ai now for competitive advantage” to “are our foundations ready for AI?” The ones that pause, build their architecture, data pipelines, culture and governance, may ultimately reap deeper benefits than those chasing the next shiny model.
