AI Readiness Isn’t About AI

AI isn’t the problem. Strategy is.  

Everywhere you look, there’s another AI company promising to revolutionize your business. Automate Everything! Eliminate inefficiency! Solve every operational headache you’ve ever had! Miracles in endless automation! All of your problems are gone for the low, low cost of way too much money.  

Only no. That’s not how any of this works. The truth that no one in the hype cycle wants to say out loud is this: most businesses aren’t ready for that kind of automation or AI. They’re not even close.

AI doesn’t fix messy data. It multiplies it. It doesn’t repair nonexistent or nebulous processes — it just hardcodes them. It doesn’t reflect how your business actually runs; it reinforces the fantasy of how leadership wishes it ran. And when things break (and they will), AI doesn’t tell you who owns the problem — it just makes you realize you never defined ownership in the first place. Meanwhile, the culture that “isn’t really into change” stays exactly that way, except now it has bots doing the same bad habits faster.

A company that’s truly ready for AI looks very different.

It has:

• Clean, reliable data — not “close enough” spreadsheets.

• Processes that are documented, consistent, and actually followed.

• An honest understanding of how things work in practice, not just in theory.

• Clear accountability — when something breaks, someone owns it.

• A culture that embraces iteration and continuous improvement, not avoidance.

Those companies can handle AI because they’ve already done the unglamorous work that makes automation worth automating.

To be clear: I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-sloppy implementation and blind faith in magic tools. AI is absolutely a boon for business — when it’s done strategically. I'm not suggesting “AI or cleanup.” It’s AI AND cleanup.

AI can:

• Help you document processes faster.

• Surface inconsistencies in your data.

• Highlight where your systems or teams are misaligned.

• Help you prioritize that endless list of “someday” initiatives.

Use AI for the busywork, not the thinking work. Let it help you identify the questions to ask—not hand you the answers.

Because at the end of the day, clarity isn’t a luxury. It’s a prerequisite.

For full transparency, I wrote this post with the help of AI. As stated in the post above, AI is an excellent tool when you have your building blocks in order. I've included the prompt I used below (edited only to fix spelling mistakes and to break it into paragraphs for easier readability).

“Please write a post for LinkedIn in my voice. I would like it to be wry, sharp, a little exasperated, but grounded in reality and experience. Think less hype and more truth.

The topic of this post is business readiness for automation and AI. My thesis is that most companies are not ready, but are being pushed into the latest fad by a bubble of AI technology companies selling snake oil and vaporware. They promise miracles in efficiency and automation, that AI will solve all of your organizational woes.

In truth, AI that isn’t well considered will only exacerbate the following issues: messy data, non-existent or nebulous processes, perpetuate the ideas of how leadership wants the business to work without taking into consideration the reality of how the business actually works, non-defined leadership or ownership (when something breaks, who is supposed to fix it), and a ambivalent at best culture that isn't interested in change.

Highlight that a company that is fully ready for AI does not have these issues, and list the opposite of the issues listed in the previous paragraph.

Next, I want to talk about the realities of AI and point out that I’m not saying AI isn’t a boon for businesses, but it has to be done strategically. I’m not saying that the situation is implement AI or cleanup, but rather implement ai AND cleanup. AI is an excellent tool to help a business document processes faster, spot inconsistencies, and help prioritize long lists of wanted initiatives. Use AI for the busywork not the thinking work. Allow it to help you identify what questions to ask, not to provide answers. “