There's something going on in many organizations today.
There is talk of artificial intelligence on all the boards, initiatives are announced, pilots are presented and shortly after... those projects are gone.
According to several recent studies, More than 40% of IA initiatives are abandoned before production.
Not because technology fails, because the company tries to do more than it can really run, one of the most common mistakes I'm seeing is this: Companies that try transform everything at the same time.
They want to redesign operations, reinvent products, change customer experience, automate processes... all with IA, but not all organizations are designed for that level of change.
The companies that are really generating value with IA are doing something very different, they don't start with technology, they start with understand where they have real control within your system.
Some do so by optimizing a very specific point of business, for example, using IA to improve agricultural yields, optimize logistics routes or accelerate product development, do not try to change everything, try deeply improve a place where they already have advantage.
Other companies, with greater control over their value chain, integrate IA into multiple internal processes, not to do something spectacular, but to do the system smarter and more efficient.
And then there are those who build ecosystems with other actors, because they know that innovation no longer occurs within a single company.
And finally there are the few that have enough scope to create complete platforms redefine industries.
But the important thing is not which strategy you choose, the important thing is that It matches the reality of your organization.
Because the greatest enemy of innovation today is not technology, it is strategic fantasy.
Companies that want to act like Apple... when their structure actually looks much more like GM, and that mismatch is where millions of dollars are lost.
The real question for any leader today is not: "What could we do with IA?"
It's much more uncomfortable: "What are we really ready to run?"
Because artificial intelligence does not reward ambition, it rewards the strategic clarity.
The companies that win in this age will not be the ones who tried everything, they will be the ones who understood where they could change the game... really.
