AI: Beyond the Hype, What's the Real Enterprise Play?

Had a great catch-up with an old boss and friend recently and inevitably (both being keen business improvers) we landed on AI. The conversation started me thinking about reframing the current frenzy. It feels like we’re caught in an AI investors echo chamber. There’s this pervasive narrative: adopt AI now or get left behind. Your competitors are outpacing you. Your IP is being hoovered up to train someone else’s model (while at the same time we’re being encouraged to turn our kids’ drawings into photo realistic creations).

For the people actually doing the work; our SMEs, and people on the ground, there’s a genuine fear for jobs, livelihoods and whether we can/can’t/should/shouldn’t be exploring AI to make our working hours more productive (and dare I suggest easier?). This also creates conflict in those businesses whose leaders haven’t yet said “yes” to AI. It can feel a little like giving an accountant a computer but then telling them they can’t use it and must continue doing everything using long division.

For some, the current AI bubble can feel driven by a fear of missing out, rather than a clear-eyed assessment of tangible benefit. For nimble startups or one-person bands leveraging slick multi-agent setups, AI can indeed be instantly transformative, a force multiplier from day one. They can build from the ground up with AI at the core, but is that relevant to established enterprise organisations?

The reframe: For the rest of us in established businesses, though, AI isn’t a magic wand; It’s just another technology for business improvement.

Potentially incredibly useful, yes. Fun and playful, and scarily capable, also. But like any sophisticated tool: it needs to be understood, integrated, and supported. And it needs to actually help in the long term. The business landscape is littered with the bodies of badly implemented technologies, so let’s remember that it is not a magic bullet.

I think this is where one of the leadership challenges resides. It’s not about mandating AI adoption from on high or throwing budget at the newest model (or holding off, waiting for the “right one”). It should be about creating the space, the time, the resources, and the psychological safety, for our teams on the ground to engage in directed experimentation.

They need the time, autonomy and authority to explore: “Can this specific AI application genuinely make a difference to our specific workflow, our customer outcomes, our bottom line?”

This also isn’t a one-off activity.

The current pace of AI development means there is a need to continuously provide this space and directed experimentation. Whether this should be a dedicated team or just a way of being (examples being Shopify, Salesforce and other AI-first companies) is up to the organisations’ appetites and perceived benefits to the business.

Simultaneously, like a good change programme, better coms is required. Sharing the insights, learnings (good and bad) and showing everyone that AI is being taken seriously, investigated properly and will be used (or not), depending on the business cases will reduce existential stress within our teams and perhaps foster innovation.

If AI is to deliver real, sustainable value in an enterprise setting, it’s going to look less like a Silicon Valley keynote and more like rolling out a new operating system. It will need its own internal superusers, its administrators, dedicated support, and clear governance. It will need to integrate, not just sit on top (or to the side). All of that needs to be considered in the business case just like any technology.

And that brings us to the big question for every established company: Will it actually be worth it?

The answer won’t be found in trend reports or competitor press releases. It’ll be found in the results of those focused, internal experiments, led by the people who do the work, and which is honestly assessed by leaders willing to look beyond the hype (and the fear).

What are your thoughts? How are you enabling this discovery and measurement in your organisation?