14 May
Everyone wants AI to make their business more efficient.
But here’s what no one’s talking about: 95% of AI projects fail to deliver meaningful business outcomes. 70% of ERP implementations fail to meet their objectives. 70% of digital transformations fail.
I hope these statistics scare you. They should.
But here’s the deal. These aren’t technology failures. They’re preparation failures.
I was having lunch recently with the founder of an AI implementation company. We had created a workflow map for one of their clients, documenting their entire client experience lifecycle from start to finish.
He couldn’t stop talking about how helpful it was. How it made it possible for his team to build the right solution the first time. How everyone was finally on the same page.
This is the thing no one wants to do before they buy the shiny new technology.
They want to jump straight to implementation. Straight to AI. Straight to the new system. Because that’s the exciting part.
But without understanding how work currently gets done, you’re building blind.
Here’s what happens when you skip this step:
You build the wrong solution. You build the solution the wrong way. You try to solve the wrong problem. You automate a broken process and now you’re just doing the wrong thing faster.
Stupid faster is not more efficient.
This is true for any technology change. AI. ERP. CRM. LMS. Any of it.
Before you implement anything, you need a map. An architecture of how work actually flows through your organization. Who does what, when, and why. Where the handoffs happen. Where things break down.
That map becomes your requirements. It shows you what to build, where to automate, and what to leave alone.
Without it, you’re guessing. And guessing at six or seven figures is an expensive mistake.
The companies that succeed with technology do the boring work first.
They document how work gets done before they try to change it. They understand the current state before they design the future state. They know what problem they’re actually solving before they buy the solution.
That’s not the exciting part. But it’s the part that makes everything else work.
Are you about to implement new technology? Do you have a map of how work currently gets done? If not, that’s where to start.