Here we go again. Once again, companies are taking a revolutionary technology and using it to do exactly what they were doing before. Only this time we're talking about artificial intelligence, and the numbers are merciless: 78 percent of companies have implemented generative AI but the same percentage report zero impact on the bottom line.
Welcome to yet another chapter in a story that has been repeating itself for three decades.
What they were doing, "We digitized everything! Our catalogs are on CD-ROM!"Reality: They were taking paper catalogs, scanning them, and putting them on a disk. Same processes, same way of working, same inefficiency. Just on a different medium.
What they were doing, "We are online! We have a website!"The reality: A digital brochure. No e-commerce, no interaction, no rethought process. Just paper transferred to HTML.
What they did: "We're mobile-ready!"The reality: The normal website compressed onto a small screen. No native app, no mobile-optimized process, no rethought user experience.
What did they do: "We are a digital company!"The reality: PDF instead of paper, email instead of fax, but the exact same workflows as 30 years ago.
Today we are witnessing yet another repetition of the same script:
What they do: They use the world's most advanced AI to... write slightly better emails.
Theproblem: These tools provide widespread improvements but are difficult to measure because the benefits tend to be subtly distributed among employees.
What they do: Nearly 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365 Copilot to make the same PowerPoint presentations as always, only faster.
Theproblem: Zero rethinking of processes. Same meeting, same meeting, same inefficiency.
What they do: 84 percent of companies get stuck in pilot mode for more than a year, testing solutions that never change how they actually work.
Theproblem: They experiment endlessly without ever questioning the underlying process.
Every time it is the same story:
Research confirms the pattern:
Result: Same numbers, same frustration as always.
Let's take the perfect example of the paradox in action: corporate email management.
"We use ChatGPT for email!"
The result: managers spending from 6 hours to... 5.5 hours a day on email. Marginal improvement in a fundamentally broken process.
"We eliminate 70 percent of emails by rethinking communication."
The 4 Categories of Unnecessary Emails:
FIRST (Traditional Approach):
AFTER (5 months of AI revolution):
How they did:
ROI: The recovered time paid for the whole implementation in 3 months.
Adding a chatbot to your website is easy. Completely rethinking how you manage customer service is difficult.
Putting ChatGPT in email is fast. Eliminating 70% of email by rethinking internal communication is complex.
One of the most persistent barriers is the silo mentality that pervades departmental structures Overcoming AI Implementation Barriers in Large Organizations. Changing processes means admitting that what you were doing before was wrong.
Companies believe that technology solves problems by itself. It doesn't. It never has.
Leading AI companies achieved 1.5 times higher revenue growth, 1.6 times higher shareholder returns AI Adoption in 2024: 74% of Companies Struggle to Achieve and Scale Value | BCG.
What they do differently: They do not add AI to existing processes. They start from scratch.
Wrong question: "How can we add AI to our sales process?"
Right question: "If we were to reinvent sales from scratch today, how would we do it?"
Don't start with the technology. Start with the result you want to achieve.
Workflow redesign has the greatest effect on the ability to see impact from AI systems.
Not "improve." Eliminate and rebuild.
For each business process, ask yourself:
Step 1: Brutal Audit
Step 2: Radical Elimination
Step 3: AI-First Reconstruction
Research on the Generative AI Paradox confirms what we already knew for 30 years: most companies do not know how to innovate.
They take the most advanced technology in the world and use it to do the exact same things, only slightly faster.
It is always the same story.
The difference this time is that the data are crystal clear. We can no longer hide behind "it takes time to see results."
Experimentation is over; companies must act now Seizing the agentic AI advantage - McKinsey's (QuantumBlack).
Those who continue to do "digital + 1" with AI will fall behind forever.Those who have the courage to start from scratch will dominate the next decade.
The question is: Do you have the courage to admit that everything you do is obsolete? Or do you prefer to add a chatbot and hope that will be enough?
A: That's what everyone said, in every industry, for every technology. 77 percent of manufacturers have already implemented AI 2025 AI Adoption Across Industries: Trends You Don't Want to Miss-if manufacturing can do it, so can you.
A: 94 percent of cases with negative ROI come from organizations that allocate less than 10 percent of their IT budget to AI. Not investing in change costs more than investing. The email example shows ROI in 3 months.
A: Your customers got used to CDs, then websites, then mobile, then digital. They will also get used to AI. The problem is not them, it's you.
A: Show him this article and the historical data. Then ask him, "Do you want to be Kodak or do you want to be Netflix?" And show him the email case study: -70% wasted time in 5 months.
A: Choose the most expensive/slowest/frustrating process you have. Don't ask yourself how to improve it. Ask yourself how to eliminate it completely. Start with email - everyone hates it, everyone will see the benefits right away.
A: You know what's really risky? Continuing to do what you were doing 30 years ago while your competitors are starting from scratch.
A: Week 1-2: Track all emails by category. Week 3-4: Eliminate the most useless 20%. Week 5-8: Automate everything that can be automated. Week 9-12: New communication culture. You will see results from the first month.
Sources and Insights:
The Generative AI Paradox is not a technological problem. It is a problem of courage. Do you have what it takes to stop repeating history?
Don't use AI to write better emails. Use it to build a world where emails are no longer needed.
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