AI Isn’t the Problem, It’s How We Approach It
Written by Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller
Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field.
AI has done something years of leadership training, strategy deep dives and corporate self-congratulation hasn’t. It’s exposed how often smart people are wrong, overconfident and completely unaware of the gaps in their own thinking.
The rush to implement AI is creating a false sense of progress. AI adoption is like a free-for-all as many rush to roll out tools so they’re not left behind. Yet beneath that momentum sits a more complex reality. According to recent global studies, over 70% of organisations are already using or experimenting with AI, but fewer than a third report seeing meaningful impact on decision-making or performance.
With global AI spending running into the hundreds of billions, even a small percentage of misdirected effort represents a significant cost. Much of that isn’t lost in the technology, but in the time spent experimenting without clear purpose, reworking outputs, or buying tools that aren’t fit for purpose.
Inbal Rodnay specialises in guiding organisations with adopting AI in practical, safe and commercially useful ways. It’s not about accelerating adoption for its own sake, but to start from a place where the organisation knows why and what they need AI for.
“This haste reveals a lack of thought into how AI is being used. For many firms, it’s like they are trying to put together an Ikea bookshelf without the instructions,” Inbal said. “AI isn’t a shortcut to better outcomes or better judgement, but it does demand better thinking to raise the standard required to use it well.”
The same blind spots keep surfacing. People are jumping into AI before they’ve properly thought through what they need help with. They waste time on prompts that don’t factor in the big picture and people confuse doing something with making progress. Because the answers sound convincing, even when the thinking behind them is patchy, AI can back up what they already think instead of challenging it.
“People read into responses what they want to see, especially when they’re under pressure or in a hurry. AI is exposing flaws in the way people think before they use it,” Inbal said.
There's strong research showing people equate clarity and confidence with correctness. It’s called the fluency heuristic. If something is easy to read or sounds authoritative, people are more likely to believe it.
“AI is a powerful mirror exposing the gaps, habits and weak spots in the thinking people bring to it,” Inbal said. “AI sounds convincing, even when it’s wrong.”
“This can lead people down a path where they’re buying all the tools and experimenting without really understanding what they’re trying to achieve beyond making work more productive.”
People assume AI will fill capability gaps, correct bad reasoning and somehow add rigour to work that was flimsy to begin with. What it is doing is magnifying what’s already there. If a team lacks clarity, discipline or critical thinking, AI won’t rescue them. It scales the mess.
Inbal said it’s important that basic AI literacy is built in before any tool is used. “People need to know what AI is good at, where it falls short, and how easily it can produce confident but incomplete answers. Without that baseline, they can’t interpret outputs properly and they will use it anyway without guidelines or insight,” she said.
“The firms seeing value from AI aren’t the ones moving at lightning speed. The ones who take the time to pause, and develop repeatable, reliable ways of using AI.”
Without a plan for what problem AI is solving, there are millions going down the drain because a large proportion of AI initiatives never move beyond experimentation. Industry estimates suggest that up to 80% of AI projects fail to scale or deliver expected results, because organisations rush into tools before they have the clarity, capability or internal alignment to use them properly.
Inbal said it’s important to stop treating AI adoption as a software rollout. “AI adoption is a thinking discipline. If people aren’t trained to question, verify and frame problems properly, no amount of tooling will save them,” she said.
“It’s ok to normalise uncertainty. We’re not all early adopters who have the space, time and resources to play around with something to see what sticks.”
Early adopters are the explorers. They test everything and expect things to break. They know they don’t fully understand AI yet, and are comfortable with that. “Failure is part of how they learn. Most businesses can’t and shouldn’t operate like early adopters,” Inbal said. “Implementing AI into established systems, client work and decision-making where the cost of error is high and without understanding the risks is a recipe for disaster.”
Successful adoption has less to do with moving fast and more to do with creating the right conditions for people to use AI well. “A team needs to feel safe enough to learn, test and question,” she said.
“I work with the early and late majority. But what I’m really building is a confident majority. People who aren’t rushing to be first, but also aren’t sitting back waiting. They understand what matters, what to use and why, so they can move forward with confidence. These are the confident majority.”
Annette Densham, Chief Storyteller Multi-award-winning PR specialist Annette Densham is considered the go-to for all things business storytelling, award submission writing, and assisting business leaders in establishing themselves as authorities in their field. She has shared her insights into storytelling, media, and business across Australia, the UK, and the US, speaking for the Professional Speakers Association, Stevie Awards, Queensland Government, and many more. Three-time winner of the Grand Stevie Award for Women in Business, gold Stevie International Business Award, and a finalist in Australian Small Business Champion awards, Annette audaciously challenges anyone in small business to cast aside modesty, embrace their genius, and share their stories.
