AI can’t fix a business system with broken processes

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TL;DR

88% of organizations use AI but only 7% have scaled it (McKinsey). Dessy Pavlova argues the gap exists because companies apply AI to fragmented operations rather than redesigning the process first. She builds systems where a single human decision triggers cascading updates across websites, scheduling, and finance, with stopgates for human oversight. NBER research found AI boosted support-agent productivity 14% on average, but the technology helped people perform work, not eliminate the need to understand it.

I have come to believe that one of the biggest misconceptions about AI is also one of the most expensive: the idea that technology can repair a business that has never streamlined how its processes actually work. AI can accelerate an operation, automate repetitive work, and surface problems at remarkable speed. Give it a fragmented business, however, and you may simply get a faster version of the fragmentation.

The numbers should make business...

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