The Missing Link Between AI Effort and Business Impact

The scale of AI ambition continues to grow, but outcomes tell a more uneven story. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, 42% of organizations abandoned the majority of their AI initiatives in the past year. This is not a story of weak intent or lack of experimentation. It reflects a more common pattern: organizations move quickly on AI without first deciding what must actually change.  

AI ambition is no longer the challenge. Most leadership teams agree that AI matters, that it will reshape work, and that waiting carries risk. What is less clear is what that ambition commits leaders to do differently.  

Too often, ambition shows up as activity. Teams experiment with tools. Pilots launch. Progress is discussed in terms of how much is happening rather than what is changing. The result is movement without shared direction. 

Organizations that see real impact take a different path. They move beyond ambition to define a clear vision for where AI should change work and decisions. Then they redesign how the organization operates so that the vision can actually be carried out.  

When AI ambition is mistaken for vision  

Most organizations don’t struggle with AI because they lack effort. They struggle because effort is mistaken for clarity. 

As expectations around AI rise, teams feel pressure to act, resulting in a wave of pilots and tools that generate pockets of progress without a unifying direction. But without a shared understanding of how AI is meant to change core work or decision-making, these efforts remain disconnected.  

When ambition takes the place of vision, teams move forward, but not together. Decisions about where to invest, what to scale, and what to stop are delayed. Over time, AI becomes something the organization is “trying” rather than deliberately building. 

This is where progress quietly slows. Not because people resist AI, but because the organization never made the choices required to support deeper change.  

Signs your organization hasn’t moved beyond AI ambition 

You can often spot this pattern early. Common signals include: 

• High levels of AI activity, but no shared definition of success.  

• Pilots launched without clear criteria to scale, stop, or integrate.  

• Internal messaging that celebrates innovation without clarifying priorities. 

• Confusion about who owns key decisions across the business, technology, and operations. 

• Limited clarity on how AI will actually change day-to-day work. 

These are not signs of failure. They are signs that ambition has outpaced direction.

What a clear AI vision looks like 

A clear AI vision is not about doing more. It’s about deciding more.  

Organizations that move forward start by anchoring AI efforts to specific business goals. Leaders agree on where AI should meaningfully change work or decisions, and why that change matters. From there, they focus on a small number of priorities with real implications for how people work. 

Just as important, they are explicit about what will wait. Focus creates alignment. Alignment makes execution possible.  

Vision, in this sense, is not a statement. It is a set of choices the organization is willing to stand behind.  

From vision to operating model: Making change stick  

This is where many AI efforts break down. 

A clear vision inevitably raises practical questions. Who owns which decisions? How do roles change? How is work coordinated across teams? How is success measured? These questions can’t be answered through pilots alone. 

Changes to the operating model are what allow AI to move from experimentation into everyday work. They determine whether insights are acted on, whether decisions are trusted, and whether teams know how AI fits into their responsibilities. Without this clarity, even well-defined strategies struggle to take hold.  

Take the Next Step

The S&P data tells a clear story. Organizations are not walking away from AI because it lacks potential. They are walking away because too many initiatives are launched before leaders agreed on what had to change to sustain them. 

In our upcoming webinar on January 28, we will explore how leaders move beyond ambition to define a clear AI vision and design the operating model that prevents promising efforts from quietly being abandoned.  

Join our January 28 webinar, Making the AI Vision Real: Turning Strategy into a System for Impact.  

What we’ll cover: 
✅ Moving from AI ambition to a clear, business-driven vision 
✅ Defining success and aligning leaders around a shared case for change 
✅ Translating vision into an executable operating model 
✅ Clarifying roles, governance, and decision rights 
✅ Building early momentum tied to measurable outcomes 

Hope to see you there!  

Andrea