How to move from AI-infancy to an AI-optimised organisation

It’s time to up your AI game

You’re likely already generating content through ChatGPT, managing time with Fireflies, and boosting productivity with Microsoft’s Copilot. Congratulations – you’ve ticked the AI box!

But un-congratulations! LLMs are not the limit of AI, and you probably bought the tools without thinking about the long-term strategy. Welcome to AI Purgatory!

The maturity scale

AI maturity models track the evolution of AI within organisations. The jump from one level of maturity to another is significant, and in our experience, it takes 12 to 18 months to navigate. So, if you’re just starting your AI journey now, you’re looking at 5 to 10 years to get to a place where you can genuinely call yourself an AI-native organisation. Your business might be dead by then.

Strategic use isn’t on leaders’ radar

We’re seeing a consistent pattern with our clients: leaders use LLMs daily. Faster analysis, better emails, quicker iterations – tactical use. Very few are using it strategically, and most are avoiding the difficult conversation around potential disruption to ways of working, and the business model.

Underpinning all it is a data problem

Gartner’s 2025 research found that 73% of enterprise data leaders rank data quality as the primary barrier to AI success, ahead of model accuracy, cost, or talent. We’ve seen the same with one of our clients: only 35% of its leaders believe their data is well-structured, and they rank “data quality and trust in the data” as their biggest challenge. It’s clear:

You can’t build an AI-native organisation on weak foundations.

Why this happens (and what to do about it)

You have a problem; you buy a tool to solve it and then figure out how to make it work. And then it doesn’t. So eventually you buy another tool. And thus enter an infinite loop. And that’s how most tech adoption has always gone. It’s been even worse with AI because people are buying the tool because having the tool fixes the problem of not having a tool.

Skipping strategic thinking, you end up with:

• Wasted investment – Tools that don’t connect to any real business outcomes.
• Active resistance – Employees who feel threatened, who don’t understand why they’re doing things differently, who haven’t heard a clear message about what this means for them.
• Missed opportunities – You bought an AI solution to optimise what you’re already doing, rather than questioning whether you should be doing it at all.
• Fragmentation – Every team does their own thing and no coherent vision.

The four things you can do to break the cycle

1. Take employees on the change journey

Deploying tools doesn’t enable change. AI is a different beast; compared to previous tech you’ve adopted, it’s unlike any other system you’ve introduced before.

There’s plenty of evidence that proves employees will actively resist or sabotage AI activities if they believe it threatens their careers. And given that many senior leaders are M.I.A. when it comes to providing clear, authentic, positive messaging around AI, that’s a completely understandable human response.

2. Market AI like a new product

AI is a proposition like any other product or service. It requires a marketing mindset to move it from the latest shiny technology to something that is going to positively impact individuals and ultimately customers. This framing would typically be done in a messaging house, with a clear articulation of the value, not just to customers or clients but also to individual employees and their teams.

Creating an authentic voice for your organisation requires work. It’s not something you can just plug into Copilot, Claude, or ChatGPT and get an answer. You need to understand specific motivations and context to design messaging that is relevant, meaningful, and culturally specific.

3. Get your execs to think big

The messaging and clarity around AI need to come from the strategy, and that strategy needs to be thought through by your exec team in a joined-up and coordinated way. All the leaders in your business need to have a clear sense of what the future could look like and challenge assumptions about how business works today. That’s what our AI Boost for executives is designed to do.

Get people in the room, get them thinking through the big questions, and come out the other side with a clear, bespoke strategy for the business that also considers the impact on people, at every level.

4. Map your opportunities before buying

With AI, we see the same problems recurring in technology. The tendency of all organisations is to buy something and then figure out how to make good on that investment afterwards.

Avoid this mistake by mapping your organisation’s data landscape. Understand where automation and AI could create tangible value. Look at your current operations and ask: “what if we didn’t have to do it this way?”

Take a client we’re working with now on a data and AI leadership development programme. They’re in a physical-product, branch-based business. Everyone assumes that’s their model forever. But what if you asked:

• Does AI threaten the value of that product to customers?
• Do customers actually need to interact with you in a branch?
• Do they need a human in that interaction? And if so, what makes that interaction worth staying loyal for?

When it comes to AI, nothing is off the table.

The disruption we’re all going to see in the next 5 to 10 years will come from new businesses, not existing brands. And that’s because they’re more likely to spot an application of AI you haven’t even thought of yet.

You can acquire those new innovations or build your own. Either way, you need to be asking the questions.

It’s time to get unstuck

The message is clear: all things related to people and behaviour change are complex. You can’t just think about it from one angle, such as adoption. You need to think holistically:

• Your business strategy
• Your culture
• The strengths and weaknesses of your current brand
• The assumptions baked into how you operate

This isn’t just for the big corporate firms. Whether you’re navigating legacy technology, old assumptions, or just trying to figure out what comes next, you’re facing a choice: keep doing what you’ve always done or get serious about thinking differently.

Solvd Together, in partnership with FOIL, is the best place to support and facilitate the conversations that need to happen now, so you’re not caught short later as this technology evolves.

If the long-term game is to build an autonomic business with humans in the loop, it’s going to look very different to what you do today. We’re only just scratching the surface, but open-mindedness and a willingness to look at your people strategy alongside your data and AI strategy are what’s really going to make a difference at this stage.

So, if you’re ready to move beyond AI infancy and take a strategic step towards an AI-native future, let’s talk.