Stop Automating Chaos

Your AI Initiative Needs a Clean Foundation

There is a lot of buzz about the potential for AI to automate everything, but many leaders are missing the trick. In reality, most teams don't actually know how their work is organised.

Yes, the promise of AI is transformative, but a recent Hubl study found that while 57% of leaders feel their organisations are AI-ready, a mere 8.6% actually are. This disconnect stems from a critical failure to declutter and streamline business processes before automation.

This rush to adopt AI without addressing underlying data issues is creating a massive problem for the future:

• Inaccurate insights: AI models trained on incomplete data deliver misleading predictions, undermining decision-making
• Operational inefficiencies: Automation powered by unreliable data increases errors rather than reducing them, creating costly rework cycles
• Compliance vulnerabilities: Weak data governance heightens regulatory breach risks, especially in heavily regulated industries

It's the classic GIGO principle: Garbage In = Garbage Out.

The race to AI isn't just about speed. Rather than automating chaos, there's a whole bunch of pre-work required before you even touch AI. Take a lesson from Marie Kondo's Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

By investing the time to map, optimise, and clean up your processes first, you're not just preparing for AI, you're building an organisation that is more antifragile, future-ready and disruption-proof.

What is one process in your organisation that you could declutter this week?