Briefing #7: The $2.3 Trillion Question
Are you building AI solutions or AI theater?
Note: This briefing was originally published on LinkedIn on September 5, 2025. It has been migrated to our new home on Substack to create a complete archive. Multi-format features like video and audio commentary are available for all new briefings published from April 2026 onwards.
There is a ghost haunting the enterprise: the ghost of transformations past. A recent study from the Taylor & Francis Group highlighted that a staggering $2.3 trillion has been wasted globally over the past decade on failed digital transformation programs — initiatives that were too ambitious, too complex, and too disconnected from the business to ever succeed.
Today, as AI commands boardroom attention and nine-figure budgets, we must ask the uncomfortable question: Are we simply building a new, more expensive stage for the same play?
For many, the answer is yes. They aren’t building AI solutions. They’re staging AI theater.
AI theater is the production of technologically impressive, yet strategically hollow, demonstrations. It’s the pilot program, using perfectly cleansed data in a lab environment, that gets a standing ovation from the board but never sees a real-world production environment. It’s the press release celebrating the launch of an internal chatbot that employees quietly abandon after a week. It’s the dashboard glowing with vanity metrics (”queries handled,” “models trained”) that have no discernible link to revenue growth or cost reduction.
This isn’t a failure of technology. It’s a failure of intent. AI theater happens when the goal is to be seen doing AI, rather than to fundamentally rewire the business with AI.
The non-obvious insight is that AI theater is seductive because it follows the path of least resistance. It avoids the messy, cross-functional conflict required for real change. It’s far easier to get budget for a contained “experiment” owned by the innovation team than it is to orchestrate the complete overhaul of a core process owned by the VP of Operations. The former is a project; the latter is a transformation. The former produces a demo; the latter produces a new P&L reality.
As McKinsey notes, the companies that truly outcompete are “rewired” from the inside out. They don’t just bolt on new technology; they change their core processes, talent, and operating models. This is the work of building a solution. It’s difficult, it’s political, and it’s slow. AI theater, by contrast, is fast, exciting, and delivers the immediate gratification of a good performance. But the applause is fleeting, and the business is left unchanged.
So, how do you diagnose if you’re a patron of the arts? Here is a simple, actionable heuristic:
The Language Test: Can you and every business counterpart with a stake in your AI initiative describe its ultimate success using the exact same sentence, without using a single piece of tech jargon?
If the tech lead talks about “99% model accuracy” while the business lead talks about “market share,” you have a problem. But if both can say, “This project will reduce our cost-to-serve by 15% by automating the dispute resolution process,” you’re on the path to building a solution.
The language of solutions is the language of business outcomes. The language of theater is the language of technical outputs.
The choice before every leader is not which AI platform to adopt, but which play to run. Will you accept the temporary applause of AI theater, or will you commit to the difficult, unglamorous, and deeply valuable work of building a truly intelligent enterprise?