AI readiness myth: Why most businesses aren’t there yet

Jeandré du Randt, BE Innovation Lead, 4Sight.

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We all know the narrative: AI is everywhere and moving fast. Tech giants are investing billions in compute, models and infrastructure. And the message being sold to you? Adopt AI now or risk irrelevance.

Let’s challenge that notion.

As executives, we’re no strangers to tech hype cycles. We tweak our strategies, reframe our messaging and scramble to align with the trend of the day. After all, we’ve seen what happens when companies don’t evolve – Kodak, Nokia, BlackBerry. The implication is clear: innovate, evolve or get left behind.

But when it comes to AI, the question isn’t: “Should you adopt?”

The real question is: “Is your business even ready? And if not, how do we get you there?”

According to the latest Gartner survey, while 79% of enterprises say they’re piloting or deploying AI, fewer than 15% have the organisational readiness to integrate it effectively. This gap is the silent killer of AI ROI – and it’s widening as hype accelerates.

Most companies are still wrestling with foundational digital work – migrating workloads to the cloud, modernising outdated systems, consolidating data silos and moving off spreadsheets and logbooks.

If your teams are still capturing production data in Excel or on paper, you are not alone. Many successful companies start here and, with the right approach, it can quickly become the launchpad for AI success. The reality is, AI doesn’t deliver change on top of chaos; it amplifies what’s already there. Without a strong digital foundation, even the most powerful models can’t deliver meaningful impact or ROI.

At 4Sight, we often say:

We take companies from No-Sight → Hindsight → Insight → Foresight → 4AI.

But here’s the catch: you can’t jump from No-Sight to 4AI without first confronting the digital gaps in your business. Each step requires intentional investment in people, processes and technology, anchored by adoption and change management.

Taking your business on a journey from No Sight, where you have businesses operating blindly with no data visibility, to Hindsight, where decisions are made based on historical information, analysing what has already happened, to Insight with near real-time decision-making where some visibility is introduced. We then move to Foresight, where we can predict the future using valuable insights to make informed decisions, and finally 4AI, where autonomous solutions not only recommend actions but also execute decisions independently.

Too often, businesses see AI readiness as a static checklist – systems migrated, data cleaned, tools deployed. But true readiness is ongoing. It’s about adaptability, not arrival. It requires evolving mindsets, feedback loops and constant recalibration and deliberate attention to how your people adopt change.

In a space evolving as rapidly as AI, no one knows everything – but staying curious and committed to progress is what matters. It’s less about ticking boxes and more about building muscle: digital muscle, data literacy, cultural resilience and strategic patience, all supported through intentional change management.

Through our 'change intelligence' work, we’ve seen it time and time again that tech alone isn’t enough. Emotional and cultural readiness makes or breaks transformation.

Sustainable change occurs when:

• People feel included, informed and invested – not just instructed.
• Leaders champion learning and build psychological safety, especially in charged shifts such as AI adoption.
• Organisations embed early wins, show clear relevance and establish continuous feedback loops.

• Intelligence isn’t only in algorithms – it lives in how humans adapt, trust and collaborate.

AI is innovation’s accelerator – but without empathy, alignment and intentional change protocols, it remains underutilised potential.

AI is reshaping how we work, compete and operate. But only companies with digitised, trusted, real-time data infrastructure will benefit.

The rest? They’ll risk running expensive AI toolsets with no results – but with the right digital foundations, those same AI toolsets can quickly become high-impact success stories.

So, does that mean you need to spend millions modernising your entire tech stack before seeing AI results? Not exactly.

Yes, digital modernisation is a prerequisite – but there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

• Choose a business-critical domain – like customer data, supply chain or financial reporting.
• Digitise it.
• Build trust in both the data and the people working with it.
• Then introduce AI to that segment purposefully, not just as a shiny overlay.

This is the route we implement for most of our customers. It’s anchored in human-centric change and not forced tech adoption. You’ll also see measurable ROI faster and use this experience as a blueprint to expand.

This isn’t about chasing perfection. It’s about building momentum – together.

If your systems are outdated and your data is unreliable, AI will only amplify the situation. But when modernisation is synchronised with intentional adoption strategies, AI becomes the force multiplier. Especially when applied to one domain at a time, you’ll unlock measured growth that compounds – generating real, trusted value.

AI readiness isn’t about rushing – it’s about pacing yourself with intention.

Start by assessing:

• What systems do people actively use – and trust?
• Where are the cultural barriers to adoption?
• How aligned is your leadership on change momentum?

Then, let’s build forward – together.

Do you want to know how ready your business is? A trusted and experienced digital 4AI transformation partner like 4Sight has an AI Readiness Assessment where you can get a clear view of where you and your people stand – and where we can help you start.

You don’t need to be ‘there’ yet. You just need to know where to begin.