Boards under pressure reach for AI in two postures: as a shield against something they think is coming for them, or as a lever they think will pull the stock up. Both postures skip a step. Before you can point AI at a threat, you have to know precisely what the threat is and precisely where your business is exposed to it.

Most management theory treats a business as a collection of processes. We optimise them, automate them, document them, measure their efficiency. I think the abstraction is wrong. A business runs on information.

If your company is doing something with AI this year, there is a fair chance it is this: take a process that already exists and make the steps run without people. Faster ticket routing. Auto-drafted reports. An agent that moves the record from one stage to the next.