For thirty years, a failed ERP could be buried inside an architecture diagram. A failed AI chatbot gets screenshotted and forwarded to the board before lunch. T

For thirty years, a failed ERP could be buried inside an architecture diagram. A failed AI chatbot gets screenshotted and forwarded to the board before lunch. That's the shift this piece is about. But the part I find more interesting is the second fear – not that AI fails visibly, but that it succeeds visibly. A system that genuinely compresses legal review time or automates reporting doesn't just create efficiency. It makes existing roles and empires contestable. And that's when the corporate immune system kicks in: it won't be compatible, it can't be done here, it will take years, it's probably illegal, who takes responsibility. The result is what I call the controlled mediocrity trap – organisations deploying AI that's good enough to avoid embarrassment but not so effective that it threatens anyone. 74% of CIOs in Dataiku's 2026 survey regretted at least one major AI platform decision. I think a lot of that regret is political, not technical. I suspect this is more common than people admit...