AI-washing: the gap between the sticker and the substance
Before you buy an 'AI-powered' feature, ask to see it with the AI switched off. Three vendor questions that separate real AI tools from a new sticker.
9 essays
Before you buy an 'AI-powered' feature, ask to see it with the AI switched off. Three vendor questions that separate real AI tools from a new sticker.
Plenty of AI startups now quote ARR that is really a run rate or a signed pipeline. How the metric got stretched, and what to ask before you trust it.
Every company now claims to be an AI company. A practical five-point test to tell genuine AI transformation from a rebrand with just a chatbot on top.
Your AI strategy is probably theatre, and your employees see straight through it. That visibility is a real cost, in trust, credibility, and adoption.
Relabelling ordinary automation as 'AI' is tempting, but buyers now discount the word. Honest, specific positioning beats the rebrand for small firms.
The AI and jobs panic points at the bottom rung. The real squeeze is in the middle, the reskilling remedy is hollow, and much of it is simply theatre.
Most agentic software is assistive once it lands in your account. The questions to ask so you can tell roadmap from running product before you buy in.
Nearly 80,000 tech jobs cut in Q1 2026, half blamed on AI. Even OpenAI's CEO calls it AI-washing. A simple test separates theatre from transformation.
Explore the key differences between AI and algorithmic intelligence, and their impact on business today and tomorrow