What Senior Leaders Must Fix Before AI Can Deliver Value

Every executive right now is living the same scene. The board says, “Do something with AI.” And so begin the frenzy—pilots, demos, quick wins, hackathons. Everyone’s building something. Almost no one’s building anything that matters.

Since ChatGPT exploded in 2022, searches for “AI tool” have gone off the charts. But the reality is that AI activity is skyrocketing. Impact isn’t.

The gap between the two is widening into a crisis of execution.

The Illusion of Progress

Why does this gap exist? Because most organizations are trying to solve a strategic problem with a technical volume knob. They believe that if they just throw enough use cases at the wall, one will stick and transform the company.

But transformation doesn't happen by accident.

This masterclass is a wake-up call. It is a playbook for leaders who are ready to stop chasing the "shiny object" and start producing real value. To do that, we have to dismantle four dangerous misconceptions preventing AI from delivering value.

Truth #1:

AI Doesn’t Fix Dysfunction. It Magnifies It.

The first instinct in the "frenzy phase" is to apply AI to slow processes to make them faster. But speed is dangerous if the underlying mechanism is broken.

You can’t automate alignment.You can’t optimize confusion.And you can’t prompt your way out of a broken culture.

Many teams treat AI as a Band-Aid for bad processes. But as John Vetan, co-founder of Design Sprint Academy, says:

AI is like a mirror. It doesn’t create new problems. It exposes the ones already there.

When organizations skip clarity and go straight to coding, AI becomes an accelerant for chaos.

Suddenly, disconnected prototypes multiply. Demos look impressive. Building sessions tick boxes. But results stall.

AI won’t make your culture smarter. It will simply make your dysfunction faster.

Truth #2:

The Buy-vs-Build Debate Is a Distraction

Once teams realize they have a process problem, they usually retreat to a technology debate: "Should we build our own LLM or buy a SaaS tool?"

This is the wrong question.

When you think about it, most teams don’t even know what problem they’re solving—yet they’re already fighting about the procurement strategy. That’s like arguing over what kind of rocket engine to use before you’ve decided where you’re going.

The buy-vs-build debate keeps leaders busy comparing features and vendors while skipping the most important step: defining what actually matters to the business.

Because here’s the fact no one admits in meetings: you’ll need to do all three.

• You’ll buy generic tools to boost productivity.
• You’ll license specialized tools for critical domains.
• You’ll build custom tools where your competitive advantage lives.

It’s not an either/or. It’s alignment.

And that’s exactly why Gianluca Mauro, founder of AI Academy, created the AI Stack Map—a simple 2×2 that slices through the confusion and helps you see, at a glance, what to build, what to buy, and what to forget.

Don’t start by asking “Which AI should we use?”. Start by asking “Which part of our business deserves it?”

👉 To go deeper, checkout Gianluca Mauro’s article on LinkedIn.

Truth #3:

The Most Experienced People Use AI the Most—And Trust It the Least

If you aren't sure which parts of the business deserve AI, look at who is using it. The data reveals a paradox that junior leaders often miss.

In a 2025 field survey, experienced engineers and managers—those with 8+ years under their belt—were found to use AI more than anyone else. But they trusted it less than anyone else.

Why?Because they’ve seen the cycles.They’ve seen every “silver bullet” become another maintenance problem.

One respondent summed it up perfectly:

“AI generates code faster. But faster code never fixed a poor understanding of why the code exists.”

These veterans aren’t cynical—they’re simply “wise.” They are the ones asking the right question: “Where does AI actually add meaning, not just speed?”

They know the difference between using tools and building capability.

Truth #4:

AI Won’t Save Your Meetings—But It Will Expose Misalignment

Finally, the biggest blocker isn't code quality; it's decision quality.

AI can generate 1,000 answers in a second, but it cannot facilitate a single difficult conversation. If your meetings are slow, unstructured, and ego-driven, AI will simply expose that weakness faster.

At Design Sprint Academy, we’ve seen this firsthand: teams that can’t align around a shared goal, can’t prioritize, and can’t decide—end up automating confusion.

Speed doesn’t kill. Misalignment at speed kills.

Facilitation is no longer a soft skill. It’s an AI survival skill. Because while leaders chase “prompt engineering,” the real challenge is human.

How do you design conversations that lead to clarity, alignment, and momentum?

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The Fix: Stop Building Rockets. Start Pointing Them in The Right Direction.

The companies winning with AI aren’t the loudest.

They’re the clearest.

They aren’t shipping agents for the sake of it.

They’re aligning teams around:

• the right opportunities
• the right customers
• the right business value

They upskill their people not with random AI training — but with context-driven capability building.

This is the heart of the blueprint to build smarter with AI, created by AI Academy and Design Sprint Academy.

Together, they’re helping organizations bridge the missing middle — the dangerous gap between ambition and execution.

Quoting Gianluca Mauro:

“We don’t just need to build more rockets, we need to point them in the right direction.”

So here’s your moment to pause.

Before your team builds another prototype or licenses another tool, ask one question:

“What’s the most important problem in our business—and how can AI help us solve it?”

Because in the end, transformation isn’t about the tools you use.

It’s about the clarity you lead with.

👇 Next Steps

• 📺 Watch the full masterclass: A Blueprint to Build Smarter with AI‍
• 📬 Join the Agentic AI Bootcamp Waiting list in 2026