Everyone’s wrong about why enterprise AI is failing

While large enterprise Gen AI pilots often fail to deliver measurable ROI, the author argues that a significant transformation is already occurring as individual employees use consumer AI tools to automate their own tasks. The real "gen AI paradox" is that companies are investing heavily in expensive, top-down architectures while simultaneously blocking the effective, bottom-up innovation currently happening through "shadow AI." To succeed, organizations should focus on securing and scaling these existing worker-led workflows rather than waiting for a future revolution.