It is surprisingly easy to look active on AI without changing anything that truly matters. The problem is not that too little is being done but that much of what is done never reaches everyday work.
Many organizations are currently engaged in intense AI activity. Strategies are written, pilots launched, tools procured. On the surface, there is motion. Yet many employees describe their daily work as largely unchanged. When that happens, the AI initiative has often slipped into theater, says Carl Heath.
Theater emerges when the focus shifts from changing how work is done to signaling that action is being taken.
– This is rarely cynical. More often, it is driven by legitimate pressure to demonstrate seriousness to boards, owners, or markets. The issue is that such activity consumes something more valuable than budget: organizational trust and change energy.
Technology fixation
Three patterns occur frequently. The first is technology fixation. Organizations buy licenses and platforms assuming implementation will follow naturally. It feels decisive and concrete yet often results in expensive tools used sporadically or not at all. When benefits fail to materialize, blame is placed on “organizational resistance,” rather than on the lack of time, capability, and anchoring.
The pilot graveyard
The second pattern is the pilot graveyard. Numerous experiments are launched with engaged teams and promising results, but without a plan for institutionalization. When pilots never become practice, the organization learns a dangerous lesson: innovation leads nowhere. Cynicism follows.
Misalignment with real work
The third pattern is delegating AI entirely to IT. It is tempting. It relieves leadership of a complex responsibility and places the matter where it feels technically manageable. But in doing so, AI becomes an infrastructure issue rather than a business one. The result is often solutions that are secure and stable but poorly aligned with real work.
How does theater reveal itself?
– When strategies exist but ways of working remain unchanged. When pilots are counted, but outcomes are not. When leadership talks about AI externally, but rarely internally and even less in terms of learning and uncertainty.
The greatest danger of AI theater is not cost, says Carl Heath.
– It is the erosion of organizational will. When the next initiative arrives, it is met with fatigue rather than curiosity, regardless of how strong the strategy looks on paper.
Three questions for the executive team:
- Which AI initiatives have actually changed how work is done?
- What have we stopped — and why?
- How do we ensure pilots become practice, not presentations?
Carl Heath is a senior researcher at RISE and a doctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg, focusing on leadership, AI and digital resilience. His work explores how organisations can navigate technological change while strengthening human judgement, trust and agency. He approaches AI not as a technical issue, but as a leadership and organisational challenge rooted in learning and everyday practice.