Is AI’s Capabilities a Scam?
The one million dollar question every board asks me: Have AI Capabilities Been Exaggerated?
Here is my answer.
Anthropic’s research shows a clear gap between what AI could theoretically do and what it is actually doing in the workplace today.
The blue area represents potential. The red area represents reality.
Many people will look at that gap and conclude that AI has been exaggerated. They will say the technology works well in controlled experiments, but fails when it meets real organizations, real employees and real business problems.
That interpretation is understandable. But I think it is incomplete.
The gap does not only show the limitations of AI. It also shows the limitations of our organizations.
Most companies have introduced AI without changing the conditions around the work. They give employees access to a chatbot, organize a short training session and expect productivity to increase. Existing processes remain untouched. Decision making remains slow. Data is fragmented. Responsibilities are unclear. People are still measured according to old ways of working.
Then the results disappoint, and AI gets blamed.
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This is not real transformation. It is old work with a new tool added on top.
We are living in a form of collective denial. It is easier to say that AI is not ready than to admit that most organizations are not ready to use it properly.
Getting real value from AI requires more than writing good prompts. It requires people who understand the work deeply enough to redesign it. It requires leaders who are willing to question existing roles, processes and incentives. It requires experimentation, better data and the courage to remove tasks that no longer need to exist.
Only a small number of people and organizations are doing this well today. They are not waiting for a perfect model. They are learning how to combine human judgment, domain knowledge and machine capability into new systems of work.
That is why the observed value remains far below the theoretical value.
The red area in the chart is not proof that AI has reached its limit.
It is evidence that we have not yet learned how to use what is already available.
The real question is not whether AI can deliver more.
The real question is whether we are prepared to change enough to let it.
Love to hear your perspectives . What are your thougts?
Originally published at https://digitalstrategyai.substack.com on July 20, 2026.
