Every organization has work that exists primarily to look productive.

Status meetings that summarize other meetings. Approval loops are designed to distribute responsibility rather than improve quality. Innovation rituals that generate presentations instead of decisions.

This is process theater.

It feels busy. It looks impressive. And it creates minimal impact.

For years, these rituals survived because challenging them was difficult. They were embedded in hierarchy, culture, and habit. And when information moved slowly, it was hard to prove they weren’t adding value.

AI changes that.

When a model produces in seconds what a committee debates for weeks, the value of the discussion becomes uncomfortable to defend. When automated analysis answers a question before a meeting invitation is accepted, the meeting starts to feel optional.

AI doesn’t attack these rituals.
It simply removes the conditions that once made them necessary.

This is why resistance often shows up as cultural discomfort rather than technical concern. The issue isn’t trust in the output. It’s what the output makes obsolete.

Process theater thrives on complexity.
AI thrives on simplification.

And when simplification arrives, many workflows are revealed for what they truly are - choreography without meaningful results.

The organizations that benefit most from AI aren’t the ones that automate the most tasks.

They’re the ones willing to admit which processes existed to manage uncertainty rather than create value - and brave enough to remove them.

AI doesn’t just speed things up.
It forces organizations to confront what work actually matters.