A Fool with a Tool Is Still a Fool

AI Doesn’t Change That. It Amplifies It.

There has never been a better time to sell the AI sticker. Global AI spending is forecast to reach well over a trillion dollars in the next few years, and organizations rush to embed AI into products, services, and infrastructure. Yet for many, the real story underneath the hype is more awkward: massive investment in tools, little investment in people. Therefore, the AI backlash is real and if social media continuous in 2026, the pushback on AI is likely going to be stronger in 2026.

Tools Without Skills = Expensive Illusion

Surveys consistently show that while AI adoption is rising, value realization is not keeping pace. Many companies sit in the same position: they have rolled out AI tools widely, but only a fraction of employees use them meaningfully in day-to-day work.

BCG’s “AI at Work” research, for example, highlights a “silicon ceiling”: more than three-quarters of leaders and managers report using generative AI several times a week, while regular usage among frontline employees has stalled around half. Deloitte and others also note that AI ROI remains uneven and heavily dependent on how deeply organizations change workflows—not just how many tools they deploy.

In short: buying AI is easy. Turning it into performance is hard.

The AI Amplifier Effect

AI acts less like a magic ball and more like an amplifier:

Good judgment, structured thinking, and clear problem framing get multiplied.
Poor reasoning, vague questions, and broken processes also get multiplied—quicker, louder, and at scale.

OECD work on AI and skills shows that most workers exposed to AI do not need to become machine learning experts, but they do need stronger cognitive, digital, and business skills to use AI effectively in their roles. The World Economic Forum similarly notes that AI and big data, analytical thinking, and technological literacy are among the fastest-growing skills, alongside resilience and creativity.

Without those foundations, AI simply accelerates confusion. The tool is powerful; the way it is used is not.

From Tool-Centric to Skills-Powered

A skills-powered organization treats AI as a capability multiplier, not a shortcut. That shows up in several concrete shifts:

AI literacy for everyone. Not just “how to click the button,” but how AI works, where it fails, and how to question outputs. Reference: OECD’s analysis on the AI skills gap.
Workflow redesign, not surface automation. BCG and others emphasize that real value appears when companies rethink end-to-end workflows, rather than sprinkling AI on top of existing steps.
Human judgment at the center. The most in-demand skills in AI-exposed jobs are management, problem solving, and business skills—not only technical ones. Source: OECD Employment Outlook 2025.

OECD’s analysis on the AI skills gap warns that current training supply is unlikely to meet the growing demand for general AI literacy unless organizations and governments deliberately scale education and reskilling efforts.

Reskilling Employees AI

Why Skills Beat Shortcuts

Skills-powered organizations do some difficult, long-horizon work:

Map which skills actually matter for AI-augmented roles (e.g., interpreting AI suggestions, designing prompts that reflect policy and ethics, understanding uncertainty).
Invest in structured learning paths and communities of practice, not just one-off workshops.
Align performance, incentives, and career paths with learning, so AI capability is rewarded—not just tool usage.

When employees understand AI tools and feel supported, apprehension turns into enthusiasm and experimentation. That is where AI stops being a threat and becomes a genuine collaborator. The uncomfortable truth is simple: a fool with a tool is still a fool. AI doesn’t fix that. It amplifies it.

Fancy a Coffee on Building a Skills-Powered Organization?

If your organization has invested heavily in AI tools but far less in the skills and structures around them, that gap is likely where much of your lost ROI is hiding.

If you’d like a coffee and a deep-dive newsletter-style exchange on how to build a genuinely skills-powered AI organization—where tools amplify expertise instead of exposing its absence—book a coffee with me.

Because in the end, AI won’t rescue a fool with a tool. But it can supercharge a capable, well-trained team.