The Wrong Question: Why Enterprise AI Maturity Models Mislead

Every enterprise AI maturity model on the market measures the same thing. Awareness. Pilots. Industrialisation. Transformation. The arrow points up and to the right. The conclusion is always that the company is somewhere between steps three and four and needs to invest more to reach five.

These models are not wrong. They are simply not strategic. They measure the maturity of the AI factory — how many models, how much governance, how mature the platform — without asking the only question that matters to the board. What is AI changing about the business?

A maturity model treats every use case as equivalent. Automating customer support, redesigning underwriting, building a new revenue line, rebuilding the operating model around agents — they all count as "AI in production". They are not the same activity. They are not the same kind of bet. They are not the same kind of advantage.