I’ve been helping business teams communicate with technical teams for many years, and somewhere along the way, the user story, and the way business value is expressed, quietly changed shape.
They used to begin as a lean sentence, maybe two. A conversation starter. A spark to build on between real people. Then, they qualified for refinement with the development team.
Now?
They begin as bloated epics, wrapped in confident language and then quietly escorted to the rejection pile.
The AI productivity paradox
The Illusion of Progress
Never has it been easier to write business requirements.
With a few prompts, anyone can generate:
• Fully structured user stories
• Detailed acceptance criteria
• Entire discovery documents
• Glossaries, workflows, diagrams… all in seconds
And yet, despite widespread adoption, most teams are still struggling to turn AI usage into meaningful value.
The Reality Check on AI ROI
Despite widespread AI adoption, the results tell a sobering story:
• 75% of UK businesses are now using AI tools
• Only 31% report any positive ROI
• Fewer than half can clearly define what “success” looks like
• And globally, 60% of companies are seeing little to no material value from AI at all
Ref: MIT, IBM, UK Census leadership studies
Deliver the value
Together, let’s increase the number of companies seeing real value from AI.
Reach out for your AI Opportunity & Maturity Assessment.
Why?
Volume is masquerading as progress and a pattern is emerging:
- Volume Over Value
Teams are producing more than ever… but saying less that actually matters. - AI-Hallucinated Documentation
Entire 30-page documents generated in minutes. Polished. Impressive.
And completely disconnected from reality. - Confidently Incorrect Language
User stories referencing acronyms no one in the business has ever used.
Sounds legitimate, but it’s just wasteful. - Verbosity Without Due Diligence
Lengthy explanations that haven’t been challenged, validated, or even fully understood. - The dreaded double hyphen —
Wedged between sentences like a placeholder for thinking that never happened.
Together, let’s increase the statistics of companies seeing real value from AI.
Reach out for your AI Opportunity & Maturity Assessment.
