1-2-1: AI amplifies whatever you point it at

8 Sep 2026 — 1 min read

Every team that's struggled to make AI useful has the same upstream problem: they weren't aligned on what they were doing before AI got there.

You can't outsource alignment to a tool.

1 Principle

Applied to a clear team, AI multiplies clarity. Applied to a confused team, AI multiplies confusion.

The work isn't adopting AI. It's building something worth amplifying. AI doesn't create direction. It runs whatever direction already exists, faster. The hardest part of getting AI to work isn't technical. It's everything you should have got right before AI got there.

2 Things Top of Mind

#1 The boat was already broken

As an Australian, there's a metaphor I keep coming back to: the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The fastest boats win on three things. A sound boat. An experienced crew. A clear destination. Technology multiplies all three. I've watched enough AI rollouts up close now to see the same pattern play out. The AI didn't fail. The boat was already broken. The crew was pulling in different directions. The destination was fuzzy. AI just ran all of that faster.

This week: Before your next AI conversation, write down the three pieces. What's your team's destination? Are they actually heading there together? Is the boat (the system, the workflows, the practices) sound enough to absorb more speed? If you can't answer one of the three, AI will widen the gap.

#2 The team that started using AI and got worse

You ran the rollout. The training landed. Your team is "using AI". Six months in, the dashboard says so. But the work is worse. Decisions take longer. The drafts coming back are better written but answering the wrong question. The volume is up. The signal is down. You've been told this is the adoption curve. It isn't. AI didn't fix your team's existing problems. It just ran them faster.

This week: Pick one team that's "using AI" but where the output hasn't actually improved. Don't audit the AI use. Audit what they were doing before AI showed up. The thing you find broken in the pre-AI version is the thing AI is amplifying.

1 Question

Where in your business is AI accelerating clarity, and where is it accelerating confusion?

1-2-1

Liam Darmody

I’m a leadership coach and product advisor. I work with senior product and engineering leaders during periods of transition and growth, helping them regain clarity, align teams, and perform sustainably under pressure.

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