AI on a broken process just automates complexity: redesign first, deploy agents later
kashifmanzoor · x · 2026-10-07
An enterprise-technology veteran's core lesson: technology doesn't fix a broken process, and AI can make the problem harder to see. He uses a typical approval flow — six hand-offs, data spread across three systems, two teams redundantly checking the same information — to show that bolting on an AI agent just runs the broken process faster.
Key points:
- AI transformation should start with process redesign, not deployment: ask why each step exists, whether it can be removed or simplified, what decision is actually required, and where human judgment adds value.
- Agentic AI raises the stakes: agents can execute poorly designed processes at a scale humans never could — that's automated complexity, not transformation.
- The right path is redesign first, then decide how humans, automation, generative AI and agents divide the work.
- Bottom line: the best AI solution may not be an AI solution at all — the first step is often deleting unnecessary work.
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