AI Is the New Electricity. Most Companies Have No Grid

When electricity was first introduced into cities, it did not immediately change the world.

Lightbulbs appeared first.

Then machines.

Then entire systems of production, transport, healthcare, and communication were rebuilt around electrical power.

Electricity did not transform society because it was powerful.

It transformed society because people built the grid.

Artificial intelligence is now at the same point.

We can feel the power.

We can see the glow.

But most businesses are still operating without a grid.

And electricity without a grid does not power a city.

It lights a candle.

Today, companies are celebrating speed.

Emails are written faster.

Presentations look sharper.

Content is produced in minutes.

It feels like productivity.

It looks like progress.

But underneath the surface, very little has structurally changed.

Most organisations have adopted AI as a personal assistant, not as an operating system. And that distinction will define the next valuation divide.

Because ChatGPT does not change companies.

AI agents will.

And almost no one is ready for them.

The Grid Nobody Is Building

AI agents do not suggest.

They execute.

They run workflows.

They move information.

They trigger decisions.

They close loops.

And to do that, they need something most companies do not have.

Documented, explicit, auditable processes.

They need to know what happens next.

Who owns the decision.

What counts as success.

What to do when something goes wrong.

In most businesses, none of this exists in a form that can be executed.

Processes live in people’s heads.

Approvals are verbal.

Exceptions are negotiated.

Data means different things in different departments.

This works while the business is small and informal.

It creates speed and flexibility.

But it also creates invisible fragility.

As soon as you introduce AI into that environment, the fragility becomes visible.

AI does not create order.

It accelerates whatever already exists.

And that is why Gartner is already warning that more than 40 percent of agentic AI projects are expected to be cancelled by the end of 2027.

Not because the technology is weak.

But because organisations are structurally unprepared.

This is not a technology failure.

It is a process failure.

A Real Business. A Real Blocker

I am currently working with a fast growing international company.

They are ambitious, well funded, and highly motivated to adopt AI.

They wanted AI agents to automate operations, internal reporting, customer communication, and inventory triggers.

On paper, the strategy looked advanced.

Then we asked one simple question.

Where are your documented end to end processes.

There were none.

The business worked because people were smart.

Because leaders were present.

Because exceptions were negotiated in meetings.

Because memory filled the gaps.

Nothing was wrong.

But nothing was explicit.

Which meant nothing could be automated safely.

AI could not become capacity.

It could only become noise.

Not because the business lacked ambition.But because it had never treated process as a strategic asset.

Why Most Businesses Never Built Their Grid

Most founders build their companies through instinct, speed, and personal heroics. That is how businesses are born.

But what creates success in the early years quietly becomes the limiter later.

Tribal knowledge replaces documentation.

Personal authority replaces systems.

Flexibility replaces repeatability.

It works until it does not.

And when AI enters the picture, it exposes the cracks faster than anything else before it.

Because AI does not operate on intuition.

It operates on systems.

If your business is not already executable, AI cannot make it so.

It can only expose what was already missing.

The Productivity Everyone Is Missing

Independent research now shows that AI can reduce task turnaround times by up to 40 percent and save knowledge workers up to an hour a day.

But these are individual task improvements.

They do not change your company.

Real productivity is structural. It comes from fewer handoffs, fewer errors, faster cycles, and predictable execution without adding headcount.

That only happens when AI runs systems, not people.

And systems only exist if they are explicit.

Without documented workflows, AI is just a faster version of the same inefficiencies.

With them, it becomes leverage.

The Next Valuation Divide

The next valuation divide will not be between companies that use AI and companies that do not.

It will be between companies with executable systems and companies that still rely on heroics.

Investors will not ask if you use AI.

They will ask if your business can run without you.

They will ask if your processes are auditable, repeatable, and scalable.

They will ask if your company is executable.

That is valuation.

Building the Grid

This is why I built the High Valuation Triangle.

IP rich processes that define how your company actually creates value.

Leadership ready decision structures that remove dependency on individuals.Globally executable systems that can scale across borders, teams, and time zones.

This is not a framework.

It is the grid.

It turns knowledge into assets.

It turns execution into systems.

It turns people into leverage.

Your Move

Stop asking which AI tool to buy.

Start asking what work you want AI to run.

Document your processes.

Define your decisions.

Clarify ownership.

Make your business executable.

Because AI does not scale people.

It scales systems.

And only companies with a grid get power.

About me:

I’m Matteo Turi — CFO, Board Director and creator of the High Valuation Triangle, a system designed to level up businesses with investors.

For nearly 30 years I’ve helped companies across 12+ countries fix cashflow, scale internationally, design valuation strategy and raise capital (over $500M funded).

22,000 founders read my weekly newsletter where I share real CFO stories, case studies, and valuation frameworks grounded in lived experience — not theory.

I’m currently writing Fail. Pivot. Scale., a book about what really separates the companies that grow from the ones that break.

If you want clearer thinking around valuation, cashflow, IP monetisation and scaling — follow me here and join the 22k reading my weekly Substack.