Right now, AI narratives seem to be propagating an ROI of return on ignorance instead of a more productive ROI, “return on intelligence.” Enterprise leaders are currently navigating a critical transition toward AI-native operating models, yet AI adoption is stalling due to a fundamentally flawed narrative. Instead of focusing on strategic growth, the leadership conversation is paralyzed by speculative doomsday prophecies, a paralyzing fear of change, and a narrow focus on task automation for cost-cutting. This alarmist approach to the…