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# Everyone Wants AI Bolted On, Nobody Wants to Ask Why
- URL: https://www.auswidecyber.com.au/everyone-wants-ai-bolted-on-nobody-wants-to-ask-why/
- Published: 2026-08-19T22:12:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T22:14:31.000Z
- Author: Michael Brazis

There's a new tax on software now, and it's not a price increase, it's a chatbot window bolted onto the side of a product that didn't need one. Doesn't matter what the tool does, invoicing, scheduling, a glorified spreadsheet with a login page, someone in product has decided it needs "AI" written on the box or it's not worth selling anymore. Half the time that AI is a text box that summarises what you already typed. Revolutionary.

I'm not anti AI. Used properly it's a genuinely useful tool. What I'm against is the current trend of AI as decoration, slapped on for the marketing win rather than because it solves an actual problem. And the worst part is, most of the businesses buying into it can't tell the difference between the two.

**Vendors are doing the bare minimum**

Plenty of software companies have looked at the AI wave and thought "we need one of those" without asking what "one of those" should actually do. So you get a basic prompt window stapled onto an existing product, something any competent developer could knock together in an afternoon, marketed like it's a breakthrough. It's not intelligence, it's a search bar with better PR. Meanwhile the actual product underneath hasn't improved, the bugs are still there, the workflow's still clunky, but hey, look, there's a sparkle icon now.

This matters because businesses paying for these tools think they're buying capability. They're often buying a badge.

**The hype for hype's sake**

Then there's the businesses hyping AI internally with no clear reason why. I've seen job ads asking for someone to "help us implement AI into our processes," full stop, no problem defined, no outcome specified, just AI as the goal itself. That's backwards. AI isn't a destination, it's a tool you reach for once you know what you're trying to fix. Hiring for "more AI" without a problem attached is like hiring an electrician because you want "more electricity" in the building. For what? Doing what? Nobody's answered that, they just want to say they've got it.

This happens because AI has become a status symbol at board level. Competitors are doing it, so we need to be doing it, and the fastest way to look like you're doing it is to announce you're doing it, actual results optional.

**Why this actually costs you**

Every AI feature bolted onto software you use is potentially another place your data goes that you haven't thought about. Every AI initiative launched without a defined problem is budget and staff time spent chasing a headline instead of a result. And every business that adopts AI because it's trendy, rather than because they understand it, ends up with tools nobody trained on, processes nobody adjusted, and outcomes that look exactly the same as before, just with a bigger invoice.

The businesses getting real value out of AI right now are the ones asking "what problem does this solve" before they touch it. Everyone else is just paying to be seen holding the shiny thing.