Tales from the frontline: From point solutions to operating systems

Many have discovered that layering point solutions on top of old processes doesn't work. Teams have experimented with multiple tools, encouraged staff to use ChatGPT and hoped that distributed experimentation would lead to systemic change.

It hasn't.

Tools are only as powerful as the systems they serve

What we're now seeing is a collective recognition that genuine transformation requires more than individual productivity boosts. Giving everyone access to an AI assistant is not the same as redesigning how the business operates.

One of the most interesting developments in recent months has been the ‘Rise of the operating system’ conversation. At OpenAI’s Developer Day, Sam Altman discussed how ChatGPT is evolving into a platform. They're creating an operating environment for how people and applications interact.

That framing has now started to resonate within boardrooms. Businesses are realising that the next phase of AI adoption is not about isolated tools, it’s about building the layer that connects everything together.

But even as this awareness grows, we're witnessing the emergence of a new digital divide.

On one side are employees using ChatGPT to make small gains in personal productivity: writing faster, researching quicker, automating small tasks. On the other side are organisations where AI is genuinely embedded in the core of their operations. Problem is, there are very few of those.

Between the two sits a vast gap.

Understanding the divide

This divide exists because, while people are using AI, the organisation is not. Everyone assumes that throwing an inhuman piece of technology at a human business will create transformation. It really doesn't.

The AI is not embedded, it's not connected to SaaS systems, it doesn't learn from context and it doesn't understand the real flows of work. Without a structured connection between AI and business processes, the productivity uplift remains trapped at the individual level.

Most organisations have never properly documented their business processes. The way work gets done i.e., who decides what, how information moves and how exceptions are handled, still lives largely in people’s heads. This tacit knowledge is valuable but fragile. Without mapping and codifying it, businesses can't automate intelligently or scale effectively.

Industry research supports this reality. Boston Consulting Group found that more than seventy percent of the barriers to scaling AI come from people and process issues, rather than technology itself.

Decidr and the natural flow of intelligence

At Decidr, our success now depends on bringing this knowledge to the surface. Documenting how work flows, aligning it with our schema and building the foundations for a true operating system. Only then can intelligence flow through an organisation as naturally as information does today.

Transformation is not about adding more tools, but about designing the system beneath them.

More to come from the frontline soon…