Why Businesses Shouldn’t Invest in AI

Despite what LinkedIn feeds and modern media may have you believe, businesses shouldn’t invest in AI blindly. And anyone who argues the contrary suffers from a fundamental failing based on one of two assumptions: either they assume that AI is the most effective and efficient way to solve the majority, nay, all, of business problems; or they focus on large businesses.

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk/

What Is Investment in AI?

That’s because AI is now everywhere, whether we realise it or not. From online searches to banking apps and suggestions for which video to watch next, AI is built into the tools that we use every day. So, if we assume that “investment in AI” means that a business owner or members of staff actively invest their time in training, intentional AI use or development, it’s surplus to requirements! Everyone is already using AI all the time.

Why Businesses Don’t Need to Embrace AI

There are an ever-rising number of instances where passive AI usage affects a business, often in ways that the owner and staff are completely unaware of . AI may run a targeted online advertising campaign, or be used by customers to research a local restaurant. AI may also be used as a coding agent by the developer hired to create the company website, or be utilised by food delivery services for data management and efficiency. Even the farms and distribution centres from which the restaurant buys its produce are increasingly likely to use AI for logistics.

Mismatched crockery and wonky tea cakes add to the authenticity of a brand and enhance the user experience. Photo credit: Tea Shop Table by Gerald England - Wikimedia commons

Why Businesses Shouldn’t Invest in AI

Consider an independent restaurant. Its USP is that it is a small, local, family-run business that makes everything by hand. In the near future, a robot could theoretically cook the food. A general model could decorate the restaurant. An LLM could create the copy for the website and a generative model could create advertising content. But the benefit of AI in this use case is debatable; it could possibly even be detrimental!

Research shows that when consumers believe a brand to be using AI for marketing, it creates distrust, even disgust!

In a world where everything is increasingly created and driven by AI, the imperfections of an artisanal business, such as handwritten notes with spelling or grammar mistakes, a wonky cake, or a sitting area with mismatched furniture, can counterintuitively add to the brand’s appeal.

Angry man does his VAT returns. Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/@nicola-barts/

A Compelling Argument for AI Adoption

The most compelling argument for active adoption may be that it can help a small business owner reclaim their Sunday mornings. Instead of filling in VAT returns, supplier invoices, forecasting prices, managing rotas and social media questions, the owner can spend time with their grandkids. However, as has been noted above, AI is already baked into most of these areas, so it is debatable whether active investment in AI is necessary or beneficial.

Other arguments, such as the use of AI for translations or preventing food wastage, suffer from the assumption that poor translations or buying a few too many potatoes would measurably cost the business more than the time investment, negative impact on brand identity, and legal implications of AI.

Robot Waiter at Cafe de Coral Restaurant, Regent Centre, 88 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong, in April 2024 - Novelty or a glimpse into the future. Wikimedia commons.

A Formula For AI Business Investment

If the cost of investment, pain of learning and potential negative brand impact is greater than potential savings of the time and/or increase in revenue, then a business should not actively invest in AI.

Simply put: if you really hate AI or you brand relies on authenticity it's probably not worth the time and effort.

So, I propose a formula that businesses can use to decide if they should invest in AI: 

Where: 

• Ts​ = Time saved

• Ms​ = Money saved

• Ep​ ​ = Potential increase in earnings

• Cs​ = Customer service improvements

• Ti = Time invested

• Ct = Cost of tools/training

• Bd​ = Brand damage risk

• J = Enjoyment factor, where 0 = hated it, 1 = loved it

Should Businesses Invest in AI?

Not actively investing time and money in AI and instead focusing on quality and authenticity could prove to be an advantage for some businesses. However, even if a business does not actively invest in AI, AI will still have an impact on all modern business. 

This leads to the following questions: 

In a world of increasingly AI-driven data and content, will AI dilute the authenticity of the independent trader? 

Will authenticity lose its value? 

Will artisanal businesses survive, or will they become more valuable?

Let me know your thoughts!

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Note from the author

For this article I used AI as a research tool, spelling and grammar checker, to aid with the formula generation and to organise and summarise the list bellow and to aid with page meta data. All writing is my own. I love using AI, but there are limits and think this is a perfect example of ROI.

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Further reading

Understanding AI and business adoption

• How AI Works: From Sorcery to Science — Kneusel (2023) provides an accessible introduction to how AI systems work and where they appear in everyday life.

• Everyday artificial intelligence unveiled — Moravec et al. (2024) explore public awareness of AI and its growing influence on society.

• The new normal: The status quo of AI adoption in SMEs — Schwaeke et al. (2025) examine how small and medium-sized businesses are adopting AI and the challenges they face.

• The role of technology and automation in streamlining business processes and productivity for SMEs — Abidemi (2024) considers how technology and automation can improve the efficiency and productivity of smaller businesses.

  
  

AI in marketing, logistics and supply chains

• About automatically created assets — Google (no date) explains how Google Ads uses automation to create and adapt advertising assets.

• Real-time integrated dispatching and idle fleet steering with deep reinforcement learning for a meal delivery platform — Cheng and Azadeh (2025) present a technical example of AI being used to improve meal-delivery operations.

• Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence on agriculture supply chains — Kumari et al. (2025) review how AI and machine learning are being applied throughout agricultural supply chains.

  
  

AI, authenticity and consumer behaviour

• The AI-authorship effect — Kirk and Givi (2025) investigate how consumers respond when they believe that marketing communications were created using AI.

• The genuine handmade — Frizzo et al. (2020) explore how handmade production can increase perceptions of naturalness and authenticity, influencing consumers’ intentions.