AI Exposed the Cracks. Now What?

Let’s say you make some changes.

You optimize a workflow.
You add a new tool.
Suddenly, things feel faster.

But when you zoom out, the business impact is… unchanged.
Deadlines still slip. Releases still break. Your team still feels underwater.

What happened?

The bottleneck just moved.
And now that AI is in the mix, it’s moving faster — and more visibly — than ever.

AI isn’t just a coding tool.

Most people see it as a productivity boost.
Something to help engineers go faster.

That’s true, but incomplete.

Because AI doesn’t just help your team ship faster.
It also reveals every weakness in how your software team operates.

If your architecture is fragile…
If your test coverage is weak…
If your patterns are inconsistent…

AI will surface that fast.

Speed amplifies flaws

Think about it:

• Legacy types? AI struggles to write valid code.
• Poor test coverage? Bugs make it to production.
• Bad patterns in your codebase? AI replicates them at scale.

This isn’t just a tooling issue — it’s an organizational one.

We used to onboard junior engineers by giving them “safe” tickets:
Implement this button. Wire up this handler. Fill in the logic.

But AI can do those now. Which means…

Everyone just got promoted.

The low-leverage work is disappearing.
What’s left is design, architecture, judgment, coordination.

That’s great — if your systems and culture are ready to support it.

But if delivery still feels slow…
If things still break late in the process…

It’s not your team’s fault.

It’s the environment you’ve created for them.

So what do you do?

You don’t fix this by asking for more velocity.
You fix it by helping your team get great at finding and fixing the next bottleneck.
Because the truth is: bottlenecks will always move.
AI just helps reveal them faster — and makes the cost of ignoring them even higher.

If this resonates and you're wondering how to adapt your software org for this new reality, book some time with me.

Let’s make your team fast and effective.