Does Your AI Strategy Pass the Ketchup Test?

A simple test to bust through the hype

These days, AI providers, leaders, and evangelists claim that AI technology will transform any organization's operations. Just add AI to what you're doing, and everything gets better – like adding ketchup to your food.

But here's what I discovered after reviewing AI implementation plans: most aren't actually about AI at all. They're generic digital transformation playbooks with "AI" replacing whatever technology was trendy last year.

⚡ The Ketchup Test

The Ketchup Test

I recently reviewed an AI plan from a major organization. It looked comprehensive at first – clear values, comprehensive strategies, concrete actions. Then I tried an experiment:

I replaced every occurrence of "AI" with “KETCHUP.”

Original:

• Accelerate the integration and utilization of AI at scale

• Empower staff with knowledge, skills, and tools to rapidly deploy AI

• Grow an AI-first workforce to oversee and integrate AI throughout the enterprise

After the Ketchup Test:

• Accelerate the integration and utilization of KETCHUP at scale

• Empower staff with knowledge, skills, and tools to rapidly deploy KETCHUP

• Grow a KETCHUP-first workforce to oversee and integrate KETCHUP throughout the enterprise

Both versions read like legitimate strategic initiatives. That's the problem.

⚡ Why This Matters

Real AI strategy requires addressing AI-specific challenges that don't apply to other technologies:

• How will you handle AI hallucinations in critical decisions?

• What's your approach to algorithmic bias detection?

• How will you maintain explainability for regulators?

• What happens when your models degrade over time?

If your strategy doesn't address questions like these, you're not planning for AI – you're planning for generic technology that happens to be called AI.

⚡ AI Isn't Ketchup

Too many organizations treat AI like a condiment – something you add to existing processes to make them "better." But AI isn't ketchup. It fundamentally changes how decisions are made and how humans interact with systems. It requires new governance, different risk management, and entirely new expertise.

Adding AI to a poorly designed process doesn't improve it – it amplifies existing problems at machine speed. Ketchup won't turn a badly cooked steak into a good one. It just makes it worse, faster.

⚡ The Challenge

Try the Ketchup Test on your AI strategy today.

Replace "AI" with "KETCHUP and read it again.

If it still makes sense, you have boilerplate, not an AI plan, and you have work to do.

What you need is deep understanding of what AI actually is, how it works, its limitations, and its genuine benefits. Not everything is better with ketchup – and not everything needs AI.

The organizations that succeed with AI won't be the ones with comprehensive plans taken from last year’s playbook. They'll be the ones that understand the technology well enough to know when and how to use it appropriately.