Being curious about AI is a great start. But it’s capability—not curiosity—that will separate the businesses that thrive from the ones left scrambling in 2025.
At Dovetail Digital, we’ve been down this road ourselves. Like many businesses, we were experimenting with AI tools, prompts, and processes—curious about what might stick. But through a lot of testing, a few stumbles, and plenty of refinement, we’ve learned: success with AI comes from building capability, not chasing shiny tools.
And that’s a theme we’re seeing reinforced across our own client work, our digital maturity research, and our internal operations.
Let’s dig into why.
AI is now everywhere—new tools, new ideas, new promises. It’s tempting to think dabbling is enough.
But as McKinsey point out, while 79% of executives say AI adoption is a business priority, only 24% say their organisations have embedded AI successfully
Curiosity Sparks experiments – Capability builds ecosystems.
So what does real AI capability actually look like? AI Capable businesses:
And crucially, they keep tweaking. What worked last quarter might not work next month—and they’re okay with that.
Because honestly, it’s not just about writing a clever prompt. It’s about knowing where that prompt actually belongs in the flow of your business.
Digital maturity isn’t a one-off project or a badge you earn. It’s an evolving system where your operations, marketing, customer experience, and technology stay aligned.
We were reminded of this during a recent internal review. When we benchmarked our older blog posts against our new strategy (where AI supports but doesn’t replace human creativity), we saw engagement lift 3–4x.
And the same pattern appeared in our social media. While AI helped us create faster content, the real winners were consistency, relatable storytelling, and variety—the human elements that made our audience (and the algorithm) respond better.
The same applies for any business chasing AI integration: AI can speed you up—but only strong human foundations make it sustainable.
Quick Tip: Consistency beats cleverness. Whether it’s blogs, emails, or LinkedIn posts, consistent human-driven output—with a little AI help—is what builds real momentum over time.
The businesses succeeding with AI aren’t necessarily moving fastest.
They’re moving smarter.
They’re embedding:
• Governance frameworks (like simple AI use policies)
• Strategy layers (what AI is allowed—and not allowed—to do)
• Human-AI collaboration models
• Ongoing refinement processes
Which is exactly why selected our upcoming INGRAIN AI Skills Tracker course: To help business leaders, marketers, and owners build real, repeatable AI capability—without needing to code, and without the hype.
It’s about creating systems that scale, not one-off experiments that fizzle.
If 2025’s going to be a turning point—and it probably will be—you don’t want to still be dabbling when others are scaling.
Start by figuring out where you really are today. Not where you hope you are, or where the hype says you should be.
Then get clear on where AI fits into your systems—not just your wishlists.
Build the guardrails. Keep a human in the loop. Adjust when things wobble.
Curiosity’s great. It gets you through the door.
But capability? That’s what helps you stay in the room when it matters. Capability isn’t just about tech – it’s the foundation of any digital strategy that sticks.
Bridging the gap between your team’s expertise and technology with a tailored digital strategy that empowers your business to stay future-focused.
