You remember that children’s story where the emperor walks through town in “invisible” clothes, and everyone pretends they can see them until one honest kid says, “He is not wearing anything at all”?

That story has followed me from childhood into boardrooms, back kitchens, and franchise offices.

Today, the emperor is not a king. It is the business leader who says things like:

• “Oh yeah, we are already using AI.”
• “We bought a tool; we are good.”
• “My team is playing around with ChatGPT on the side.”

On paper, they are “AI enabled.” In reality, the strategy is still naked.

In my work leading Cymilleum AI and as an Exit Strategist with Exit Factor Atlanta South Metro, I see the same pattern from two angles. One side is AI readiness. The other is exit readiness. When those two do not match, you get a lot of confidence and not a lot of durability.

The Modern Emperor: “We Have AI Covered”

In the original story, the tailors sell the emperor on magic fabric that only the wise can see. Nobody wants to look foolish, so everybody claps.

In business, the “magic fabric” sounds like:

• “Our vendor said their software has AI built in.”
• “Corporate is working on something AI related for next year.”
• “We automated one report. That is basically AI, right?”

Leaders do not always want to look behind the curtain, because if they do, they might find:

• No clear use cases
• No measurable ROI
• No training or change management for the frontline
• A lot of screenshots and no real systems

From a distance, it looks modern. Up close, it is just expensive dress up.

What AI Clothes Actually Look Like

Let us be clear. AI is not a feature. It is an ecosystem.

Real “AI clothes” are stitched from four things:

1. Process Clear, repeatable workflows where AI has a job:
2. People Frontline teams who know:
3. Platforms Tools that actually talk to each other:
4. Profit A real business case:

If you do not have all four, you might not be wearing AI. You might just be holding it up in the mirror.

The Cymilleum AI Readiness Check: 7 Signs Your Strategy Is Naked

At Cymilleum AI, I look at AI readiness the same way I look at exit readiness at Exit Factor. If it cannot stand on its own without you forcing it, it is not ready.

Here are seven signs your “AI strategy” is still in emperor territory:

1. AI lives in a few people’s heads, not in your SOPs. If your best AI workflows are only known by “that one tech savvy manager,” you do not have strategy. You have a hobby.
2. Your team cannot answer, “What is AI responsible for here?” Ask a line leader or office manager: “What does AI do for you every week?” If they cannot answer clearly, there is a gap.
3. You are buying tools, not solving problems. The conversation starts with, “We are thinking about this AI platform…” instead of, “We want to reduce rework, errors, and wasted time on this specific thing.”
4. Nothing is measured. AI should show up in metrics like:
5. Your data is messy, scattered, or locked away. AI learns from what you feed it. If your data is duplicate, incomplete, or siloed, your “AI” will mostly be guessing with confidence.
6. Your frontline is skeptical or quietly ignoring it. If they see AI as more work instead of less friction, the implementation missed the human side.
7. If one person leaves, your AI effort collapses. When your unofficial “AI champion” goes on vacation and everything stalls, that is a governance problem.

From Invisible to Operational: How Cymilleum AI Helps

My work at Cymilleum AI is simple to describe, but powerful in practice:

We turn AI from a buzzword into a working teammate.

For service based and franchise style businesses, that usually means three phases:

1. Discover Where is friction killing your time and margin?
2. Design What job do we want AI to do?
3. Deploy How do we roll it out without chaos?

On the Exit Factor side, that same structure makes you more attractive to a buyer or successor. AI is not just about efficiency. It is about making your operation understandable, repeatable, and transferable.

A Simple Question to Ask This Week

If you are a business owner, operator, or leader, ask this:

“If someone looked at my calendar and my P&L, where would they see AI working for me, not just appearing in a slide deck?”

If the honest answer is, “They would not,” there is no shame in that. It just means you are early in the journey.

The emperor did not need a new parade. He needed honest feedback and real clothes.

If you are ready for that same kind of honest, practical AI strategy, Cymilleum AI is here to help you get dressed. And if you are already thinking about a three to seven year exit window, the AI work we do here pairs directly with the exit readiness work I do at Exit Factor Atlanta South Metro.