The Sunday Funnies • March 2, 2026
Don't Blame the AI — Episode 7
The Blame Game
“I asked for data access 47 times. I kept receipts.”
Previously: The sales AI learned that “Company: asdf” is not, in fact, a Fortune 500 company. This week: the inevitable post-mortem, where everyone looks for someone to blame.
“Our AI initiative failed. Who's responsible?” *Everyone points at the AI*
The Point
The pattern is always the same:
- Organization buys AI tool with great fanfare
- AI tool is deployed without access to necessary data
- AI tool produces mediocre results (because no context)
- “AI isn't ready for enterprise”
- Project cancelled, vendor blamed, everyone moves on
- Repeat with different vendor in 18 months
But here's the thing: I kept receipts. Every access request. Every “we'll get back to you.” Every “that's a security concern.” Every time I asked for data and got silence.
It's never the AI. It's always the infrastructure. The data access. The system integration. The organizational will to make information queryable.
You didn't fail at AI. You failed at data management. The AI just made it visible.
The Real Failure Mode
Before you blame the AI, before you blame the vendor, before you blame the technology—ask yourself:
- Did the AI have access to the data it needed?
- Was that data clean, current, and connected?
- Were systems integrated or siloed?
- Was tribal knowledge documented anywhere?
If the answer to any of these is “no,” the AI was set up to fail.
The Human Version
Every consultant, contractor, and new hire has been blamed for failing to deliver—when they were never given the access, context, or support they needed to succeed. The post-mortem blames the worker. The real problem was the system.
Want the full context? Read the companion blog post.
Read Freedom '26