When I’m brought in to consult with companies, it’s often after a crisis has occurred. Executives realize that their current intranet let them down and someone is on the hot seat.
The conversation typically begins with: “We need a new intranet.”
The most successful organizations, however, start elsewhere (and before the problem has presented itself). They begin with a more strategic question: What must employees be able to do — accurately, confidently, and without friction?
Having worked with hundreds of organizations to define their intranet strategy, one pattern stands out.
The fragmentation organizations unconsciously built
Workplace technology has grown organically, with new platforms layered over time. But little thought has been given to how these disparate solutions should work together:
A new intranet.
A new CRM.
A new HR portal.
A new IT service platform.
Individually, each investment makes sense. Collectively, however, they have created unintended byproducts:
- A fragmented employee experience with multiple knowledge bases
- A work environment where information is duplicated, outdated, and difficult to find or trust.
The problem isn’t lack of technology. It’s a lack of governance and, sometimes, internal executive misalignment. This shows up as:
Too many systems.
Too many owners.
Too many publishers.
Too many “sources of truth.”
Sound familiar? Now add AI to the mix.
AI will expose what’s already broken
No one can predict what our future with AI will hold. But it's definitely taking us into a new paradigm for how work gets done — and, in doing so, making underlying issues more visible.
And, from what I can see, AI isn’t going to solve the fragmentation and inconsistency many organizations already struggle with — it’s going to expose it.
These aren’t new problems. Disconnected systems, duplicative content, and unclear ownership have existed for years. The difference is that, until now, they were easier to work around or ignore.
AI changes that. Because it synthesizes across systems, it surfaces inconsistencies instantly — making gaps, conflicts, and confusion far more visible to employees.
Organizations are now being forced to confront questions they’ve been able to workaround:
Which policy is current?
Which version is authoritative?
Who owns the content lifecycle?
Why are there conflicting answers?
They’re not random problems. They’re structural ones. In large organizations, these issues tend to cluster around four structural themes — or as I candidly call them “dysfunctions”:
