A study published in the journal *Systems* warns that companies announcing ambitious AI strategies before building the necessary data infrastructure, technical talent, and operational systems may become weaker organizations. Authored by Yufei Xia, Jikang Sun, Jiarun Liu, Kun Fang, Huiyi Shi and Na Li of Jiangsu Normal University's Business School, the study titled "Beyond AI Narratives: AI Washing and Organizational Resilience" examined 35,764 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2024. The researchers created an "AI washing" index by comparing how heavily a company discussed AI with how much it invested in identifiable AI-related software and hardware. A one-standard-deviation increase in AI washing was associated with a decline in organizational resilience equivalent to about 3.276% of the average annual change in the study's resilience measure. The gap between promise and capability can weaken investor confidence, strain financing relationships and destabilize supply chains. The study defines AI washing as a mismatch between AI-related narratives and substantive investment or capability formation, where external communication implies a level of readiness that spending, personnel, infrastructure and implementation cannot substantiate.