The development of new amide precursors for selective, catalytic activation of carbon-nitrogen bonds in amides is a fundamental objective of this emerging reactivity manifold. We report the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of N-acylcarbazoles and N-acylindoles with arylboronic acids by a highly selective N-C(O) cleavage. The key amide bond ground-state destabilization stems from Nlp to Ar conjugation and enables us for the first time to achieve reactivity similar to that for N-acylsulfonamide and N-acylcarbamate activation in simple anilides.