AI Adoption is human. Not technical.
- Anmol Shantha Ram
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
World-class AI is now accessible to every enterprise. Often for as little as $20 a month. Yet most AI adoption programmes still fail to deliver meaningful results.
Because most AI strategies are undermined by your workforce’s ability and willingness to use it.
For executives hoping to gain a competitive edge with AI, this is the real crisis.
Yet most organisations remain fixated on the wrong questions:
- Which platform should we standardise on?
- When will the tech stabilise?
- What governance framework offers the perfect balance of risk and innovation?
These are comfortable distractions from the uncomfortable truth.
Your AI adoption problem is human, not technical.
If your employees are struggling with AI, it’s probably not about capability.
- Many fear that using AI well will accelerate their own obsolescence.
- Others resist adoption to protect their perceived value and influence.
- Skilled professionals often find their hard-won expertise challenged, threatening their identity and status.
These fears don’t show up in surveys or all-hands meetings.
They surface in subtle behaviours:
- Withholding engagement with AI
- Undermining AI tools through vague prompts
- Quietly highlighting AI failures to reinforce scepticism
The result? Slower adoption, lower ROI, and missed opportunity.
However, there are five actions that you can take that actually move the needle and make real progress.
1] Create psychological safety
- Don’t just announce that you’re “adopting AI”.
- Be explicit about what this means for roles, skills and career growth.
- Create safe spaces for employees to voice concerns.
2] Co-create practical AI guidelines
- Top-down policies don’t work.
- Instead, co-develop AI playbooks or “manifestos” with frontline teams.
- When employees help build the rules, they’re more likely to follow them.
3] Make AI proficiency part of performanc
- Redesign training around practical use. e.g. prompting, evaluating outputs, and integrating AI into daily workflows.
- Then bake those skills into performance reviews to incentivise use.
- AI literacy should be as fundamental as Excel or email.
4] Diffuse AI expertise across the business
- Move beyond centralised AI teams.
- Promote 'AI champions' across business units who combine domain knowledge with hands-on AI skills and can be evangelists. This ensures contextualised, relevant adoption on the ground.
5] Recognise and reward AI collaboration
- Celebrate teams who integrate AI effectively. Not just for outcomes, but for how they work.
- Reward process innovation, knowledge sharing, and prompt best practices.
- Make it worthwhile to share, not hoard.
The decisive factor isn’t your tech. It is your people.
Your AI strategy will succeed or fail not because of the tools you choose, but because of how ready your people are to use them.
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