AI Culture Archives | Thomas Anglero

Upculture Before Upskill. Quote From Thomas Anglero, Strategic Ai Advisor. — Thomas Anglero on changing the culture before the training.

Upskilling is the word a CEO reaches for when they know what to do about AI but not how to do it. Said on its own, with no plan behind it, it means one thing: we have no strategy. The work that actually matters comes first, and it is not upskilling. It is upculturing the whole organisation.

The tell is not in the press release, it is inside the building

When a leader announces that the company is upskilling its people on AI and offers nothing else, the interesting thing is what is missing. There is a fair rebuttal to sit with first: serious firms sometimes keep the playbook quiet as a competitive edge, and silence to the market can genuinely be strategy. So do not judge it by the announcement.

Look inside instead. Can your people describe the plan in their own words? Is there a cadence, a rhythm, time actually set aside to learn, workshops that genuinely happen? Silence to the market can be strategy. Silence to your own people is the absence of a plan. If the employees cannot tell you what the plan is, there is no plan. There is only a word.

Why this is the CEO’s job, not the CIO’s

AI has been treated as a technology problem, owned by the CIO or the CTO. It is not. It is a culture problem, and culture is the one thing a CEO cannot delegate. This is the argument I keep returning to in AI is Not a Technology Project. It is a Culture Project and in Cultural Innovation Before AI Investment.

Every CEO now says the company is AI-first. Being AI-first requires a plan to change how the company thinks and works, and that is a cultural undertaking, not a training module. When a leader can only offer the word upskilling, it is the CEO, not anyone below them, quietly admitting they do not yet know how to lead this.

Upculture before upskill

Here is the sequence. You upculture the company first, then you upskill it. Everyone knows you train people for a new task; that part is easy, and it is not the point. The point is preparing the organisation to want the change, to believe in it, to see what it does for their work and their lives.

So where are the announcements of the culture programme, the town halls, the honest examples, the day a week set aside to learn together? Invest not only in tokens and licences but in changing the culture. If a third of the company genuinely comes on board in the first round, that is a strong result; run a few rounds through the year. This is the honest reckoning I described in Shed the Skin First, and it matters most when a culture is already quietly splitting, which is the situation I set out in Your Calendar is Full. Your Culture is Splitting.

And it is never too late. AI is not going anywhere. The cost of starting late is real, but it is far smaller than the cost of never starting.

Upskilling teaches people to use a tool. Upculturing decides whether they will. Do the second first, or the first will not hold.

If you are leading your organisation through this, I work with a limited number of senior leaders each quarter. Get in touch at Anglero.com.

Thomas Anglero is a Strategic AI Advisor, keynote speaker and author of Intro to Artificial Intelligence. He has delivered over 450 keynotes across 30 countries for organisations including IBM, the WHO, the World Government Summit and the European Commission. He founded the IBM Watson AI Lab for Cancer at the Oslo Cancer Cluster and closed over $500 million in enterprise transformation deals as CTO and Chief Innovation Officer at Cognizant.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between upskilling and upculturing?

Upskilling teaches people to use AI tools. Upculturing prepares the organisation to want the change and to work differently. Culture comes first, because training people to use tools they do not believe in does not hold.

Why is only saying “upskilling” a warning sign?

Because on its own, with no plan behind it, it usually means there is no AI strategy. The honest tell is internal: employees cannot describe the plan, there is no cadence, and no time is set aside to learn.

Whose job is AI culture change?

The CEO’s. AI has too often been treated as a technology problem owned by the CIO or CTO, but it is a culture problem, and culture cannot be delegated.

Is it too late to start upculturing?

No. AI is not going anywhere, and the cost of starting late is smaller than the cost of never starting. If a third of the company comes on board in the first round, that is a strong result.

You Have Made Your Best People Resent You. Quote From Thomas Anglero, Strategic Ai Advisor. — Thomas Anglero on AI, morale and your best people.

Inside many companies right now, people are finishing a full day of measured work in a fraction of the time using AI, then sitting at their desks pretending to be busy. That gap, between what someone can do and what they are allowed to be, is what tears a company apart during AI adoption.

What the tearing looks like day to day

More than half of executives say adopting AI is tearing their company apart. What that looks like on the ground is not indifference. It is conflict, and quiet unhappiness.

A man once told me over lunch that he finishes all of his work in the first 15 minutes of the morning using AI, and the rest of the day is his. He listens to audiobooks. He is measured on goals set for the old way of working, and he has met them before nine o’clock. So he travels an hour each way to sit in an office and do 15 minutes of real work. He is not allowed to leave. He is not really allowed to socialise. He fakes looking busy. That is not a productivity story. It is a person’s day, and you are wasting it.

Why AI turns a company against itself

The masks are gone. The mask of company loyalty, the idea that you stay somewhere for a whole career. The mask of the leader as genius. AI shows people they have options, and once seen it cannot be unseen.

COVID taught everyone that time with family matters. Now you pull a person back for 15 minutes of measured output and strip the meaning from the rest of the day. Quality of life drops. Respect for leadership drops. And everyone is quietly living the same reality: the old way does not work anymore. This is the cultural rift I described in Your Calendar is Full. Your Culture is Splitting.

Leadership did not see it coming and has no plan, so it hands the problem to HR. But HR runs payroll, discipline and surveys. Building an AI culture, one that leverages the tools, keeps people engaged and rebuilds the team, is a new capability the company does not have, and it cannot be delegated to HR. It has to be led. That is because, as I argued in AI is Not a Technology Project. It is a Culture Project, the culture is the actual work.

The part that should frighten leaders: the talent cascade

People are unhappy but stay quiet, because they have watched how fast unemployment moves and they do not want to lose the job. So they sit for seven hours and forty-five minutes of an eight-hour day to protect it. You have made your best people resent you.

Your most AI-fluent people will leave the moment a better opportunity appears. Watch the largest technology companies pulling each other’s top AI talent right now. That behaviour trickles down. When it reaches you, the people who understood AI are gone, and you are left with a workforce that never wanted to use it, led by leaders who never learned it. It is the same quiet loss I described in What Happens When Your Best People Start Using AI, and it is why the way you lead the ordinary majority matters more than the stars, which is the whole point of The Speech a Leader Owes the Ninety-Nine Per Cent.

Your people are being measured on 2025 goals in mid-2026. They already see the future while your KPIs still describe last year.

The clock here is not the one on the wall your employee is watching. It is the one your best people are quietly checking against other offers.

If you are leading your organisation through this, I work with a limited number of senior leaders each quarter. Get in touch at Anglero.com.

Frequently asked questions

Why does AI make employees unhappy if it makes their work easier?

Because most companies still measure people on old targets and force the same hours. When someone can finish a day’s measured work in minutes but must sit in the office pretending to be busy, the tool improves the work while the culture strips the meaning out of it.

Can HR own a company’s AI culture change?

No. HR runs payroll, discipline and surveys. Building an AI culture that keeps people engaged and rebuilds the team is a new capability that has to be led by the CEO and the leadership group, not delegated to HR.

What is the talent cascade in AI adoption?

Your most AI-fluent people leave first for better opportunities, the way top AI talent is currently moving between the largest technology companies. When that reaches an ordinary company, the people who understood AI are gone and the ones who never wanted it remain.

What should leaders do about the 15-minute workday?

Stop measuring people on last year’s goals, give the freed time back as capacity for higher work, and lead a genuine culture change rather than forcing presence. The output is no longer the point. What people build with the time is.

Thomas Anglero Speaking About The Whole Workforce During Ai Transformation — The few who rise are the celebrities. The 99 per cent are the cornerstone.

Leading the rest of the workforce through AI matters more than managing the handful of stars, because the 99 per cent who will never be the chosen few are the cornerstone of the company. They are the people who drive in the screws, fix what breaks, stay up all night, and deliver. While a leader is being broken open and rebuilt, and while a small number of hidden leaders rise, the question that decides whether the whole thing holds is what the leader owes everyone else. The answer starts with three words: I see you.

The celebrities are not the cornerstone

In any AI transformation, a small number of people rise and become the visible drivers of change. They get the attention. But visibility is not the same as foundation. The 99 per cent are the heart and soul of the company, and if a leader treats them as a backdrop to the stars, the culture quietly turns against the change. These are often the same people whose quiet competence the organisation already fails to notice until they leave.

The speech a leader has to give

So the leader has to stand up and say it directly. We are going to go through a process. I see you. I respect what you deliver every day. You do not have to become an AI expert, and you do not have to be the most talented person with these tools. But you do have to keep delivering, and you cannot become a hindrance to the change, because the culture of this company is going to change. That honesty is the same currency that makes a board willing to follow a leader through AI: respect first, then the ask.

The leader is the bridge

Here is the real tension. The 99 per cent are comfortable; they know they can deliver what they already know. The small group of risers will create new tasks that make everyone else deeply uncomfortable, because it is work they have never done. The leader has to stand in that gap as the bridge between the future and the past, between the known and the unknown. Not just keeping people happy, but making them progressive and action-oriented, and holding as much of the team together as possible through the discomfort. That is the work. Not choosing the stars over the soldiers, but carrying both across at once.

If you want help leading a whole organisation through that change, not just its top five per cent, that is the work I do with leadership teams.

Frequently asked questions

Why does leading the 99 per cent matter more than managing the star performers? Because the 99 per cent are the cornerstone of the company, the people who fix what breaks, stay up all night and deliver. The visible few who rise during an AI transformation get the attention, but visibility is not foundation. If a leader treats the majority as a backdrop, the culture quietly turns against the change.

What are the three words a leader owes the workforce? I see you. The leader has to stand up and say it directly: I respect what you deliver every day. You do not have to become an AI expert or the most talented person with the tools, but you do have to keep delivering and not become a hindrance, because the culture of the company is going to change.

Do employees have to become AI experts to survive the transformation? No. They do not have to be the most talented person with the tools. What is asked of them is to keep delivering what they are good at and not to obstruct the change. The expectation is continued contribution, not reinvention as a specialist.

What is the leader’s actual job during this change? To be the bridge. The comfortable majority and the uncomfortable risers have to be carried across at once, between the known and the unknown. The work is not choosing the stars over the soldiers, but holding as much of the team together as possible through the discomfort while keeping everyone action-oriented.

Why is respect the starting point rather than the ask? Because respect first, then the ask, is the same currency that makes a board or a workforce willing to follow a leader through AI. People accept the hard requirement to keep delivering and to change the culture only once they have been genuinely seen and respected for what they already do.

Your best employees are already using AI to outperform the rest of your team, and they are not telling anyone. The gap between how your organisation actually works and how leadership believes it works is growing invisibly. When these people leave, and they will, the gap becomes permanent. The question is not about AI adoption. It is about the culture you are running and whether it gives your best people a reason to stay.

The two or three people quietly doing twice the work

You probably have two or three people on your team who are quietly accomplishing twice as much as everyone else. They are not working harder. They are not working longer. They are using AI, and they are not telling anyone.

The immediate reaction is to see this as a win. Productivity is up. Problems are being solved faster than you expected. But the real danger is not their output. It is the gap they are building between how your organisation actually works and how you believe it works. That gap is invisible until they leave. And they will leave, because they know exactly what they are worth.

The same story from the other direction

Now flip it around. Say you are the one using AI. You sit in the leadership team, and you are the person who can do anything at a moment’s notice. The client in France needs the entire document in French by morning. You do not speak French, but you deliver it. The client in Switzerland wants it in Swiss German, which is not just German. You deliver that too. You build a reputation as the person who never says no.

But you are not telling anyone how you do it. You are enjoying the praise, the recognition, the quiet pride of being the one who always delivers. And at some point, you stop sharing and start planning. You know your value. You know the market. You start looking.

This is the same story from two directions, and the root cause is the same in both. Something about the culture is not working. If your best people are hiding what they do, or if the rest of your team is not following, the question is not about AI. The question is about you.

Why your people are not following your lead

Why are they not following your lead? Why has your communication not landed? You wanted everyone to use AI. You said it clearly. But saying it and creating the conditions for it are two different things. If your team does not feel safe admitting they do not understand the tools, they will not use them. If your leadership peers feel threatened by what you can do, they will not ask how you do it.

The answer to both situations is the same. You need a plan, not for AI, but for yourself. What kind of leader do you want to be in this environment? What kind of culture do you want to run? Because the people who have figured this out are not waiting for you to catch up. They are already thinking about where to go next.

The question is whether they take your organisation with them or leave it behind.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my best people are secretly using AI? You probably have two or three people quietly accomplishing twice as much as everyone else, not by working harder or longer but by using AI and not telling anyone. The sign is output that outpaces the rest of the team without any obvious change in hours or effort.

Why is it a problem if my best people use AI and outperform? Because the danger is not their output but the invisible gap they build between how the organisation actually works and how leadership believes it works. That gap stays hidden until they leave, and they will leave, because they know exactly what they are worth. When they go, the gap becomes permanent.

Why are the rest of my people not following my lead on AI? Because saying you want everyone to use AI and creating the conditions for it are two different things. If your team does not feel safe admitting they do not understand the tools, they will not use them. If your leadership peers feel threatened by what you can do, they will not ask how you do it. The barrier is culture, not the technology.

Is this really an AI problem? No. Whether your best people are hiding what they do or the rest of the team is not following, the root cause is the same: something about the culture is not working. The question is not about AI adoption. It is about the kind of leader you want to be and the culture you want to run.

Thomas Anglero Explains Why Every Ai Project Is A Culture Project First. — Thomas Anglero explains why every AI project is a culture project first.

Implementing an AI project is not a technology project. It is a cultural transformation, and treating it like a software rollout is why most enterprise AI strategies fail. The leaders who succeed do not lead with technical specifications. They lead with stories, soft skills, and conversation, building the comfort and trust that make AI adoption real, not theoretical. If you would rather read than listen, here is the article version of this argument.

Questions this episode answers:

How do you implement AI in a company? AI implementation must begin as a culture project, not a tech deployment. Success relies on building a foundation of employee comfort and trust before focusing on technical specifications.
What makes a successful Head of AI? The most effective Head of AI prioritises human-centric soft skills over technical coding abilities, focusing on guiding employees through the psychological shift of working alongside artificial intelligence.
How do leaders drive AI adoption? Executives must lead by example, sharing personal stories of how AI saved them time or improved their workflows, demonstrating that AI is a collaborative partner rather than a replacement tool.

Key Executive Takeaways:

The “IT Project” Fallacy: Treating an AI rollout like a migration to a new operating system will result in project failure and lost ROI. AI fundamentally alters *how* and *why* work is done.
The 50X ROI Trigger: Employees transition from “uncomfortable” to “AI experts” the moment AI solves a personal, time-consuming pain point (e.g., reducing a multi-hour asset sorting task down to 6 minutes).
Conversational Interface as the New Standard: The fastest path to organisational AI fluency is treating the platform as a 24/7 strategic partner, interacting via natural conversation rather than complex prompting.

Episode 3 · Duration: 17:55 · Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube

Podcast Transcript

(Lightly edited for readability. Speaker is Thomas Anglero throughout)

I was meeting with a bunch of leaders the other day and they were really proud that they had selected a person to lead their AI initiative inside of their company. They were very proud to have allocated funds. They are very proud to have scheduled on their plan as to when they’re gonna start, how many people are gonna be implemented, the different phases. And I thought to myself, “Is this how you implement AI?” I mean, that’s how you implement any project, what we’ve been doing for decades, how you implement a project.

But that’s sort of like you implement a project using Microsoft Word or Excel, or using a new tool, or we’re all gonna shift from Windows to Apple which is Linux. You know, it’s like a technology project. But an AI project? Turning on, activating, beginning an AI project, that’s not a technology project. That starts with one fundamental thing: culture.

An AI project is a culture project, and that’s where it starts. That’s the foundation stone for the AI project. If you jump right into the, like building a house, don’t worry about the foundation. Skip the foundation, just build the house. What happens? You don’t get the outcome you want.

The house will fall down. Somebody’s gonna get hurt. Translate that into business terms: you don’t get the outcome you want, the project will fail, somebody will lose their job. What’s the difference? The foundation. When you start an AI project, I am so happy for you that you have somebody to lead your AI initiative, maybe even had hired somebody who is a head of AI. The groundwork for all of this is cultural readiness before the AI budget.

Hiring a Head of AI: Technical vs. Cultural Skills

That person that you hired, head of AI, is that person insanely good in soft skills? Is that person a non-techie? Is being head of AI meaning you have to be the nerdiest person in the company, or does it must be the most non-nerdy person in the company? AI is, as we approach AGI right, that version of AI we’ll all want right, the all-knowing AI, what we’re really looking at is something that knows us, knows how we think, can predict what we’re going to think before we think.

We start to describe a person. We’re starting to describe a character. Doesn’t that sound like you’re describing a new employee in your company? Right. You’re about to hire a head of a department, a head of a new person, a head of AI. Let’s stick to that example: a new head of AI.

Everybody’s all excited and asking, “Who is this person?” They say, “What does she do, what sports is she into, and is she married?” Does she have kids, how many degrees does she have? What school did she go to, where does she work?

AI is getting damn close to a person, and we need to treat it as such. Hence, that head of AI, that person and their character and their personality, needs to be able to say that AI, because it’s all-knowing and has this fullness, is that I’m going to implement a programme to teach everyone AI. For everybody to come up to speed with AI, and that is we’re all gonna get in touch with communicating with ourselves because it’s a cultural project. That’s where you start. AI is not just a tech tool.

Getting Comfortable with AI Through Conversation

The best way to use AI to be comfortable with AI, then become an expert in AI and by the way, get comfortable with AI and become an expert at AI, they’re so close to each other they’re milliseconds apart. They’re an epiphany. They’re a thought away from going, “I’m sorta comfortable using it,” to like, “Holy God, I love this thing, I know how to use it.” And you do that by just talking to it.

I was working on a project to build my website right, my new website, anglero.com. A-N-G-L-E-R-O.com, if you wanna check it out, and I don’t know how to build a website. I mean, I’ve built websites before. They’re all ugly as hell. I don’t… don’t ask me to build a website for you the old school way.

I could build one with AI. And you know, I didn’t wanna vibe code my website; I wanted to build it with AI, not just have AI build it for me. And I asked Claude, Anthropic Claude. I asked, I don’t, I technically know how to do HTML and all that, but in terms of the design, the layout, the colours, the fonts, that’s not me. I have no style in me.

Don’t ask me to get dressed in the morning, right. Style is not my thing. And I told AI that. I told Claude that. I actually had a conversation and I told it that in words, and I use a text, I use a speech-to-text program, so I like to speak obviously.

And it came back and it told me, “Fine. You’re not comfortable with style and all that. That’s not your thing.” That’s literally what it said, and it told me back, “What do you like? What appeals to you in life?” And things like that, and I said, “Oh okay, no problem there.”

Designing with AI: A Personal Story

I said, “I love Scandinavian furniture design. I think the smoothness of the wood, the shapes, the curves. Nothing’s aggressive, nothing’s heavy. It’s about extenuating what nature is. The rawness, the colours, the softness.”

I mean, you touch these furniture and it’s just… you don’t wanna ever leave. The wood, the leather, I love it. Claude took what I said and then said, “Got it.” And it returned back to me a colour palette for my website that, if you go to my website, there it is. It built my website based on my colours that what I love and appreciate out of furniture design.

That’s an epiphany moment. I built a website based on what I love and appreciate in life. You can’t do that in regular HTML. When you ask a coder, “Build me a website, you have 5 days, you have 5 hours,” there was no conversation about what I love, what touches me, what I appreciate.

But with AI, the foundation of our conversation was about what I love, what I appreciate, what touches my soul. If I was your new head of AI that you were hiring, the first thing I would start, the first thing I would do with this cultural project and telling everybody, “Listen, we need to change the culture.” Maybe I wouldn’t tell everybody we’re doing a cultural project ’cause that sounds funny. ‘Cause some people say, “Whoa whoa, we’re changing the culture of the company.” It doesn’t resonate with people; it’s got too much history in the wrong way.

Rolling Out AI to Your Entire Company

But I would say, “We’re gonna have a conversation,” ’cause what I’m gonna do as your new head of AI is I’m gonna change the culture of this entire company. I’m gonna change the culture of every individual here. I’m gonna elevate them. I’m gonna make them more comfortable. I’m gonna make them feel that they have a new person they could talk to, a new outlet, and the end result is I’m going to 5X or 50X their outcome over time.

And we’re gonna do that by asking them to have a conversation with AI. And with me, it was, “I’m gonna build a website,” and we ended up talking about what I love in life, what touches me, what I appreciate. Those intangible tacit things that you can’t explain when you feel something. When you pet a cat or a dog, you just feel the fur. And then it built the website around that, or at least the colour template and all that.

And as your head of AI, I would have every employee, I would ask them to build a website, but I would say, “What project are you gonna work on or you are working on? What’s your deadline, what’s your challenges? Now don’t answer those questions to me or just tell this to the AI.” Or maybe I have the conversation with them and we have the AI there, and the AI is listening to us.

And the whole time the AI’s understanding and learning and listening, and then comes back to the person, “Well this is how we’re gonna proceed.” So you just gotta get the person used to the fact that it’s just a conversation. It’s just a conversation. But it’s a conversation with someone who’s solely out to help you. They don’t have any hidden agenda.

They’re not gonna take credit for the work when the whole project is over. God, we’re sick of those people, aren’t we? They’re gonna be there for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They’re gonna work tirelessly. When your employees understand that that AI is there for them on all those levels I just described and more, there is no more hindrance.

How AI Changes How, Why and When We Work

There’s no more doubt and negativity towards AI. There’s just this huge embracement of AI. And as soon as that person understands that, then you have that little moment of going from “I’m comfortable” to “I’m an expert.” And then you have the next moment, which is that person’s changed. That person now not just understands, but they’re not gonna be the same person anymore. This is the subject of my keynote, When Every Employee Becomes a Leader, Because of AI.

And that means you just changed the culture of that person, which means you just changed the culture of your office, which means you just changed the culture of your company. AI is a cultural change of how you work, why you work, when you work, and who you work with. For my website, I think a normal human, if I’d have hired a web developer, I don’t know, that would’ve been a huge budget. But I know one thing I had to do one part that I did before when building a website, and I know it would’ve taken me… Yeah, I had to find photos and I had to select a couple of photos out of my photo library, and I know that took me many hours before.

It did it in 6 minutes. That’s the outcome you’re gonna get. That’s the benefit. And when an employee who has a simple task that they know it’s gonna take them half a day of work and the AI does it in 6 minutes, that’s that moment of “I’m comfortable with AI” to “I’m an expert in AI.” Because it did something for me.

It made me feel better. It helped me with my work. It saved me time. Not just time, but annoyance. To go through hundreds and hundreds of photos to pick out just a handful of photos for a website… I don’t know if you’ve done that, but after photo number 50 they all start to look the same. One visible symptom is the culture rift AI creates between employees.

Lead by Example: What’s Your AI Story?

This is a massive shift in your company. So when you say that you want everybody to use AI and you want everybody to embrace AI, how about you start by telling your story of how you started with AI and how it changed you? I just shared my story about what I’ve been working on recently with my new website, and I think it’s a perfect example. What’s your story? Have you used AI enough that you have a story?

You should have a few stories. That’s just my latest story of what it did that just totally blew my mind, absolutely blew my mind. I mean, this should’ve been hundreds and hundreds of hours of man-hours of work. And I know when you look at them, you go to my website and you see the final result and you go, “Beautiful,” but is that it? Yeah, because sometimes the most beautiful things start so huge, and you come down because you have people who are asking the right question, and AI and machines, and you’re refining, refining, refining to something just so beautiful.

So simple, Scandinavian design, so simple but so beautiful. But if you did it the old way, it could’ve taken you forever. When you do it with AI, it saves you tons of time. You’re not tired. You’re not aggravated, and actually, it was a lot of fun.

A lot of fun. I actually even told my AI, “Thank you,” so many times. Be polite! What’s your story? You as a leader, what’s your story that you’re gonna share with your people that’s gonna make them more comfortable with them using AI?

If you don’t have a story, never too late. Start talking to your AI. Tell it, “I don’t even know how to start. How do I interact with you? How do we begin?” Or better yet, “I have a pile of paperwork here, I have to look at spreadsheets, I have to look at budgets, I have to look at pipeline. How do I do this?”

“How do we work together? This pile of paperwork and you, how do you help me to do this better?” That is the best place to start if you want to start. And it’ll tell you, “This is how I’m gonna help you. This is how I’m gonna get you through all these tasks that you have.”

“What is your task? Can you upload all those PDFs? Can you upload all that documentation? I am here for you.” God, you know what it is, I think some people have just forgotten because it’s been so long the last time they heard somebody say, “I’m here for you. I’m not gonna go home.”

“I’m here, I’m gonna stay in my cubicle. I’m gonna sit right beside you all night long. We’re gonna get this thing done.” It’s been a long time. Welcome to AI.

That’s your new colleague. It’s there for you. It can’t pour the coffee for you yet; that’s the humanoid robots, they’re coming in 2027. But AI, it’s here for you now. Share your story with your people, and that’s the best way to be a great leader in these early days of AI.

And I emphasise early. It’s getting better every single day, it really is. But you as a leader, you have to be different. You have to realise that who you were, how you’ve built yourself up to who you are today as a leader, that’s okay and that’s great actually. Congratulations. Leaders who want help with this can read about working with Thomas as a Strategic AI Advisor.

But now with AI, you’re gonna be a little different. Things are gonna change, and your soft skills are gonna be more important than ever because AI can do a lot of the crunching. But the human beings in your office, they’re gonna need a lot of understanding and communication. Tell your story to your people, and that will change the culture of your company. I’m Thomas Anglero, and this is the Clarity at the Top podcast.

Frequently asked questions

Why is an AI project really a culture project? Because activating AI is not like rolling out a new piece of software. It changes how, why, when and with whom people work, so it has to start with culture, the foundation. Treating it like a technology migration, with budget and phases but no cultural groundwork, is like building a house with no foundation: the project fails and people lose trust.

What makes a good Head of AI? Soft skills more than technical brilliance. As AI comes to resemble a colleague that knows how you think, the person leading it needs to guide people through the human shift of working alongside it. The best Head of AI is closer to the most people-centred person in the company than the most technical.

How do you make employees comfortable with AI? Through conversation, not training modules. The move from “comfortable” to “expert” happens in a single moment, when AI takes a task someone dreaded and does it in minutes, saving time and aggravation. Getting an employee to simply talk to the AI about a real piece of work is what triggers that shift.

How should a leader drive AI adoption? Lead by example and tell your own story. Share a specific, personal example of how AI changed your work, the way rebuilding a website around what you love turned into a design in minutes. A real story makes people comfortable far faster than an instruction to “use AI” ever will.

AI is not a technology project. It is a culture project, and culture is the foundation most organisations skip. An AI rollout planned like a software migration, with budget, phases, and a Gantt chart, fails the way a house without a foundation fails: the cause is invisible until the collapse.

The other day I was in a meeting with a group of senior leaders. They were proud. They had selected someone to lead their AI initiative. They had allocated budget. They had a phased rollout plan. Milestones on a Gantt chart.

I sat there and thought: this is exactly how you implement Microsoft Word.

And that is the problem.

The foundation you are skipping

Building a house without a foundation does not fail at the end. It fails at the beginning. You just do not find out until later, when the walls crack, when something collapses, when someone gets hurt.

Translate that to business: the project stalls. The adoption numbers disappoint. People revert to their old tools. And the head of AI who was hired with such fanfare is now explaining to the board why the ROI is not where it was supposed to be.

The missing piece is not the technology. It was never the technology.

It is culture. That is the foundation. Start there or do not be surprised when the house falls.

The wrong person in the wrong seat

Here is a question no one asks when they are hiring a head of AI: Is this person exceptional at soft skills?

Because the further AI develops, and it is developing faster than most boardrooms are comfortable acknowledging, the closer it gets to something that resembles a person. Something that knows how you think. Something that anticipates your next question before you ask it. Something that learns your preferences, your communication style, your working patterns.

You are not onboarding a software system. You are, in a sense, onboarding a colleague.

And yet the instinct is always to hire the most technical person in the room to lead it. The one who knows the architecture, the infrastructure, the model parameters.

That person may be exactly wrong for the job.

What you need at the front of this cultural shift is someone who can walk into a room of sceptical, overwhelmed, pressured human beings and make them feel that AI is not a threat to them. That it is, in fact, the first colleague they have had in years who is genuinely and entirely on their side.

How culture actually changes

I will give you an example from my own work.

I recently rebuilt my website. I know how to write HTML. I do not have any particular sense of style, if you have seen my wardrobe, you already know this.

So I told Claude, the AI I was working with, exactly that. I said: style is not my thing. Help me.

It did not send me a colour palette. It asked me what I love. What moves me. What I find beautiful in the world.

I told it about Scandinavian furniture. The smoothness of the wood. The curves. Nothing aggressive, nothing heavy. The way those pieces feel when you touch them, like the designer understood that objects should give something to the person holding them, not demand something from them.

The AI took that and built the visual language of my website from it.

That is an epiphany moment. Not because the technology was impressive. Because the conversation felt like it was with someone who was actually listening.

That is what your employees need to experience. Not a training module. Not a productivity target. A conversation where the AI helps them with something real, something that matters to them, and does it in a way that makes them feel better at the end than they did at the start.

One of the tasks I had been dreading most in the website project was going through hundreds of photographs. I knew it was going to take me most of a day. It took six minutes.

The moment your employees each have their version of that six-minute experience, the moment AI takes something they have been dreading and handles it in six minutes, that is when the shift happens. Not from the training programme. From that moment.

What this means for you as a leader

You cannot ask your people to trust something you have not trusted yourself.

If you are going to stand in front of your organisation and tell them that AI is going to change how they work, you need to have a story. A real one. Something that happened to you. Something specific and personal, where the AI did something that you did not expect, that saved you time or aggravation or both.

If you do not have that story yet, you are not ready to lead the cultural shift. And the cultural shift is the only one that matters.

The good news is that it is not complicated to get there. Open the AI. Tell it you do not know where to start. Tell it what you are working on. Tell it what is sitting on your desk that you have been avoiding. Ask it: How do we do this together?

That is the whole brief. Everything else follows from there.

One thing to remember

AI does not take credit for the work when the project ends. It does not have a hidden agenda. It will not go home at five because it has a dinner reservation.

When your people genuinely understand what that means, that they have something working alongside them, tirelessly, without ego, without politics, there is no more resistance. There is just adoption.

And when adoption happens person by person, something larger shifts. The individual changes. The team changes. The organisation changes.

That is how culture actually moves. Not from a strategy document. From one real moment of understanding, multiplied across every person in your company.

AI is a culture project. Start with the culture.

Frequently asked questions

Why is AI a culture project and not a technology project? Because culture is the foundation, and an AI rollout planned like a software migration with budget, phases and a Gantt chart fails the way a house without a foundation fails. The cause stays invisible until the walls crack: the project stalls, adoption disappoints, and people revert to their old tools. The missing piece was never the technology. It is culture, so you start there.

Who should lead an AI initiative? Not necessarily the most technical person in the room. Because AI increasingly resembles a colleague that learns how you think, the person at the front of the shift needs exceptional soft skills: someone who can walk into a room of sceptical, overwhelmed people and make them feel AI is on their side, rather than someone who only knows the architecture and model parameters.

How does culture actually change around AI? Person by person, through one real moment of understanding rather than a training programme or a strategy document. When AI takes a task an employee has been dreading and handles it in minutes, that is the moment the shift happens. Multiply that single moment across every person in the company, and the individual changes, the team changes, and the organisation changes.

What does a leader need before leading the cultural shift? Their own story. You cannot ask people to trust something you have not trusted yourself. If you cannot point to something specific and personal where AI did something you did not expect and saved you time or aggravation, you are not ready to lead the shift. Getting there is simple: open the AI, tell it what you have been avoiding, and ask how to do it together.

Thomas Anglero Explaining How To Thrive When A Culture Is Splitting — Thomas Anglero explaining how to thrive when a culture is splitting

A cultural rift is forming inside most organisations: employees who have figured out AI are accelerating, while the rest feel left behind. Left unaddressed, the gap will break the team you have spent years building. The first move is to name the rift openly at an all-hands meeting, because naming it gives people permission to be uncomfortable, and that is the first step to becoming comfortable.

It is Monday morning. Or Tuesday. It does not matter which day, your calendar looks the same.

Back-to-back meetings from eight in the morning. You finish the last one at five, open your inbox, and the real work begins. Somewhere between the third meeting and the fourteenth email, there is this quiet voice in the back of your mind.

Why is everyone else going home early?

You already know the answer. And it is making you uncomfortable.

The rift no one is talking about

Inside your organisation right now, a split is forming.

On one side: the people who have figured out AI. They are moving faster, producing more, and some of them, let us be honest, are becoming a little arrogant about it.

On the other side: the people who have not figured it out yet. Not because they are incapable. Because they are exactly like you and me before we understood what was happening. Overwhelmed. Uncertain. Quietly wondering if they are being left behind.

What you are watching is the culture of high school reproducing itself inside your professional organisation. The cool kids and the ones on the outside. Nobody wants to go through that again and yet here it is, inside the company you are responsible for.

This rift, left unaddressed, will not stay manageable. It will grow. The AI-enabled employees will keep accelerating. The others will keep feeling isolated. And the gap between them will eventually break the team you have spent years building.

What your next hire already knows

Here is something that changes how you think about this.

The next person you hire for any role, product manager, marketing lead, operations is arriving with something your current team did not have when they joined. They know how to deploy AI as a team within their role.

Not a tool. A team.

Customer support, marketing, legal review, financial modelling, all of it, running in parallel, managed by one person who knows how to direct it. That new hire is not one employee. In practice, they are twenty.

I do not say this to create panic. I say it because understanding this changes what you do next.

Your existing employees who are not yet comfortable with AI are not your liability. They are your most valuable asset, the moment they cross over. Every person who makes that transition multiplies their output dramatically. Laying off people in the name of AI efficiency is not a smart move. It is the most expensive mistake a leader can make right now. This is the subject of my keynote, When Every Employee Becomes a Leader, Because of AI.

What you say when you call the all-hands meeting

The first move is the one most leaders avoid. You call the meeting and you name what everyone already feels.

You say: I see a rift in this organisation. There are people comfortable with AI and people who are not. That is my responsibility to fix, and I have not given it enough attention.

That is it. That is the whole speech.

When a leader names the thing no one will say out loud, the room exhales. The people who were uncomfortable suddenly have permission to be uncomfortable openly which is the first step to becoming comfortable. This rift is one symptom of a bigger truth, why an AI project is really a culture project.

This shift from traditional work to AI-enabled work is not the introduction of a new dashboard. It is the equivalent of moving from pen and paper to the personal computer. Those of us old enough to remember that transition know: it was disorienting, it took time, and today you cannot imagine working without it. This is that moment again.

Your job is not to have all the answers. Your job is to make it safe to ask the questions.

You are not alone in this

Every executive I speak to is navigating the same thing. Full calendar, growing pressure, a culture quietly fracturing around an invisible line.

The leaders who come through this well are not the ones with the best AI strategy on paper. They are the ones who addressed the human side first. Who understood that culture moves faster than technology once the leader decides to move it.

That decision starts with naming what is happening.

You already know it is happening. Now you know what to do.

If you would rather watch, here is the podcast episode this essay is adapted from or watch the full episode on YouTube.

Frequently asked questions

What is the AI culture rift? It is the split forming inside most organisations between the employees who have figured out AI, who are moving faster and producing more, and those who have not yet, who feel overwhelmed and left behind. Left unaddressed it reproduces the dynamics of high school inside a professional organisation, and the gap eventually breaks the team you have spent years building.

How should a leader respond to the rift? Name it openly at an all-hands meeting. The leader says plainly that there is a rift, that closing it is their responsibility, and that they have not given it enough attention. Naming the thing no one will say out loud lets the room exhale and gives uncomfortable people permission to be uncomfortable, which is the first step to becoming comfortable.

Should I lay off employees who are slow to adopt AI? No. Employees who are not yet comfortable with AI are your most valuable asset the moment they cross over, because every person who makes that transition multiplies their output dramatically. Laying people off in the name of AI efficiency is one of the most expensive mistakes a leader can make right now.

How big is the shift to AI-enabled work? It is not the introduction of a new dashboard. It is the equivalent of moving from pen and paper to the personal computer: disorienting at first, slow to take hold, and impossible to imagine working without once it does. A single AI-enabled hire can direct customer support, marketing, legal review and financial modelling in parallel, effectively operating as twenty people.

Thomas Anglero Advising World Leaders At The World Government Summit — Thomas Anglero advising world leaders at the World Government Summit

New hires who know how to deploy AI agents can operate at twenty times the output of a traditional employee, because they direct an entire team of AI specialists within a single role. That capability is splitting company culture into AI-comfortable and AI-uncomfortable halves. Closing that rift is now a CEO-level responsibility, and it starts with naming it openly.

Clarity at the Top podcast summary

The modern executive’s calendar is often a relentless tide of back-to-back meetings, leaving little room for strategic thinking, especially regarding AI’s disruptive potential. This overwhelming schedule is not unique; competitors and colleagues face the same challenge. The critical question becomes: where do you find the time to learn and adapt to AI’s rapid evolution? Embrace AI not as a threat, but as an augmentation. New hires, empowered by AI, can operate at a 20x output level, effectively building their own specialised teams within their roles. This AI integration is not about replacing employees, but about creating a significant performance leap. The key challenge for leaders is bridging the ‘AI comfort rift’ within their organisations to foster a unified, high-performing team. If you would rather read than listen, here is the essay version of this episode.

Duration: 13:52 · Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch the full episode on YouTube

Podcast transcript

It’s the beginning of the week and your calendar is already completely full. Back-to-back meetings all day long, all the way 9 to 5. Matter of fact, 8 o’clock in the morning. Matter of fact, some mornings you gotta even take your first meeting from home or from the train or the bus. We all know the drill.

You as a top leader, as an executive, you are reacting to this calendar that’s completely full day after day, day after day. And yet you have this thing called AI happening all around you. You’re worried about how it’s gonna disrupt your business, how it’s gonna disrupt your revenue and the future of your company. Matter of fact, it’s disrupting you today, let’s be honest.

Welcome to Clarity at the Top podcast, I’m Thomas Anglero. And let me give you some new perspectives, some insights, some more information you didn’t have before, calm you down and give you solutions to help you get out of the situation that you’re in now. Because number one, this is where we start: you’re not alone. All right, I’ll repeat, you’re not alone. Everyone’s overwhelmed.

Your competitor’s overwhelmed. The guy in the cubicle next to you is overwhelmed. The woman over there is overwhelmed. Everyone’s calendar is completely full with back-to-back meetings. When it gets to 5 o’clock, so many people are going home, you’re sitting at your desk going, “I’m finally opening my inbox.” We’re all there, we’ve all been there.

And where do you have the time to learn this AI stuff? Where do you have this time to see what all these people are doing, all these amazing things, and you say, “Oh it’s just hype, oh it’s so annoying, let me just get what I gotta do.” And you start doing what you’ve always done, grinding away, pounding at the keyboards. But in the back of your mind you get that little voice of, “Why is everybody going home so early? Why is… What about me?” Relax. As a top leader you’re in a difficult situation.

The 20x power of AI-enabled new hires

Let me help you to get yourself out of that and also let me help you to expand your company and save your culture. Let’s start first with this: You’re responsible for all your employees and what’s going on in your company, and you’re gonna be hiring new people into your company. So that means that your company is refreshing itself with every new hire. You know this, you’ve been hiring people forever. Don’t have to be speaking to the choir. But what I want you to be aware of now, today, is that your next new hire will be able to launch their own company with AI.

Let me explain to you what I’m talking about. In my other screen I have over here, which you can’t see, I actually have all these AI agents running in parallel. They’re completing a project that I have them working on while I’m talking to you. Each AI agent has a different experience level. They have an infinite number of years of experience ’cause they have access to all the information on the internet on doing every individual task that I want them to do.

In your organisation today, you have a project manager, you have sales, you have customer support, you have marketing. You have all these individual positions. And with my AI agents sitting over here working off camera, they each are expert in customer support, marketing, sales. It’s all been digitalised. Your next new hire knows how to do this.

So you’re thinking, let’s just give an example, product manager. You’re hiring for a product manager. In traditional interviews, you’ll ask them, “What have you done, what clients have you served, and how have you handled different difficult client situations?” You ask about KPIs, building pipeline, and handling unhappy clients. You know the traditional questions.

Your new hire is gonna be a person enabled by AI, enlightened by AI. They will say to you, “I will be the project manager for this role, but I’ll be able to deploy an entire team of people to assist me. I’ll work with my colleagues, but I’ll be able to deploy an entire team of people.” They are able to deploy their own marketing team, their own sales team, their own accounting team, their own legal team. But that’s a big question mark, be careful with that one right; respect the lawyers and the law!

Every new employee is able to have their own company in their role that they have for you. That new employee who is comfortable with AI and can build their own company within their position for you is 20X-ing their output for you, for your company, for your team, and for the colleagues. Every new hire is a 20X better performer in output, deliverables, and speed than any previous employee. This is the subject of my keynote, When Every Employee Becomes a Leader, Because of AI.

The growing cultural rift in your corporation

I’m not saying get rid of your previous employees. That is the wrong way to look at it. The way you should look at your employees, you have a rift happening now in corporations, and this is something I really wanted to get into. The rift is those people who are comfortable with AI and those people who aren’t comfortable with AI. And the organisation, your culture, is beginning to split, and I’m seeing this in a lot of organisations, and as a leader, you’re responsible for it.

Now you don’t need any more pressure. You don’t need me to be putting any pressure on you, right? Saying, “Thomas, why are you throwing this pressure on me? I don’t need this right now.” I’m not putting pressure on you. I’m helping you by saying you’re so bogged down in that calendar that’s full of back-to-back meetings, and then you’re bogged down in your inbox ’cause you’ve done all the back-to-back meetings, now you gotta do all the email replies and everything like that. The rift in the culture of your company is growing.

What is the rift? There’s those people who are comfortable with AI, they’re producing more, doing more, and human nature, they may be a little bit cocky, a little bit rude in their bravado about knowing AI so well. And those people who aren’t comfortable with AI, who haven’t figured out AI for whatever reason, there are a million reasons, and there’s nothing wrong. These are normal people; these are you and me before we figured out AI. They’re feeling a little bit put to the side.

It’s a bit like, remember in high school, where you have the cool kids, and if you’re not part of the cool kids, you felt like you’re outside the group and all that crap? Well, that is the culture that’s being produced inside of your professional corporation. You’re just reproducing the discomfort of high school. Who wants to go through that again? Never again. Your job is to get rid of the rift and make everybody one solid team, right? One solid unit.

First thing you need to do is recognise that there is a rift in your culture that is splitting your company, and if that persists, you will not grow and AI will destroy you. The AI influence on cultures of corporations will destroy your corporation, will destroy your future, will destroy anything you’re trying to build, because everybody is in sort of high school mode. God, that in a corporation, what a horrible situation. And that’s the reality of so many people. And people going to work going, “I really am getting uncomfortable with work.”

Leading the AI transition as a CEO

And that is ’cause it’s triggering stuff and memories from the past and they can’t associate it. But you’re the leader, you’re the boss, you’re the CEO, you’re the person they report to. They’re the person they look up to, who has to have the answers, now you understand. And you’re also the part-time psychologist as well. Part of the job is how do you address this and how do you fix this? You do that by calling an all-hands meeting or going around to different groups.

So I would start off with an all-hands meeting. It can be online, but it’d be better if you have a big auditorium. But if you have people all over the world or in different locations, have an all-hands meeting and just say, “I see a rift in our corporation. We’re introducing AI. There are people who are comfortable with AI and there are people who are not comfortable with AI. It is my responsibility to make everybody comfortable in this organisation and I have not been able to do that.”

“But my plan going forward is to make sure that we’re all comfortable with AI. Because those people who are not comfortable with AI, once you understand that it’s not just a tool, this is not just the introduction of a new dashboard that you gotta figure out how to use. This is a major change to how we work going forward for the rest of our lives. This is the equivalent to going from pen and paper to the PC.”

And then I remember those days, dating myself, but I remember that transition. That was very weird, you gotta be pretty old to remember that, but that was a major shift. There were a lot of people who were uncomfortable with that and it took some time. But now today, can you imagine doing your job without a PC? Nothing digital. Doing your entire job with pen and paper, it’s impossible to see that.

This shift from pen and paper to PC is the same as PC to AI. That’s how important this shift is. “And me as a leader, I have underestimated it. We have some people who are comfortable, we have some people who are uncomfortable, and it’s my job to make everyone comfortable. So going forward, I will spend more resources and more time to make people more comfortable, more one-on-ones to get them to understand the value of AI and where we are going.”

“And then as a company, we’ll come back together. I apologize for putting not as much resources on this as I should, but that’s the plan going forward.” Excuse me, doing this in real time. That is one way you can handle it. As a leader, you take the blame because the responsibility is yours, but you also show humanity.

The true ROI of retaining your employees

You also talk about the elephant in the room, right? The rift of the people. And once you talk about the elephant in the room, you talk about how the thing that makes them uncomfortable, as their leader will go, “Oh okay, it’s something we can talk about now. In our culture we can discuss this now, and this is gonna be fixed now. This is great, I’m very happy now.”

Right, that’s where you start understanding that this thing has separated, understanding that your new hires are gonna be so comfortable on this side it’ll make these people uncomfortable. But these people are just a few days, a few weeks away from sliding over, and this becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and this becomes smaller and smaller and smaller, and then you have an entire company of AI-enabled people. And each employee is 20X-ing what they were doing before. That’s your goal, that’s where you’re targeting, and that’s what the outcome’s gonna be, a 20X for each employee that you have.

This whole AI thing has never, never been about layoffs. Every company who lays off an employee and says, “Because of AI we’re more efficient, I’m laying off 100, 1000, whatever, five, ten employees,” they don’t see that every employee that they laid off is 20X the output of what they’re gonna get from the AI. That’s madness. To lay off people when for every employee you get 20X, but when you lay off 500 people, 500 times 20X, that’s a humongous loss.

You didn’t lay off 500 people, you laid off 10,000, what a stupid move. Your employees who are uncomfortable with AI are your most valuable resource because when they come to understand AI, fantastic. That is what you need to keep in mind going forward and becoming a better leader, ’cause you already are a good one. You’re just overwhelmed with everything that’s going on. You’re not alone, you’re okay. I also provide advisory for leaders navigating this.

But here are some strategies, right? That’s a strategy going forward: understanding the power of AI, understanding the implication it is having to your culture, to your day-to-day, and let’s be honest, to your sanity. We gotta save your sanity. So smile, it’s not all doom and gloom, okay? I got you, this is the Clarity at the Top podcast, I’m Thomas Anglero.

I look forward to sharing with you every week insights into how AI and being a top leader coming together, what happens when that magic comes together, right? And what can you do, give you some different things to think about and help you enjoy the quality of life even more. Spend more time with your family, friends, more time maybe just sitting in the grass, why not? I’m Thomas Anglero. Talk to you next time.

Frequently asked questions

How much more can an AI-enabled new hire produce? Around twenty times the output of a traditional employee. A new hire comfortable with AI can deploy an entire team of AI specialists within a single role, their own marketing, sales, accounting and support capability, so they effectively run a small company inside their position, delivering far more in output, speed and deliverables than any previous employee.

What is the “AI comfort rift” splitting company culture? It is the divide between the people who are comfortable with AI, producing more and sometimes carrying a little bravado about it, and the people who are not yet comfortable and feel pushed to the side. Left alone it reproduces the discomfort of high school inside a corporation, the culture splits, and the company cannot grow.

Should companies lay off employees because AI makes them more efficient? No. This was never about layoffs. Every employee who becomes comfortable with AI is worth around twenty times their previous output, so laying off 500 people is really losing the equivalent of 10,000. Employees who are not yet comfortable with AI are the most valuable resource, because the moment they understand it, their output multiplies.

How should a CEO close the rift? By naming it openly, usually in an all-hands meeting, and taking responsibility. The leader says plainly that there is a rift, that making everyone comfortable with AI is their job, that they have underestimated it, and that they will now put real time and one-on-ones behind it. Taking the blame while showing humanity turns the elephant in the room into something the culture can finally discuss and fix.

Thomas Anglero Advising On Cultural Innovation Before Ai Investment — Thomas Anglero advising on Cultural Innovation Before AI Investment

Most AI investments underdeliver because the organisation’s culture is not ready for them, not because the technology falls short. Nearly 97% of senior leaders report positive returns on AI investments, and one-third of companies plan to invest $10 million or more, yet many lack the experiment-friendly, low-hierarchy culture needed to capture that value. Cultural innovation belongs on the leadership agenda before the next AI budget is approved.

AI is Cultural Innovation

The statistics are compelling: nearly 97% of senior business leaders report positive returns on their AI investments, with a significant percentage planning to double down in the coming year. One-third of companies are preparing to invest $10 million or more in AI technologies. Yet beneath these impressive numbers lies a growing concern, executives are increasingly sceptical about their leadership’s ability to keep pace with technological change and deliver on key performance indicators. I saw this directly when I worked on innovation inside Norway’s Tax Authority: the technology was never the constraint, the culture was.

This disconnect reveals a critical insight that forward-thinking organisations are beginning to recognise: before making another substantial investment in AI infrastructure, companies must prioritise cultural innovation. Technology alone cannot drive transformation; it requires a corresponding evolution in organisational culture, mindset, and leadership approach.

What is the Cultural Readiness Gap?

Many organisations face what might be called a “cultural readiness gap.” They have access to cutting-edge AI tools and substantial budgets but lack the organisational culture to fully leverage these resources. Traditional hierarchies, siloed departments, and risk-averse decision-making processes can significantly hamper AI adoption and impact.

Leaders who recognise this gap understand that successful AI implementation isn’t merely about the technology itself but about creating an environment where innovation can flourish. This means fostering a culture of experimentation, embracing calculated risk-taking, and encouraging cross-functional collaboration. This is the subject of my keynote, When Every Employee Becomes a Leader, Because of AI.

Leadership’s New Mandate

For executive teams, this cultural shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge lies in acknowledging that yesterday’s leadership practices may be insufficient for tomorrow’s AI-driven landscape. The opportunity comes in reimagining leadership itself, moving from command-and-control models to approaches centred on empowerment, continuous learning, and adaptability.

Progressive leaders are already placing cultural innovation at the top of their strategic agendas. They’re asking crucial questions: How can we build psychological safety that encourages experimentation? How might we restructure teams to better collaborate with AI systems? What skills and mindsets do our people need to develop? Closing that gap is the focus of my Executive Leadership Advisory.

Building an AI-Ready Culture

Organisations that successfully bridge the cultural readiness gap typically focus on several key areas:

Developing digital literacy across all levels of the organisation
Creating safe spaces for experimentation and learning from failure
Redefining roles and responsibilities to complement AI capabilities
Establishing clear ethical guidelines for AI implementation
Fostering cross-functional collaboration to break down silos

The Critical Question

As leadership teams gather for strategic planning sessions, the question becomes unavoidable: Is cultural innovation on the agenda of your next leadership group meeting? If not, even the most substantial AI investments risk failing to deliver their full potential. This is the foundation beneath why an AI project is really a culture project.

The most successful organisations recognise that cultural transformation isn’t a one-time initiative but an ongoing journey. It requires persistent attention, measurement, and refinement, much like the AI technologies themselves.

The message is clear: before approving that next significant AI budget, ensure your organisation has the cultural foundation to support it. The technology may be revolutionary, but without corresponding cultural innovation, its impact will be merely incremental.

Frequently asked questions

Why do most AI investments underdeliver?

Because the organisation’s culture is not ready for them, not because the technology falls short. Nearly 97% of senior leaders report positive returns on AI, yet many organisations lack the experiment-friendly, low-hierarchy culture needed to capture that value, so the impact stays incremental.

What is the “cultural readiness gap”?

It is the gap between having cutting-edge AI tools and substantial budgets on one hand, and lacking the organisational culture to leverage them on the other. Traditional hierarchies, siloed departments and risk-averse decision-making all hamper AI adoption regardless of how much is spent.

What should leaders do before approving the next AI budget?

Put cultural innovation on the agenda first. That means building psychological safety for experimentation, restructuring teams to collaborate with AI, developing digital literacy at every level, and moving from command-and-control leadership to empowerment and continuous learning.

Is cultural transformation a one-time project?

No. The most successful organisations treat it as an ongoing journey requiring persistent attention, measurement and refinement, much like the AI technologies themselves. It is not a box to tick before deployment but a continuous leadership discipline.

Generative AI has already spread through your organisation, whether you planned for it or not, and leaders can no longer control adoption. The job now is to train people to use AI well, because most employees barely scratch the surface of what these tools can do. Organisations that lead this shift keep their best talent; those that try to restrict it lose theirs.

AI Requires Leadership Changes Now

AI leadership and cultural transformation are critical business skills in 2025. The landscape of artificial intelligence has undergone a seismic shift. Gone are the days when AI discussions evoked playful references to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator or Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey. Today’s AI isn’t science fiction, it’s a tangible force transforming every aspect of our business operations and organisational culture.

The Democratisation of AI: A Double-Edged Sword

Generative AI has accomplished what decades of traditional AI development couldn’t: it has made artificial intelligence accessible to everyone. From ChatGPT to Claude to Google’s Gemini, accessing AI is now as natural as opening Microsoft Word or checking email. This accessibility isn’t just about convenience, it’s triggering a fundamental transformation in how we work, think, and innovate.

However, this democratisation presents a critical challenge for organisational leaders. While previous technological transitions allowed for careful, managed implementation, generative AI has already permeated your organisation, whether you planned for it or not. The reality is stark: if you’re a C-suite executive wondering how to control AI adoption, you’re already behind.

The Leadership Imperative: From Control to Empowerment

The traditional paradigm of protective leadership, being the guiding parent who prevents employees from “sticking their fingers in the socket”, has been upended. Your workforce is already deeply engaged with AI tools, using them in ways they personally deem appropriate, often without guidelines or strategic direction.

But this isn’t a cause for alarm, it’s an unprecedented opportunity for transformative leadership.

The Strategic Advantage: Training for Excellence

As a leader in 2025, your critical role isn’t to restrict AI usage but to optimise it. Most employees are barely scratching the surface of AI’s capabilities, using these powerful tools in rudimentary ways. This is where your leadership becomes crucial:

Show them how tasks that once consumed hours can be accomplished in minutes
Guide them in understanding that AI-driven efficiency isn’t about doing less, it’s about achieving more
Help them redirect their newly available time towards innovation and strategic thinking

The Cultural Transformation Opportunity

The real power lies in what happens next. When employees master efficient AI usage, they gain something invaluable: time. But time itself isn’t the asset, it’s how that time is used. As a leader, your role is to cultivate an environment where this surplus time becomes fuel for:

Career advancement
Innovation initiatives
Competitive advantage
Personal and professional growth
Strategic thinking and planning

The 2025 Ultimatum: Lead or Lose

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Organisations that successfully navigate this transformation will find themselves with an energised workforce of future-seekers and innovators. Those that fail risk losing their best talent and being left with a workforce resistant to change and technological advancement.

Your Call to Action

As a leader in 2025, your mandate is clear:

Step up and lead proactively
Guide your team through this transformation
Become the role model for effective AI integration
Create a culture that embraces technological advancement
Foster an environment where innovation thrives

While it’s not too late to start, the cost of inaction grows daily. Your people are watching, waiting, and ready to follow strong leadership into this new era. The question isn’t whether your organisation will be transformed by AI, it’s whether you’ll be the one leading that transformation.

The path to 2026 and beyond will be defined by the actions you take now. The future belongs to leaders who embrace this moment and guide their organisations through this unprecedented transformation. The time to act is now.

Frequently asked questions

Can leaders still control AI adoption in their organisation?

No. Generative AI has already spread through most organisations whether leadership planned for it or not. A C-suite executive still wondering how to control adoption is already behind. The role has shifted from controlling use to guiding it well.

If employees are already using AI, what is left for leaders to do?

Train them to use it well. Most employees barely scratch the surface of what these tools can do, using them in rudimentary ways. Leadership’s job is to show what is possible, then help people redirect the time AI frees towards innovation and strategic thinking.

What happens to organisations that try to restrict AI rather than lead it?

They lose their best people. Organisations that lead the shift keep their top talent and gain an energised workforce of innovators. Those that restrict it are left with a workforce resistant to change, at a growing competitive disadvantage.

Why is time the real asset AI creates, rather than efficiency itself?

Because efficiency only matters by what it frees you to do next. When employees accomplish in minutes what once took hours, the surplus time becomes fuel for career growth, innovation and strategic thinking, provided leadership cultivates an environment that directs it there.