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I heard someone recently say you can’t mandate a mentality. That’s what I think about when I consider the intense push by company leaders to drive AI adoption among their employees. While I personally love AI and it’s been a force multiplier, I also recognize that not everyone is like me.
All said, if the goal is to drive adoption, In their fervor to win the AI race, I think many organizations have skipped several critical steps crucial for a successful effort.
The Missing Foundation: Change Management
That first step is change management — the structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from their current state to a desired future state. We talk all the time about change management in business parlance, but in our zeal to beat others out the door, these fundamental principles seem to be set aside.
That’s a mistake.
Research from McKinsey shows that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. Adopting AI, like any other major initiative, is a change management process. Mandates are rarely universally accepted, and this top-down approach is often met with significant resistance.
I’ve written about effective change management and how to communicate change, but if we want to boil down the basics: tell people the who, what, when, why, and how with deep emphasis on “what’s in it for me,” “why are we doing this,” and “why will this help us.”
The Current Reality
That’s not what many organizations are doing. Organizational leaders are shifting to AI with the rationale of “because I said so.” For many, that’s not sufficient as I often say, absent a narrative, people will create one. Leaders need to provide the why, the rationale, and give people the larger vision so they know how to engage with AI.
Transformation without adequate motivation is stagnation but transformation with shared vision becomes sustainable momentum.
5 Essential Questions for a Better Approach
So how do we go about it? The answer lies in thoughtfully addressing five fundamental questions before rolling out any AI initiative.
1. What: Define the Problem You’re Solving
The first question is: what are we solving for? If you don’t know what you’re solving for, how can you ask staff to embrace AI tools if you don’t even know what it’s leading to? First, figure out what you want to solve. That’s the “what.”
2. Who: Identify Your Audience
After you figure out what you’re solving for, you need to determine to whom it applies. AI is not a panacea, and there probably should be specific departments with legitimate use cases identified. For the problem you’ve defined, determine the audience who will be most impacted and who needs to be involved.
3. Why: Provide the Motivation
The next aspect is the “why.” People need inspiration, people need motivation, people need to understand why you’re asking them to do what you’re asking them to do.Treat people like adults and give them the reason(s). You can’t just say “because I told you so.” That’s empty, it’s unhelpful, and less than inspiring.
4. When: Establish Clear Timelines
Then there is the “when.” When are we trying to get it done? What’s the timeline for this? Because we know what the problem is and what we’re solving for, there should be a date for when we solve it or accomplish a milestone. If you can’t say when, then it remains open-ended forever, and that’s also less than inspiring.
5. How: Map Out the Execution
And finally, there is the “how.” This is probably the most underrated of the who, what, when, why, and how construct, but how are we going to do it? There should be clear instructions for how we’re going to achieve the goal. That means thinking about timelines, tools, milestones, rules, responsibilities, owners, contributors, and mapping that all out. People need to know what tools they are using and what those tools will help them achieve. And they may need to be trained on the tools.
What I see far too often is a tool morass, a chaotic proliferation of AI platforms and applications with no clear guidance on which tool serves which purpose, no integration between systems, and no coherent strategy. Employees become overwhelmed by the sheer number of options and paralyzed by uncertainty about which tool to use for their specific needs. This confusion breeds frustration and resistance, ultimately undermining the entire adoption effort.
Define the tools, the timeline, the anticipated outcomes, and the measures of success. This means investigating tools thoroughly, understanding how they interplay with existing systems, setting clear strategy and guardrails, and choosing company-right tools rather than a scattershot ‘AI everything’ approach.
Management, Not Mandate
You can’t mandate a mentality. You can’t force and reasonably expect people to embrace AI simply because leadership declares it’s important. What you can do is create the conditions for meaningful adoption by treating your people like adults, giving them context, purpose, clear guidance, and a compelling reason to change.
The organizations that will win the AI race aren’t the ones that move fastest out the gate with mandates and pressure. They’re the ones that take the time to bring their people along on the journey, building genuine buy-in and capability at every level. That’s not just good change management, it’s smart leadership.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
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Bernard Coleman
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