How to Kill Your AI Initiative Before it Starts

In last week's podcast interview, one point that came up was the idea that "market validation" applies to internal AI initiatives just as much as it applies to outward-facing product development. You, as a business leader, might have a great idea for tools and enhancements, but that will fall flat if the (internal) market does not adopt it.

Sure, you can mandate from the top that all employees must use a given tool. However, if your people perceive too much friction or if you fail to gain buy-in and present a clear ROI (return on time and effort invested), adoption will be perfunctory at best and actively undermined at worst.

I've heard of concrete examples of this: AI-assisted work scheduling software was rolled out with considerable fanfare and promised significant savings, only to be undermined by employees who didn't want to lose out on the now-eliminated overtime bonus payments. Another example, from older times, is the outright revolting of manufacturers when automation threatened to take their jobs. Your economic reasons notwithstanding, people can't be expected to embrace something they perceive as an existential threat: If the CEO of a company publicly talks about introducing AI to replace his workforce, don't be surprised if the workforce doesn't comply; this is the equivalent to, "We're firing you and will replace you with someone cheaper but can you please make sure to onboard them properly so they know everything you know about this critical area?"

Both for technical and ethical reasons, I'm much more enthusiastic about models of working where AI enhances what humans are capable of. If you build something for humans, it pays to build it with humans.