I’ve always been someone who collects information from everywhere – YouTube videos, random articles, conversations with executives, Reddit threads about what actually works. It all goes into this mental database where it sits until someone presents a problem, and suddenly all those dots connect.
That’s exactly what happened when my VP said “AI is going to be important for us” in late 2023.
The Pattern I Keep Seeing
I started attending every AI training I could find, reading everything, and testing tools. But the more I learned about organizational AI adoption, the more I realized most companies were facing the same challenge: they had AI tools, but people weren’t actually using them systematically.
The statistics back this up – while 78% of organizations use AI in at least one function, only 1-2% have comprehensive adoption strategies. Most are stuck in pilot purgatory.
Why Companies Get Stuck
The typical approach:
- Buy AI tools ✓
- Announce them to the organization ✓
- Mandate usage ✓
- Measure adoption metrics ✓
- Wonder why nothing actually changes ✗
What’s missing: Understanding that AI adoption is fundamentally about organizational behavior change, not technology deployment.
The secret wasn’t the technology – it was understanding that AI adoption is fundamentally about
Michelle Deshotels
organizational behavior change.
What Actually Works
The 1-2% of organizations with comprehensive adoption strategies aren’t doing anything revolutionary. They’re applying basic change management principles:
Start with how people actually work:
- Not how you think they should work
- Not how the technology wants them to work
- How they actually get things done today
Identify real barriers:
- What makes the new way harder than the old way?
- Where does friction happen?
- What would need to change to make adoption easier than resistance?
Make AI immediately useful:
- Not “eventually powerful”
- Not “theoretically transformative”
- Useful today, in their actual workflow
Build through peer performance
- Not top-down mandate
- Not executive enthusiasm
- People adopting because their colleagues found it helpful
The Challenge Most Companies Face
I see so many companies struggling with this exact challenge right now. They’ve invested in AI tools but can’t get past random individual usage to systematic organizational capability.
The gap isn’t technological sophistication. It’s understanding how humans actually adopt new ways of working.
If your company is wrestling with moving AI adoption beyond pilots and experiments, I’d love to connect.
Conclusion
The companies stuck in pilot purgatory aren’t there because they lack sophisticated AI tools. They’re stuck because they’re treating AI adoption as a technology problem when it’s actually a people problem. The reality check: AI adoption isn’t about AI. It’s about adoption.
And adoption? That’s change management. Which means it’s not new at all.