Stop Forcing AI Adoption — Start Building Curiosity

If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’re someone trying to facilitate AI adoption in your organization. Let me save you some time: this is less about AI and more about change management.

The hype leads us to believe everyone’s “bought in,” and that’s the first mistake most leaders make. AI doesn’t land evenly. It affects roles differently. Some people see opportunity; others see a threat.

In one client project, we built a “Product Manager Agent” that could summarize meeting notes and propose timelines. It was technically solid, but the rollout flopped. Not because it failed — but because the people it was designed for saw it as an encroachment on their judgment. We learned quickly that adoption doesn’t come from capability; it comes from trust.

If you’re leading AI adoption, start there:
List every stakeholder group — executives, managers, specialists, frontline teams — and ask ChatGPT to help you identify what concerns or incentives each might have. The point isn’t to script your way around resistance; it’s to anticipate the human impact. Remove ego, stay curious, and lead like someone building confidence, not compliance.

Build a Playground, Not a Mandate

Once you’ve grounded yourself in understanding, give your people a place to play.
Work with your technical team to define a list of approved AI tools and clear parameters for use — your “AI sandbox policy.” It doesn’t need to be a legal tome; just a few pages on what’s encouraged, what’s off-limits, and how data should be handled.
Then — and this is key — make space for unstructured experimentation. One operations team we worked with used a “Play Friday” once a month, where anyone could bring an operational pain point and test if AI could help. Some explored automating shift schedules; others drafted training manuals. Not everything stuck, but what mattered was that learning happened without risk.
Playgrounds aren’t about productivity. They’re about permission. When people feel safe to tinker, curiosity becomes culture — and from there, adoption starts to grow organically.

Iterate Together — at Their Speed, Not Yours

After curiosity and experimentation come iteration — the bridge from exploration to integration.
Iteration is simply the habit of collective reflection. Set a cadence (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) for short check-ins — 45 minutes is plenty — where teams share what they tried, what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised them.
Example applications:

• HR Team: Uses AI to draft job descriptions and reflect on tone bias, clarity, and speed.
• Customer Service: Tests summarizing client calls to identify repeat issues, then debates what still needs the human touch.
• Finance: Experiments with AI-generated dashboards, then discusses trust and validation — what’s reliable vs. what needs oversight.

Iteration is where growth happens. Not through mandate, but through rhythm. Push teams — but only as far as their confidence allows. Adoption isn’t a finish line; it’s a pace-setting exercise.

Your 3-Month AI Adoption Playbook

Here’s a simple roadmap for any leader ready to move fast and thoughtfully.
Month 1: Curiosity & Awareness

• Host a company-wide “AI Curiosity Session.” Show simple, practical use cases (drafting an email, summarizing a doc).
• Encourage every department to identify one task AI might help with.
• Share stories of first experiments — even the failed ones. Normalize exploration.

Month 2: Safe Sandboxes & Experimentation

• Launch departmental “playgrounds” with guardrails: approved tools, shared folders, data guidelines.
• Run 45-minute weekly sessions where teams share what they tested.
• Document insights openly — this becomes your internal AI “learning log.”

Month 3: Reflection & Iteration

• Begin capturing results, not in efficiency but in understanding. What changed? What stuck?
• Encourage cross-department sharing of learnings.
• Identify one or two “pilot-ready” ideas for more formal integration.

This 3-month cycle is designed to spark momentum — not mastery. If curiosity is normalized, sandboxes are safe, and reflection is routine, AI adoption stops being a project — it becomes part of how your organization learns.

For leaders ready to go deeper, we’ve created a detailed 12-week meeting outline — including weekly agendas, reflection prompts, and discussion questions — available for download here

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about technology.

It’s about people learning how to grow with it — together.