Jason Kurtz, CEO, Basware.gettyI recently met with the digital transformation officer at a large company who has spent around a million euros on internal AI-related projects over the past year. He told me he couldn't point to a single penny they have spent that has helped the business in any way, and that he was tired of experimenting with AI to check a box for the board.​​Here's the uncomfortable truth that most boards don't want to hear: Top-down AI mandates without bottom-up buy-in create resistance, not results. The question isn't "How do we adopt AI?" but "How do we make our teams excited to adopt it?" ​​The Disconnect​AI brings worry and excitement to boards, and they want to ensure their companies are innovating and leveraging it. This creates a cascading flow, where pressure starts with the board and moves through the CEO to the executive team, and then to managers and employees.Every level asks: "What are we doing with AI?" but the message changes as it moves down the organizational chart.What the top intends: "Let's explore AI to improve our business." What the bottom hears: "AI is coming to replace my job." And, the natural response is: "Why would I help adopt something that eliminates me?"Without clear communication about intent, teams can slow down adoption—not out of resistance, but out of self-preservation. This creates an unintended conflict that stalls AI initiatives before they even start.Leadership sees AI as an opportunity. Teams see it as an existential threat. Neither perspective is wrong, but both are operating from incomplete information. The gap between excitement and fear is where AI budgets go to die and value is left unrealized.Why 'Experimentation' Is The Wrong Strategy If you're still experimenting with AI, then you're likely behind. Deloitte's recent report highlights that 2026 is the year that organizations are shifting from pilot and experimentation to core integration of AI. Workforce access to AI increased by 50% in just one year, and over a third (34%) of organizations now use AI to deeply transform their business. However, that still leaves almost two-thirds of organizations yet to reach that level of transformation, remaining in early-stage adoption, experimentation or fragmented use cases. As a result, most companies are not yet capturing meaningful enterprise value from AI, lagging behind those already embedding it into core business processes. ​One important step to catching up is to shift your thinking from "Can we use AI?" to "Where will AI deliver measurable value?"​​To drive AI adoption, leaders need to stop talking about it as an efficiency play and make clear it’s about empowerment and relief. I’ve seen account payables teams move from skepticism to advocacy once automation eliminated the work they disliked most: chasing approvals, manually correcting invoice errors, and working nights and weekends to close books on time.​ But leaders must show their teams these benefits. Change Management 101 We've seen this movie before with calculators, spreadsheets, websites and cloud, to name a few. Every technology wave sparked the same fear around replacing jobs. Often, people who embrace new tools replace people who don't. Don’t skip change management 101. Address fears head-on, but pair that with real enablement. Give teams the tools, training and confidence to use AI in their day-to-day work life. Show them this is good for their careers, good for the quality of their work and something they are being actively supported to adopt. ​The real success story is a team leader wanting a promotion, saw AI as a career accelerator, drove adoption and got results. To see this outcome, here's what CEOs must do differently: 1. Lead by example. Executives must actively demonstrate AI in their own workflows and can't mandate what they don't model themselves. In my own practice, I make it a point to be vocal about how I have embedded AI in my own workflows to summarize board materials, prepare meeting briefs, analyze reports and accelerate decision-making.By modeling everyday use cases, leaders can demystify the technology for their teams.​2. Position AI as a skill that future-proofs careers and makes jobs better. Those who harness AI will likely replace those who don't, with April research from the Bipartisan Policy Center finding that job postings seeking AI skills rose 144% year over year.Make AI literacy a competitive advantage for employees. Make it clear that within your company, AI is not a people replacement, but a competitive advantage and a way for employees to rise up.​3. Show tangible benefits. Instead of "process more" and “efficiency,” the narrative should be changed to "eliminate the mundane work you hate" and "focus on strategic work that matters." To achieve this, spotlight employees who are using AI to work smarter, not harder.​4. Connect the dots.The board wants AI ROI, and teams want job security and meaningful work. AI embedded in proven processes can deliver both. When done right, everyone wins.5. Invest in training.I was recently in a room with 30-plus CFOs. The vast majority’s current AI strategy is to buy an AI tool and hope folks use it. But hope is not a strategy. ​Don't just deploy tools and hope for adoption. Instead, create certification programs, classes and learning paths. Make teams confident, not confused. Roll the courses out companywide and incentivize teams to participate through internal contests and rewards programs.And communicate your own participation and learning path. Help your teams understand the art of the possible with AI-based industry and functional best practice use cases.​​Conclusion ​Organizations must help teams understand and work with AI-driven workflows by giving them the right tools, training and experience to use them effectively. The goal is to have a team of confident AI heroes. After all, they're leading change, not victims of it. ​​​Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?