It’s common to hear that employees are anxious about artificial intelligence. They’re worried about their roles, reluctant to use the tools. Quietly resistant, nodding through the training session, then returning to the old way of working the moment it ends.But this framing misses the point. The issue isn’t the technology. It’s what leaders have, and haven’t, said about it.
In most organisations, AI arrived without a story. No clarity on what changes, no clarity on what doesn’t, and no clarity on how success will be judged from here.
One day there was no AI tool. The next, there was a tool, a login, and a vague expectation to “start using it”, with no explanation of what that meant for people’s roles, their targets or their future.
Into that silence, people write their own story. And it’s rarely an encouraging one:
Why would I share how I use this if it might replace me?
