Most leaders are making the same mistake with AI. They're treating it like a tech rollout when it's actually a transformation waiting to happen.

It's an easy mistake to make. AI looks like technology. So leaders hand it to the CIO, buy everyone a license, maybe send out a training video, and then measure success by how many people logged in this month. The result? A workforce that uses AI to find files, summarize Zoom calls, or look up generic facts—and then proudly reports "high adoption rates." Adoption isn't adaptation. And without adaptation, you're leaving nearly all the value on the table.

I recently had a long conversation with Charlene Li about this exact problem, and one line of hers has stuck with me: you can adopt the organization, but you don't adapt the organization. The technology shows up. The work doesn't change. And so neither do the results.

The shift starts with how we think about the tool itself. AI isn't a Google answering machine. It's not coin-operated—put a query in, get an answer out. It's closer to a colleague, a thought partner, an assistant. The leaders getting real value out of AI treat it like a teammate they're in conversation with, not a database they're querying. They ask it to push back. They let it ask them clarifying questions. They use it to translate perspectives across silos before a tough cross-functional meeting.

But none of that happens by accident. It happens when leaders set the direction.

And here's where most senior teams go wrong. They delegate AI to the technologist, then wonder why nothing strategic comes of it. The CIO can roll out the software, but the CIO can't tell your organization why you're using AI, whatproblems it should solve, or which strategic objectives it should accelerate. Only leadership can do that. In the absence of that direction, fear and uncertainty fill the vacuum—employees worry about their jobs, managers protect their turf, and the people closest to the work quietly start using AI on the side because the company-approved version is too locked down to be useful.

The fix isn't an "AI strategy." It's your existing strategy, paused at every step to ask: how could AI enable this faster, better, cheaper, or safer? Charlene put it more sharply: a list of use cases is not a strategy. Use cases trickle up from individuals. Transformation trickles down from leaders who are willing to break silos, redirect resources, and tell the organization where it's going.

A few things worth trying this week:

• Normalize it out loud. Open your next meeting by asking how each person used AI to prepare. Then share how you used it. The stigma dies the moment leaders stop hiding their own use.
• Stop chasing tools, start clarifying problems. When a vendor pitches you, refuse to let them talk until they understand your strategic problems. Same rule for your team: "I want to build an AI tool for X" becomes "How does this help us hit our objectives?"
• Govern at the edge, not the center. Take people to the very edge of what's allowed and tell them it's safe to operate there. Guardrails that are too tight create shadow AI, which is far more dangerous than governed AI.
• Reserve the human moments. Let AI carry the empathy fatigue—the routine, repeatable stuff—so your people can save their real empathy, judgment, and wisdom for the moments that actually require them.

The leaders who'll win the next decade aren't the ones who learn every model release or memorize every prompt technique. They're the ones who stay laser-focused on the business, refuse to be distracted by the shiny object, and ask one question relentlessly: how does AI help us create value here?

For more on this, including Charlene's framework for responsible AI rollout and the "AI trust pyramid" she's developed, check out my full conversation with her here:

or listen as a podcast​

Here's some more resources I recommend:

The Moments That Actually Matter: You remember less than one percent of what you experience. Your team remembers even less of you. The question isn't whether you're showing up—it's whether you're showing up when it counts. In his new book Moments That Matter, my friend Chris Dyer draws on two decades of building high-performing cultures to explain why leaders miss their most consequential opportunities. His See, Shape, Scale framework gives you a practical way to recognize the interactions that determine whether people stay, disengage, or give everything they have. Click here to learn more.

Making Teamwork Work: There’s nothing better than working on a team that just clicks. In my latest LinkedIn Learning course, Making Teamwork Work As A Leader, I show you how to build that kind of team—where collaboration feels natural and progress feels unstoppable. You’ll learn how to overcome common team roadblocks, set clear priorities, and create a culture that balances accountability with empathy. Click here to start the course.