Idea in Brief

The Problem

When employees are excluded from the adoption process, they become averse to working with AI, never develop trust in its capabilities, and resist even the positive changes that come from using it.

The Cause

Eighty percent of organizations say their main technological goal is hyperautomation—the end-to-end automation of as many business processes as possible. Executives often pursue that goal without feedback from employees—the people whose jobs and lives will be most affected by achieving it.

The Solution

AI transformation requires constant human-to-human connection across business disciplines. Including rank-and-file employees in AI projects will make your long-term performance more likely to improve—and your employees more likely to be happy, productive, and engaged.

AI is intimidating your employees. As machines increasingly perform intellectually demanding tasks that were previously reserved for humans, your people feel more excluded and less necessary than ever. And the problem is getting worse. According to the market research company Vanson Bourne, 80% of organizations say that their main technological goal is hyperautomation—the end-to-end automation of as many business processes as possible. Executives have a tendency to pursue that goal without any feedback from their employees—the people whose jobs, and lives, will be most affected by achieving it. But my decades of research into the enterprise adoption of emerging technologies has proved one thing time and again: The savviest leaders prioritize participation by the rank and file throughout the adoption process.
A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2024 issue of Harvard Business Review.
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