Why the Human Side of AI Matters

This podcast is brought to you by trnsfrmAItn. 

Welcome to AI, but Human—a podcast about why AI transformation starts with people, not just technology. I’m Kristin Ginn, founder of trnsfrmAItn, and I believe that AI doesn’t transform companies. People do.

Today, we’re going to dive into a question that keeps executives and decision makers up at night: “Why isn’t our AI investment working the way we hoped? The tools are there. The investment is real. But the transformation we counted on? It’s still missing." 

So let’s talk about why the human side of AI matters—and why it’s the key to unlocking the return on investment you expected.

The Illusion of Readiness

Let’s begin with the illusion of readiness.

McKinsey conducted a study that found that 72% of organizations reported using AI in 2024. That’s up from 55% the year before and a staggering 260% higher than just 7 years ago. So we know the excitement about AI is real and the rollouts are happening across organizations. 

But here’s the twist: only 4% of organizations said that they consistently generated value from their AI investment. McKinsey calls this the “gen AI paradox” but it’s not just McKinsey that discovered this. This paradox is backed by stats from Boston Consulting Group and other research and consulting firms.

Four percent. Think of the $109 billion dollars companies in the US alone have invested in generative AI tools and take a moment to let that number sink in. Four percent. 

That’s not a tech problem. That’s a transformation problem. And if you zoom in, you’ll see the symptoms everywhere:

• Leaders are asking: “Why did we invest in AI when we don’t see any impact?”

• IT and enablement teams are wondering: “Why isn’t anyone using the technology we rolled out?”

• And employees are at their desks thinking: “I don’t know where to start… or what’s even allowed with AI.” Or they may even be entirely reluctant to try and use AI in the first place.

This is what I call the AI adoption gap. And this gap is not about access to the technology. Many of you who are listening have already rolled it out to your employes. This gap is about activating your people.

But, you may ask: "Why does AI alone not transform my organization? It’s a powerful tool, right?"

Here’s the thing: AI isn’t just another tool. It’s a new way of working. A new way of thinking about how you want to work. And it’s a new way of collaborating with a digital assistant. But most organizations treat it like plug-and-play tool that follows the same pattern as other technology rollouts: They deploy the AI tool, send a few prompt lists, maybe have a quick AI training for the entire organization, and then they sit back and expect people to start using AI. Well, they aren’t actually sitting back but you get my point. That’s like handing someone a violin and expecting that they’re able to play beautiful music right away.

That’s not how it works with AI. AI requires mindset shift. It requires people to break old habits and routines, and build news ones around using AI. And it requires AI leadership. And most companies simply haven’t prepared their people for that kind of shift.

In fact, 60% of leaders say they worry their organization lacks a clear plan to implement AI. And we’re not talking about a procurement plan here. We’re talking about a change management plan.

And that’s exactly where the human side of AI comes in.

It's Human Nature to Avoid Change

Let’s talk about what’s really happening beneath the surface of your AI investment.

Change is hard. And it’s human nature to avoid it. Especially when it challenges how people have worked their entire careers.

There’s fear of the unknown, when your people don’t know what your AI rollout really means, for them, for their teams, for the entire organization, it can be intimidating and even scary. And those feelings towards this new technology are one of the biggest obstacles you have to help them overcome.

There’s also loss aversion, where potential losses feel more painful than potential gains. Those perceived losses can be the underlying fear that AI may take someone’s job away or it can be the loss of confidence, because your people are confident in the way they are working and have been working for years. But the change you are asking them to go through means they have to learn a new technology and process, and that change is taking away their knowledge and the comfort of their existing routines.

Which leads me to the disruption of habits. Your employees have worked a certain way without AI their entire careers. Generative AI has really only been around since ChatGPT was released to the world at the end of 2022, so your people have built those habits and routines and knowledge over years or even decades on the job. And with most generative AI solutions, you’re not replacing one tool with another. In most cases, you’re providing AI to augment and empower your employees, but because we as humans are creatures of habit, it’s really difficult for most of us to break our habits that are obviously working, and adopt new ones just because somebody says we can. 

So what do people do? They are reluctant to change and during times of change, they look to leadership for guidance. And if leaders are silent about AI—or maybe even visibly disconnected from it—employees interpret that as a signal: “AI isn’t a priority.” Or worse: “AI isn’t safe. I shouldn’t use it.”

But when leaders share how they’re using AI themselves, when they celebrate small wins, and when they speak confidently about the vision of AI for their organization, they send a very different message: “This matters. We’re doing this change together. And it’s important we all embrace it.” 

That’s the type of leadership your people need during this time of change. Because AI transformation is just as much about the technology as it is about getting your humans ready.

The Human-Centered AI Transformation

But you may ask, what does a human-centered AI transformation look like?

This is where the trnsfrmAItn framework comes in.

It’s built on a simple but powerful idea: To drive real transformation, you have to activate your entire organization—from the top down, from within, and from the bottom up. What does that mean?

• You need leaders to model the change and clearly communicate the vision of AI to your people so they can lead the transformation from the top down.

• You need IT and Enablement teams to not only equip your employees with the AI tool, they also need to inspire the change from within by showing them what’s possible.

• And you need your users to feel inspired and empowered to break their habits and build new ones in a way that can be shared across the organization to build the AI momentum from the bottom up.

It’s not a hierarchy—it’s a flywheel. And each layer reinforces the others. And once this flywheel starts turning, your AI transformation accelerates.

Because when your people feel safe, empowered, supported, and inspired to use AI, AI becomes more than a tool. It becomes a catalyst.

So if you’re wondering why your AI investment isn’t working the way you hoped and why you’re not seeing the return on investment you expected, start with your humans and ask yourself:

• Have you clearly communicated the importance of AI and made your employees feel safe to explore what’s possible?

• Have you inspired your people and shown them what’s in it for them when they start using it?

• And have you celebrated the small wins to show that AI is actively being used and that it’s working?

Because the transformation you’re hoping for doesn’t happen in your strategy decks. It happens in the spreadsheets, emails, meetings and workflows of your employees, every single day. And it happens when someone says, “hey, let’s try AI for this.”

And that’s why the human side of AI matters when you try to transform your organization with AI, more than it does with any other technology.

AI-Driven Change, Human-Centered Success

The trnsfrmAItn framework was created to help you navigate this moment of change so you can transform with AI by focusing on the success of the humans using the technology. Download the eBook to learn more about our human-centered approach and how it can help your organization unlock the potential of AI.

In the next episode, we’ll dive deeper into the trnsfrmAItn framework and how it works. Until then, I’m Kristin Ginn, and this is AI, but Human.

Thanks for listening.