When the team won't touch AI

You are the person who noticed that leadership bought into a real change in the way we work—but you may also be the person who gets bright-shiny-object syndrome, or who is always pushing the team to do more with less and do things differently. That is an uncomfortable place to sit. For you, the business would be heaven on earth if the team just listened and adopted everything you say, exactly when you say it. For them, it would be much easier if you did not jump from amazing change to amazing change on a regular basis.

The reframe I would use with your team: "What part of your week is still slower or messier than it needs to be?" Tools get adopted when they remove a specific annoyance someone already feels. Culture gets aligned when leadership solves the practical, small problems felt by the people who execute—because you show them you are invested in their happiness and success.

So do not start with a rollout. Start with one workflow your team already resents: status updates, meeting notes, a recurring report, a checklist nobody trusts. Find one volunteer who is curious—not your loudest skeptic. Give them a two-week experiment with explicit permission to stop if it does not help: "If this saves real time, we keep it. If not, we drop it, and you bring back to the group what we learned from the experience."

When something actually lands—a faster draft, a cleaner handoff, one less hour on a Friday—say it out loud once, in stand-up or Slack, without turning it into a campaign. People copy what they see working beside them, and will ask how to adapt it to the friction they have in their own roles.

Then ask your leaders the more nuanced question: "What would good adoption look like in 90 days, and what are we willing to stop measuring so people have room to change?" If everyone's scorecard still rewards the old way of working, the licenses will stay ornamental no matter how many reminders you send.

You do not need to become the AI police. You need to become the person who at least tried—and ideally proved once, visibly, without shame—that one piece of the work can actually get easier. Small proof beats big promises every time.

Remember: you are in the role that is supposed to be slamming on the gas pedal. They are in roles that celebrate trusted, reliable performance and the status quo. They are taking a risk and spending time on new tools until you de-risk the path and lead with small wins others can see. Be patient. Give them space. But hold accountability and updates—share the wins and the learnings across the team.