How to (Actually) Get Your Team to Use AI
Normalizing playfulness and failure in experimentation.
Everyone says they want their teams to use AI. But here’s the contradiction: leadership often demands “better results with AI” without giving people the time, tools, or safety to figure it out.
This equates to teams feeling pressure without clarity, curiosity without direction, and fear without support.
Let’s fix that.
The Contradiction at the Heart of AI Adoption
Most leadership teams say:
“AI is the future of work.”
“Be innovative. Be creative.”
“Transform how we operate.”
But what they really mean is:
Do it faster.
Don’t take too much time experimenting.
Don’t mess anything up.
This is the type of vague pressure that leaves marketing teams spinning in circles. Employees today are wrestling with a set of impossible expectations:
Experiment without time: No space in the calendar for testing.
Adopt without freedom: “Use AI, but not that tool” (privacy restrictions).
Improve without budget: No resources for subscriptions or training.
Build without security: The fear that what they make will replace them.
On top of that, the tech is moving faster than strategy. Tools ship weekly. Models change monthly.
Leadership hasn’t caught up, and it leaves teams guessing.
The Four Pillars of AI Adoption
Here’s how leaders can flip the script and actually set their teams up for success:
1. Incentivize Experiments
Reward the act of testing, even if it fails. Experiments are supposed to fail sometimes. That’s kinda’ the whole point (otherwise, it’d be a set strategy)
2. Block Protected Time
Don’t just tell people to “make time.” Schedule it. Two to three hours a week, blocked off for AI play and follow-ups on what worked (and what didn’t).
3. Provide Real Resources
Give your team safe environments, clear training paths, and communities to learn from. Decide if you want them leaning into chat, agents, or workflows (and provide support for each).
4. Normalize Failure
Failure is not a career risk, it’s a learning moment. Share stories of failed experiments and how they led to breakthroughs. Make this cultural.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Set it and forget it: One-time training doesn’t cut it. AI is moving too fast.
The “silver bullet” trap: No single tool solves everything. Let teams explore.
Results-only obsession: Focus on improving job quality and creativity before demanding pure productivity.
Fear-based messaging: AI is an opportunity, not a threat. Communicate it that way.
What Happens When You Get This Right
When teams have time, resources, and psychological safety, curiosity comes alive. Curiosity sparks creativity. Creativity leads to better solutions.
And that culture of experimentation? It becomes your competitive edge.
The companies that win with AI won’t be the ones who adopted the most tools. They’ll be the ones who built the strongest cultures around curiosity, creativity, and support.
The Takeaway
If you want AI adoption, stop obsessing over the tools. Invest in your people instead:
Time
Budget
Mental safety
Get those right, and your team won’t just use AI—they’ll run ahead of your competition by the end of the year.