Companies buy AI tools. Employees don't use them. Guess why.

Companies buy AI tools. Employees don't use them. Guess why.

Lots of organizations throw money at AI tools. Far fewer invest in making people feel safe enough to actually try them.

A recent study from researchers at Avanade, Kyndryl, and the University of Toronto looked at 2,257 employees in a global consulting firm. The question was simple: what predicts whether someone adopts AI at work?

(I linked the study in the comments.)

Not job title. Not experience. Not location.

Psychological safety.

If you think about it, it isn't so surprising. People who felt safe to experiment, ask questions, and make mistakes were 29.6% more likely to start using AI. This held true across every level, every region, every experience group.

The study also says that psychological safety only predicted whether people started using AI. Once they crossed that threshold, other factors like usefulness took over.

Again, not surprisingly, if your team isn't adopting AI, the problem very likely isn't the technology. It's the environment.

People won't experiment with something new if they're afraid of looking stupid.

There is still work to do creating a space where people feel safe to try and fail.

How do you experiment with AI at work?

#change #airevolution

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