"Just use AI." Cool. But what does that actually mean?

Walking and Talking - a favourite way to catch up with friends.

Recently, I was walking with a friend (and tech executive) on one of those perfect summer mornings where you actually slow down long enough to have a real conversation. And she said something that stuck with me.

"Everyone I know is maxed out. Doing their jobs, building in AI, running their families. And most of us don't even know how we feel about it. Professionally or morally."

The pressure is real. The support isn't.

Companies are telling people to embrace AI and incorporate it into every aspect of their work. Many already have. But without psychological safety and space for honest conversation, most people (except the true believers) are variations of uneasy.

And the people feeling it most aren't junior employees finding their footing. They're experienced, bright, hardworking leaders who are grappling with very real questions:

• What is my responsibility here?

• What's actually expected of me?

• Am I going to be replaced?

• Where do I even start?

  
  

What I'm actually seeing on the ground

From my work with clients, three distinct camps are emerging:

🥇 The Opportunists

They're turning obligation into advantage. If they have to adopt AI anyway, why not own the narrative? They're building internally, positioning themselves as AI leaders, and creating visibility in a space where the rules are still being written. Smart move.

🧠 The Tinkerers

These are the curious minds working overtime, sometimes on their own time. Some of what they're building is important: eliminating bottlenecks, reducing manual tasks, creating workflows that actually scale across departments. Some of it is gloriously useless. Either way, they're growing their fluency and quietly becoming indispensable.

🤨 The Skeptics

They'd rather leave AI to IT. And honestly? They're not wrong. Building AI systems that actually work takes time and trial. When you're already sprinting with demanding deliverables, experimentation can feel like a luxury. Until you get left behind.

The question leaders aren't asking

We talk a lot about using AI to reduce workers. When do we start talking about using it to reduce workload on teams that are already maxed out?

Issuing a directive is easy. "Use AI." Done. What's harder, and more important, is building a team culture with a real point of view. One that makes it safe to experiment, to fail, to ask uncomfortable questions, and yes, to figure out how you actually feel about all of it.

We don't have certainty right now (did we ever?!). So we can't model certainty. What we can do is lean into transparency and model curiosity. That's the job.

So I'll leave you with this:

What is your team's POV on AI? Are you creating real space for experimentation or just issuing a directive and hoping for the best?