Facilitating AI transformation

As artificial intelligence transforms the workplace, the challenge for organizations is not just technological adoption but human alignment. Change management must now evolve to meet the pace and complexity of AI by engaging employees across all roles: senior leaders, middle managers, HR, IT, and—most critically—individual contributors (ICs). This article explores how each role can support the transition to an AI-integrated workplace and why traditional approaches to change management are no longer sufficient.

• Senior leaders must articulate a clear vision, shape company culture, and lead with transparency about the impact of AI.

• Middle managers translate high-level strategy into practical workflows, coaching their teams through new ways of working.

• HR navigates the psychological effects of AI adoption, ensuring psychological safety and skill development.

• IT handles the rollout of infrastructure, privacy, licensing, and compliance.

• Individual contributors are the frontline adopters whose behavior will determine whether the change sticks.

Borrowing a metaphor from biology, we can think of companies as exhibiting a kind of “corporate epigenetics,” where the internal culture responds and adapts to external signals and pressures. As AI reshapes these environments, employees’ attitudes, habits, and levels of engagement can shift dramatically in response to cultural cues and leadership tone. A thoughtfully designed change environment doesn’t just influence behavior—it reprograms it over time.

Three change management pillars

The success of AI change management hinges on understanding who the change impacts, delivering the message in a compelling and creative way, measuring tangible progress, and ensuring practical outcomes are achieved across every level of the organization.

Understanding your audience

Successful AI change management begins with audience segmentation. Different teams engage with technology in different ways, and effective communication must reflect that.

• Audience size and structure matter: Are you addressing a small team, an affinity group, a knowledge network, or the entire enterprise?

• Personas help clarify impact: Tailoring messages to engineers, marketers, analysts, or frontline workers ensures relevance.

• Impact on work: Employees care about what AI means for their job security, productivity, creative freedom, and workload. A successful change strategy must anticipate these concerns and address them directly.

Creativity and delivery

Traditional corporate change management tends to be dry, procedural, and forgettable. It often lacks the creativity, emotional engagement, and sustained attention that advertising excels at.

By adopting advertising principles—campaign-based messaging, audience segmentation, and emotional storytelling—change management can become an invitation, not a mandate.

• Campaign mindset over checklist execution: Think teaser videos, internal influencers, recurring updates, and gamification.

• Invite, don’t instruct: Like great ads, effective change messages tap into emotion and aspiration.

• Design for engagement: Memorable formats and courteous repetition—don't just rely on emails from senior leaders reinforced by emails and presentations from middle managers.