The most common objections when AI comes up in a company:
“AI will never do it as well as we (I) do today.”
“Our sector is different…”
“So we’ll all end up indistinguishable?!”
“Let’s wait for it to mature…”
“I have the 360-degree view. AI doesn’t.”
“Only we humans can guarantee our company’s values.”
“In the end you lose more time than you gain.”
To an inattentive ear, they even sound wise.
They’re costumes people wear. Those wearing them often genuinely believe what they’re saying. They’re acting in good faith — but underneath, they have a fear, and they’re presenting it in a suit and tie.
It’s normal. It’s understandable. Under every costume there’s a legitimate feeling: the desire to protect what works today, the fear of not being able to change, the worry that twenty years of success might dissolve in six months. None of this gets said in meetings. So it gets dressed up. “AI will never do it as well as we do” is the costume for “I’m afraid of losing my central role.” “Let’s wait for it to mature” is the costume for “I hope this blows over.” “Only we can guarantee our values” is the most formal costume of all.
I think it makes sense to reflect on these costumes through two truths.
The first: AI is inevitable. Not as a slogan — as a fact. If you don’t use it, someone else will. That goes for individuals and for companies alike.
The second, more important one: your real value gets amplified by AI, not erased. What you do well with effort today, tomorrow you’ll do well at scale.
And this is where the CEO comes in. The first job is one of reading: recognising the costumes, and behind each costume, the request for reassurance. The second is getting everyone on the same page. That’s what culture is. When everyone reads the same paragraph at the same moment, the costumes start to feel uncomfortable on their own.
The two coordinates draw a map. On one axis, individual competency; on the other, process transformation. There’s only one winning position: governance, collaborators and employees aligned on both axes. Culture and processes at the same point. In every other position, someone is wearing a costume.
The temptation is revolution. Big changes, board announcements, quarterly deadlines. But the transformation that gets announced is never quite the same as the one that gets built. And faced with a declared change of this scale, the sceptics have a point: it’s a leap in the dark.
Costumes fall away with a shift in culture. Small steps, contextual ones, where people see their own work amplified — not set aside. Page by page, read together.