Start with the strugglers: How to make AI transformation stick
Executive Take
Stop handing AI to your best team and hoping it spreads. Find the unit that's losing and in pain, give them hands-on help, and let their visible win pull the rest of the company along.
Executive Summary
A CIO.com opinion piece argues AI transformations work best when started with struggling teams, not top performers. It cites an unnamed bank whose underperforming investment team paired 100 AI experts with 100 employees, reversed three years of market-share losses in 12 months, then spread adoption to other teams via visible wins and CEO praise.
Why It Matters
HR and technology leaders running AI rollouts often waste budget on willing, already-successful teams who have no reason to actually change how they work. This piece gives a concrete, tested alternative sequence for driving real adoption instead of adoption theater.
Bizquad Perspective
The real lesson isn't picking struggling teams, it's that leaders measured success by market share and revenue, not training completion or satisfaction scores, which most AI programs still get wrong.