“In our recent survey of 1,400 U.S.-based employees, 76% of executives reported that their employees feel enthusiastic about AI adoption in their organization. But the view from the bottom up is less sunny: Just 31% of individual contributors expressed enthusiasm about adopting AI. That means leaders are more than two times off the mark.” And: “This disconnect is a symptom of a broader executive blind spot: They’re not especially attuned to what employees think, and they don’t realize it. “We found that 75% of executives believe their company is already employee-centric–but only 23% of individual contributors agree.” Yow!
Related, if you’re using AI to replace knowledge workers, do you duplicate the chaotic way beaucracies work, to start fresh with a system that’s been trained to get the outcomes you want?
For many people, this may not be a surprise. One thing you learn studying (or working in) organizations is that they are all actually a bit of a mess. In fact, one classic organizational theory is actually called the Garbage Can Model. This views organizations as chaotic “garbage cans” where problems, solutions, and decision-makers are dumped in together, and decisions often happen when these elements collide randomly, rather than through a fully rational process. Of course, it is easy to take this view too far - organizations do have structures, decision-makers, and processes that actually matter. It is just that these structures often evolved and were negotiated among people, rather than being carefully designed and well-recorded.
🔗 Leaders Assume Employees Are Excited About AI. They’re Wrong.