Did you hear Eric Schmidt former CEO of Google get booed off a graduation stage two weeks ago at the mere mention of AI? Gen Z is not a fan.
I get it. And yet, it’s not going away. I remember having this kind of pervasive nausea in 1998 when clients would ask if we should change the name of a 50 year old company to “brand.com” vs. just the brand. Stock prices were skyrocketing. Why not?
This is different. Implementing AI in your organization isn’t just a technology rollout, it’s a cultural disruption. Whether you’re deploying a new copilot, automating a workflow, or retraining a team whose job description is changing, resistance isn’t irrational.
It’s human.
People aren’t resisting the AI, they’re resisting the disconnection they sense in their own identity in their own expertise, their colleagues, their sense of purpose.
It’s beyond disorienting.
That’s where storytelling becomes essential. The right story contextualizes disruption by framing AI adoption as the next chapter in a journey that still centers the people doing the work and helps them to see themselves differently.
Ever Been Here? Your AI rollout stalled not because of a technical failure, but because the team never really bought in. The change was announced, but no one told a story that connected them to the mission.