Webinar: Demystifying AI Impact: Why Adoption Fails & How Leaders Can Fix It

Organizations are investing heavily in AI, yet most still struggle to see meaningful returns on those investments. The issue isn’t the technology itself; it’s the organizational transformation required to use it well. Many companies continue to over-index on tools, assuming that giving employees access to systems like ChatGPT or Copilot equates to genuine AI enablement. But access alone does not create capability. Without rewired workflows, new skills, updated expectations, and deliberate behavior change, even the most advanced tools fall flat. The organizations seeing the strongest performance lift are the ones treating AI as a workforce transformation, not a software rollout.

This session explains why traditional change management methods are failing to shift mindsets and behavioral norms, and why AI demands entirely new organizational structures, processes, and decision pathways. AI doesn’t simply speed up existing tasks but reshapes how work gets done. It moves teams away from pure execution and toward more intention-setting, critical refinement, and judgment. We’ll explore what this means for day-to-day workflows and how leaders must redesign roles and responsibilities to reflect an emerging human–AI partnership.

A central part of the conversation will focus on how leaders can use frameworks like Stanford’s Human Agency Scale to determine which tasks are best suited for automation, augmentation, or full human ownership. Not every task should be automated, but nearly every task benefits from reassessing the role humans should play as AI becomes embedded in daily operations. Understanding this distinction helps leaders make better decisions about where to direct resources, where to pilot experiments, and where human judgment is irreplaceable.

We’ll also discuss why successful AI adoption requires both top-down clarity and bottom-up discovery. Leaders must define strategic priorities, articulate where AI can unlock value, and resource the right teams to explore those opportunities. But they must also empower employees closest to the work to experiment, adapt, and uncover high-value use cases that leadership cannot see from afar. This balance is essential: AI fails when it is treated as a mandate, and it thrives when it becomes a shared exploration.

The session will also examine common employee fears—fear of job displacement, fear of looking incompetent, fear of being replaced by automation—and how leaders can address these constructively by showcasing the “higher-order work” AI unlocks. When employees see how AI can help them eliminate drudgery and focus on problem-solving, creativity, and more strategic contributions, adoption accelerates. We’ll discuss the four levers leaders can pull to influence mindsets and behaviors, not through force, but through modeling, norms, incentives, and meaningful storytelling.

To offer tangible grounding, we’ll share real examples from organizations like Walmart and Sparkwise that have used AI to meaningfully improve productivity, decision quality, and time-to-value. These stories illustrate what “good” looks like and demonstrate the power of intentional leadership in driving successful transformation.

To close, the session provides a practical set of actions leaders can take to build an AI-confident, AI-capable workforce, not just one that uses tools, but one that evolves how it thinks, collaborates, and creates value in an AI-enabled world.

Key Takeaways:

• The true reasons AI initiatives fail, and how to fix them
• How AI changes the nature of work and decision-making • A practical framework for determining “AI tasks” vs. “human tasks”
• How to balance top-down strategy with bottom-up innovation • Four levers leaders can use to influence mindset and behavior
• How to address employee fears by highlighting higher-order work AI unlocks • What managers must do differently to prevent “AI workslop”
• Real-world examples of high-impact AI adoption
• The single biggest workforce challenge ahead as AI becomes deeply embedded in workflows

Speakers

Arkesh Mishra
Head of People Walmart U.S. Tech
Walmart

Vince Jeong
CEO & Co-Founder
Sparkwise