What This Resource Covers

During October 2025, Jerry Nagel and Kathy Jourdain spoke with dozens of executives, consultants, entrepreneurs and public sector leaders about their real-world experiences with AI adoption and application. Their insights are wide-ranging, informative, and practical. 

We are deeply grateful to each individual who took the time to speak with us, sharing how they are exploring, learning and innovating with a broad spectrum of AI and identifying the guidance, guardrails and policies they have put in place. All while highlighting the importance of staying adaptable to the continual evolution of AI. 

The content of this summary report and our November 2025 webinar: Leaders Reveal How They've Been Navigating AI Adoption, is rooted in these real-world experiences and the conversations we hosted.

Across industries, we heard the same story - a mix of optimism and caution and an invitation to curiosity and exploration rather than getting caught up in the hype and latest apocalyptic predictions.

From these conversations, we identified and developed a 3-point roadmap to help leaders navigate AI adoption through the lens of a Healthy Workplace Culture and Worldview Intelligence. The 3 points are: 1) Foundational Readiness, 2) Cultivating an AI-Ready Culture, and 3) Strategic Deployment and Governance. Together, they form a foundation for navigating the technological shifts AND the profound cultural transformation underway. Each is explored in-depth in this report.

Two other things we heard. Every leader we spoke with was adamant that adopting AI is not about replacing people but about augmenting their skills and freeing up their time to do higher-value work – more rewarding for people individually and with a higher return for teams and organizations. 

And, to gain the most benefit of the investment in AI, a commiserate investment in people development, including human-centered change management practices, is essential. Many noted that the investment in change management is currently underfunded, yet critical to contributing to and sustaining a Healthy Workplace Culture. 

This is exactly the impetus that led to our inquiry about where AI adoption meets Workplace Culture. This includes: 1) how to ensure the right leadership is in place, 2) psychological safety and belonging is practiced, 3) communication is clear and transparent, 4) employees are engaged in the roll out of AI, and 5) metrics substantiate investments made. 

For every organization that is doing it well, each of these components of a Healthy Workplace Culture are attended to and these organizations clearly have a competitive advantage compared to organizations that do not yet have clear practices and policies related to AI adoption.