This post was originally featured in the January 29th, 2025 newsletter found here: INBOX INSIGHTS, January 29, 2025: Prioritizing People, AI Models vs Apps
Why Your AI Implementation Will Fail Unless You Prioritize People
“We need to implement AI now—our competitors are leaving us behind.”
That’s what a client told me last week. But when I dug deeper, I heard a different story from his team. They were overwhelmed, worried about their jobs, and frustrated by constant technology changes that seemed to create more problems than they solved.
The real challenge wasn’t the technology; it was the human element that everyone was afraid to talk about.
This scenario is playing out across industries – from healthcare organizations where patient care teams are wary of automation, to B2B SaaS companies where marketing teams are questioning their future role. The pressure to adopt AI is immense, but the human cost of doing it wrong is even greater.
The Hidden Costs of Ignoring Your People
For enterprise organizations, the impact of a poorly managed implementation goes far beyond wasted technology investment:
- Increased stress and burnout as teams try to adapt
- Lost institutional knowledge as key people leave
- Damaged trust between leadership and staff
- Resistance to future innovation
- Cultural rifts between “tech-savvy” and “traditional” team members
More concerning? These failures often create lasting cultural damage that can take years to repair.
Building a Foundation That Puts People First
Through years of helping organizations navigate technology transformation, I’ve learned one crucial truth: successful change starts with understanding and supporting your people. That’s why we developed the 5P Framework, with people at its core:
Purpose
Before discussing any new technology, start with:
- Why are we really doing this?
- How will it help our teams do better work?
- What problems are we trying to solve for our people?
This clarity helps teams see opportunity instead of threat.
People
This isn’t just about skills – it’s about understanding and addressing very real human concerns:
- What are people actually afraid of?
- How can we protect and enhance people’s roles?
- Where do we need to provide extra support?
- How can we turn skeptics into champions?
Remember: Fear of change is natural. Your job is to make it feel manageable.
Process
Document processes with the people who actually do the work:
- What unofficial workflows exist?
- Where do people struggle most?
- What tribal knowledge needs capturing?
- How can we make people’s jobs easier?
This collaboration builds trust and surfaces critical insights.
Platform
Technology decisions must consider human factors:
- How intuitive are the tools?
- What training support is available?
- How will this affect daily work?
- Where might people get stuck?
Performance
Measure what matters to people:
- How has work-life improved?
- Where are teams struggling?
- What unexpected challenges arise?
- What support is needed?
Real World Success: Leading with Empathy
Recently, we worked with a marketing team to implement AI for content creation. Instead of focusing on just the technology, we:
- Started with listening sessions (Purpose) – understanding the team’s fears and hopes.
- Created safety plans (People) – documenting how roles would evolve, not disappear.
- Let teams shape new processes (Process) — giving them control over their future work.
- Chose tools collaboratively (Platform) – ensuring solutions felt helpful, not threatening.
- Measured human impact (Performance) – tracking both efficiency and satisfaction.
Result? Not only did they achieve their implementation goals, but team satisfaction increased and they should meet their staff retention goals.
Leading Change in Your Organization
If you’re planning to implement AI, start here:
- Listen before acting:
- What are your teams really worried about?
- Where do they need the most support?
- What would make their jobs better?
- Create psychological safety:
- Be transparent about changes
- Acknowledge fears openly
- Show commitment to people’s growth
- Build confidence through quick wins:
- Start with pain points teams want solved
- Celebrate early successes
- Let teams drive some decisions
- Support ongoing adaptation:
- Provide more training than you think needed
- Create multiple feedback channels
- Address concerns quickly
Remember: Technology changes are really about people changes. Organizations that recognize this don’t just implement successfully—they build stronger, more resilient teams in the process.
The most powerful question you can ask isn’t “What technology do we need?” but rather “How can we help our people thrive through this change?”
Your team is watching. Will you lead with empathy and intention, or just hope for the best?
How are you putting people first? How are you building trust? Reply to this email to tell me, or come join the conversation in our free Slack Group, Analytics for Marketers.
– Katie Robbert, CEO
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Trust Insights (trustinsights.ai) is one of the world's leading management consulting firms in artificial intelligence/AI, especially in the use of generative AI and AI in marketing. Trust Insights provides custom AI consultation, training, education, implementation, and deployment of classical regression AI, classification AI, and generative AI, especially large language models such as ChatGPT's GPT-4-omni, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude. Trust Insights provides analytics consulting, data science consulting, and AI consulting.
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