The AI Revolution
Are You Leading the Change or Just Watching It Happen?
Are you still tinkering with ChatGPT to write reports? Or perhaps you are occasionally dialling in Copilot to help with a meeting summary?
If so, that is a start. But it is not the real work.
The real work is in rewiring your organisation to capture the true, transformative value of AI. And that, as many are discovering, is a much bigger difference.
This is the topic that is consuming boardrooms and team meetings everywhere, but few are getting it right. It is the challenge of moving from experimentation to strategic implementation.
To understand this journey, I have been looking at two fascinating McKinsey reports on the State of AI. One from 2023, the other from 2025. They paint a clear picture of an enormous shift in thinking.
The Great Divide: From “Hype” to “How”
The 2023 report showed us that AI was having its breakthrough year. Adoption was surging, with a third of all organisations already using it regularly in at least one function. Leaders were getting their hands dirty.
But that report also highlighted a critical gap. While adoption was high, value was low. Most companies could not point to a meaningful impact on their bottom line. They were also failing to manage the obvious risks, like data inaccuracy. This was the tinkering phase.
Fast forward to the 2025 report, and the narrative has completely changed. The conversation is no longer about who is using AI, but how they are using it.
The core insight is this: the real value from AI comes from rewiring how organisations operate.
Why “Bolting On” Is a Recipe for Failure
This is the central challenge for all of us. True transformation is not about just bolting a new tool onto an old process. You do not get revolutionary results by simply doing the same old things a little bit faster.
The value is in fundamentally redesigning workflows.
This is especially difficult in large, complex organisations. In our world, processes are deeply intertwined. Pulling on one thread can unravel something completely unexpected on the other side of the business. This means that redesigning one process in isolation often creates more problems than it solves.
It demands a “system-wide approach”.
The McKinsey research is clear: redesigning workflows is the single most effective way to see a positive, tangible impact from generative AI.
So, the question for us as leaders is this: Are we just giving our people a new toy and hoping for the best, or are we actively redesigning our processes to unlock its potential?
This Is a Leadership Challenge, Not an IT Project
This leads to the most important takeaway: successful AI implementation is not a job for the IT department alone.
The 2025 report makes it clear that this is a top-down strategic process that requires top-level leadership and an engaged board. I agree, but I would add a critical component: it also requires deep, meaningful involvement from the frontline.
This is not just about “consultation.” It is about empowering the people who do the work to actively shape the rollout. Why? Because this is a people process, not a technical one.
Our role as leaders is not to become AI experts. Our role is to lead strategically. We must set the vision, empower our teams to manage the details, and then trust them to deliver.
Where we must get our hands dirty is in governance. We are the ones responsible for mitigating the significant risks, from data inaccuracy to cybersecurity.
This brings us to the people. The 2023 report was already anticipating significant workforce changes and the need for large-scale reskilling. The 2025 report confirms this, noting that organisations are now hiring for new AI roles while also retraining existing employees.
This is where our leadership is tested.
I have a long-standing leadership mantra: it does not matter what it says on the poster on the wall, and it does not matter what you say your standards are. It is the things that you ignore that set the standards.
This is truer than ever with AI. If we walk past sloppy, unmanaged, or unethical use of AI, we are subtly lowering the bar for the entire organisation.
A successful AI transformation is built on three pillars:
Empowering People: We must give our teams the autonomy and support to take ownership of this new technology and innovate.
Building Trust: We must be transparent and consistent, creating a culture of psychological safety where people feel they can experiment and even fail.
Recognising Good Work: When we see successful, responsible AI integration, we must promote, recognise, and reward it. This sends a clear signal about what we value.
We need to build a culture where people feel comfortable asking for help, not one where they are micromanaged.
The journey from AI experimentation to value capture is a strategic one, not a technical one. The McKinsey reports confirm that the value comes from rewiring how we work. That means we must be prepared to rewire our talent, our skills, and our culture.
Do not just sit back and watch. Be the leader who actively rewires your organisation for the future.
So, I will leave you with this: What is one workflow in your organisation that is crying out to be fundamentally redesigned, not just automated?
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