- When a CEO declares “AI-first” and requires every team to integrate AI in the next quarter, spontaneous curiosity turns into forced KPIs; innovation that typically spreads through informal networks is turned into a performance.
- True innovation often starts with an employee who stays up late experimenting, automating a few hours of boring work, and sharing it in Slack — not from directives or vendor pitches.
- When leaders fear being left behind by competitors (AI onboarding, automated support, 40% performance increase), the pressure spreads from the C-suite → VP → manager → employee, with each layer losing understanding and increasing anxiety.
- The result: the company starts “performing” innovation — forming task forces, writing strategies, conducting half-hearted trials and then abandoning them; pilots fail to run, and teams revert to old methods. The technology is not at fault, but the organization is imitating the results instead of understanding the cause.
- Two types of leadership:
- Curious Leader: Self-prototyping on weekends, sharing mistakes and lessons learned, creating psychological safety → fostering momentum for innovation.
- Command Leader: Demands “every team needs AI,” pushes deadlines → creating resentment.
- AI is genuinely effective in Tier 1 support, debugging code, and accumulating small automations; whereas areas like RevOps or automatic forecasting often fail upon implementation.
- How to tell if a company truly uses AI: ask the finance/operations team what they use daily — most only use ChatGPT, not expensive enterprise AI software.
- The Solution:
- Lead by real action, not slide decks.
- Listen to the “people on the periphery” — those quietly experimenting.
- Grant the freedom to experiment, don’t create pressure.
- The future belongs to the teams that persistently try and fail, continuing to build even when the “AI-first” trend subsides.
📌 Summary: The difference between true and false “AI-first” lies in behavior: small, iterative experimentation and learning, not mandates forced down from leadership. True innovation often starts with employees who stay up late experimenting, automating a few hours of tedious work. Curious leaders who self-experiment with AI on weekends, share mistakes and lessons learned, and create psychological safety will foster momentum for innovation. Command leaders who demand “every team needs AI” and push deadlines will create resentment.
