Stage 2: Plan
Integrate, Don't Replace
AI works best when it amplifies what your people already do well. It's not about replacing headcount. It's about giving your team capabilities they didn't have before.
The Human Element
The conversation around AI is often framed as humans versus machines. Replacement. Displacement. Redundancy. It's the wrong frame.
The organisations getting real value from AI aren't replacing people. They're making their people more capable. Faster research. Better first drafts. More thorough analysis. Fewer hours on admin.
The goal isn't to remove humans from the loop. It's to remove the tedious parts so humans can focus on what they're actually good at.
The Real Challenges
"AI Will Take My Job"
This fear is everywhere, even if people don't say it out loud. It affects how they engage with AI initiatives, what they share, and whether they adopt new tools.
How to handle it:
Be explicit about intent. "We're using AI to handle the boring stuff so you can focus on the interesting stuff" is better than corporate speak about "efficiency gains." Show people what their role looks like with AI, not without them.
The Automation Reflex
Leadership sees AI and immediately thinks cost reduction. Fewer people, lower headcount, savings to report. This framing poisons the well before you start.
How to handle it:
Reframe around capability, not capacity. "AI lets us do things we couldn't do before" is a different conversation than "AI lets us do the same with less." Both might be true, but which one you lead with matters.
Over-Automation
Some things shouldn't be automated even if they can be. Customer relationships, sensitive decisions, complex judgement calls. The cost of getting it wrong outweighs the efficiency gain.
How to handle it:
Keep humans in the loop for anything with consequences. AI drafts, humans approve. AI suggests, humans decide. AI flags, humans act. The pattern matters.
Change Fatigue
Your people have been through transformations before. New systems, new processes, new ways of working. Every few years, something else. They're tired.
How to handle it:
Make it easy. Really easy. One tool at a time. One workflow at a time. Let them see value before you ask for more change. Momentum beats mandates.
Integration Patterns That Work
These patterns keep humans in control while capturing AI's value:
AI Drafts, Human Edits
AI writes the first version of an email, report, or document. Human reviews, adjusts, sends.
Captures 80% of the time saving while keeping human judgement in the final output.
AI Summarises, Human Decides
AI reads through 50 applications and surfaces the top 10 with reasons. Human makes the final call.
Removes drudge work from decision-making without removing human oversight.
AI Monitors, Human Intervenes
AI watches dashboards and flags anomalies. Human investigates and takes action.
Extends human attention without replacing human judgement on what matters.
AI Suggests, Human Approves
AI recommends next actions based on data. Human accepts, modifies, or rejects.
Keeps AI in an advisory role. Humans stay accountable for outcomes.
Guiding Principles
Augment the best, don't replace the average
Give your top performers superpowers. They'll figure out how to use AI better than any playbook could prescribe.
Automate the boring, not the interesting
The repetitive, mind-numbing tasks are fair game. The creative, relationship-driven, judgement-heavy work stays human.
Make the human oversight obvious
Don't hide that AI is involved. Make the review step visible. People trust systems they can see.
Start with internal before external
Get AI working on internal processes before you point it at customers. Lower stakes, faster learning.
Ready to Get This Right?
The difference between AI that helps and AI that harms is in the implementation. Let's make sure yours lands well.
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