Leadership trust overtakes model trust as top AI rollout barrier

Workers face AI change faster than they can absorb, summit panelists say

The leading obstacle to corporate AI rollouts has shifted within a single quarter — from trust in the AI models themselves to trust in the executives directing them — according to Chris Perry, founder of the consultancy Andus Labs.

“I think the headline is that last quarter, the biggest barrier was trust in models. This quarter it’s trust in leadership. It was a pretty abrupt shift in what we were tracking,” Perry said.

Andus Labs, founded last year to help Fortune 500 companies execute AI transformations, surveyed approximately 600 organizations across technology, financial services, business-to-business, energy, healthcare and education for the report. The firm is backed by $5.7 million in angel funding, is headquartered in New York and takes on projects ranging from $65,000 to more than $1 million.

Perry identified a gap between what executives promise in town halls and what employees experience on the ground. “There’s a pretty big gap between what a leader might convey in a town hall, through a mandate, through proclamations like ‘we’re going to be AI first,’ and what people who then have to take that on actually see in terms of momentum or support or training or investment where the work happens,” he said.

The messaging itself, Perry said, tends to push adoption rather than reimagine the work. “Too often the messaging comes down to just encouraging use of AI rather than helping workers reimagine exactly how it fits into their workflows and will benefit them,” he said. “And without the latter, corporate messaging around efficiency and productivity is breeding more fears about job loss and leads to workers ignoring or rejecting AI tools.”

The contradiction between efficiency messaging and demands for AI proficiency deepens that skepticism, according to Perry. “If you have a message that says ‘we are pushing efficiency’ on one side and ‘we need you all to be AI proficient and work with the forward deployed engineers on the ground,’ it makes sense that there is skepticism amongst the ranks on the true intent of where the business is headed,” he said. Productivity and efficiency messaging can boost a company’s stock price, Perry added, but “ultimately creates that trust deficit with employees.”

Perry framed the solution as a missing “translation layer” between corporate direction and worker reality. “There’s just a translation layer that might be missing from corporate direction: what does it mean for me? What do I need to do? What do I have access to? How am I held accountable? And am I going to be a part of this future that’s being conveyed in town halls and to the street?” he asked.

The disconnect Perry identified also surfaced at the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute’s Technology Council Summit in New York last week. Janelle Sallenave, chief operating officer at financial-technology company Chime, told attendees that the pace of AI-driven change is outstripping many workers’ capacity to absorb it.

“For some of us in this room and some employees that we have, this is really, really exciting…But for other people, this is a massive amount of change coming at them way faster than they’re comfortable with,” Sallenave said.

Leaders often minimize the cultural adjustment required of their workforces, she added. “And so I think as leaders, this is a thing that we often diminish because we’re so focused on the tech side of, how do we make the right culture change so that we are able to lean in to and use and get the ROI and get the change that we’re looking for? And I think we sometimes don’t do that as much,” Sallenave said.

Kristin Myers, executive vice president and chief digital officer at Northwell Health, said the technology executive’s role is shifting from deployment to teaching. “I think the role of technology leader is changing to be more of an AI educator,” Myers said. “AI is a great example of where the business is going to have to reimagine their workflows, and that’s where the technology leader needs to be the partner with the business to really drive that, so it’s providing value for them.”