Have you been talking about AI digital transformation lately? You’re not alone.
It was only a few years ago that everyone was talking about digital transformation. The phrase started to catch attention in 2016 and increased rapidly to a peak in late 2025. For a time—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—it felt like the only way to keep up with the competition and stay in touch with employees and customers was to rapidly shift to new technologies.
But with the emergence of generative AI, something shifted. No longer is digital transformation a matter of moving to new communications platforms or making sure everyone can work from home. The new questions center around how to integrate artificial intelligence into workflows, processes, customer experience, and human resource management.
Google Trendlines for “AI transformation” and “AI digital transformation” bear out this shift. The new terms are rapidly increasing and could surpass “digital transformation.”
Table of Contents
3 Ways Leaders Can Prepare for AI Digital Transformation
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, and its adoption means a much more significant transformation than moving from in-person meetings to Zoom.
Many people are justifiably concerned about the effects artificial intelligence will have on the marketplace. Customers might be concerned about privacy or getting incorrect information from chatbots. Employees everywhere are worried about losing their jobs to “robots.” And leaders can struggle with how to balance the needs of the business with the needs of the people who run it.
Given the realities of the new artificial intelligence age, how can leaders best prepare their people to meet the future—or even to embrace it?
Here are three ways leaders can prepare for the people side of the AI digital transformation.
1. Focus on the problems, not the technology.
Too many leaders get excited about the potential of new technologies without considering what problems the technology might address. In the case of Generative AI, for instance, many leaders immediately saw the potential to quickly increase the volume of advertising and marketing content.
However, consumers and customers can detect the difference, and they prefer human-generated content. Some organizations even had to hire new content creators to “fix” their AI advertising and marketing content.
Integrating AI into workflows requires analyzing what challenges it should address. If the challenge is to get customers in the door, more content isn’t necessarily going to solve it, though content creators could potentially use AI tools to brainstorm and craft better advertising and marketing.
Leaders need to drill down to find the actual problems they need to solve before simply throwing new technology at it. AI for the sake of AI won’t solve problems; in fact, it might create more.
2. Encourage experimentation, learning, and development.
There have always been disruptions when new technologies appear on the scene. The printing press displaced scribes. Automated looms displaced traditional weavers. And back in the 1960s, early digital technology displaced human “computers” at NASA.
These disruptions feel awful, both individually and collectively. No one wants to feel like a machine made them useless. But historically, the productivity and efficiency that result from technological breakthroughs end up resulting in a net increase in jobs.
Leaders can encourage people throughout their organizations to look for ways to integrate AI tools into their roles. Ask people to think about the parts of their jobs they don’t enjoy or that take too much time. Are there ways to improve or automate those tasks with an AI tool?
A growth mindset that encourages experimentation, learning, and development can help everyone get the most out of AI tools with a minimum amount of disruption. The goal of AI digital transformation should be to “automate the mundane so we can elevate the humane,” as futurist and author Cheryl Cran says.
3. Emphasize an ethical approach.
In some ways ,the ethics around the use of artificial intelligence are still being formed. Anthropic recently settled with a group of authors in a class action lawsuit over the organization’s use of copyrighted materials to train its AI platform, Claude, and public figures are understandably concerned about the use of their own images and voices being used to train Generative AI.
As a leader, you don’t have to be a philosopher or an ethicist to come up with organizational ethical guidelines for your own AI implementation. Write and adhere to guidelines that make sense for you. Ask yourself how you’ll protect customer and employee privacy. Commit to checking anything generated by an AI tool.
Above all, weigh each use of AI against an ethical standard that adheres to any relevant laws and keeps both leader and organizational integrity intact. Remember to check your AI approach against three rules:
- Is it legal?
- Is it ethical?
- Am I willing to be held accountable?
If the answer to any of the above is “no,” do not proceed!
New technology is always disruptive on some level—artificial intelligence even moreso. But even with the potential disruptions, AI digital transformation holds out the promise of streamlining processes and improving systems in myriad ways. Leaders can and should embrace AI as part of digital transformation—but they also need to stay mindful of the human side of the AI age.
Have questions about leading through disruption and change? The experts at Stewart Leadership can help. Contact us to learn more.
Self-check:
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how concerned are your people about AI digital transformation? (1 = not at all, 5 = very)? What does that number suggest to you?
- Has your organization discussed ethical guidelines around the use of AI tools? Do you need to?
- What is one way you can better support your team through the AI disruption?
