The AI Adoption Playbook I Wrote in 2023 Still Works. Why Haven't You Used It?
200+ organizations later, the pattern is clear - and you're running out of time.
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Happy Tuesday,
I was somewhat frustrated while writing this. I thought about not publishing this because the Jante law runs deep in the veins of a Swede.
However, I believe this is still an important topic and one that I have been passionate about since 2023. Hence, here we are.
As the entire AI adoption series has prompted me to revisit my old work, I've come to realize that the playbook I now use to help global companies transform their workforce is the same one I wrote about in 2023.
Meetings over the last couple of weeks with companies that I’ve now helped for months have me even more convinced that I know how to move the needle in AI adoption. Not talk. Actually moving it. But it requires investment beyond the “let’s have a 60-minute inspiration session”.
It requires investment.
But before we get to it, a reminder of Monday's agent session, it’s free, and click here to sign up! :)
Now, let’s get to it.
It’s almost that time of year again. The trendspotting season. I’ve already seen a few predictions for 2026 floating around, and yes, I’ll do my own soon enough.
But before we look forward, I want to look back. Not just to say “I told you so” - though I’m absolutely going to do that - but because there’s something worth examining in what’s actually changed and what hasn’t.
The LOL Moment
Twentyone days before ChatGPT launched in November 2022, I wrote an article titled “To Hell With All HR Trends.” The premise was that maybe 2023’s biggest trend would be that we stop talking about trends altogether. LOL.
That aged spectacularly poorly. We talked about nothing BUT AI and it has been THE trend since 2023. It’s hysterically funny in hindsight, at least I think so.
But here’s what’s not that funny: going back and reading what I actually wrote in those early months of 2023 about how to approach AI in organizations. It’s all still accurate. Everything I said then about how to do this - it’s exactly what we’re still doing now. What everyone is saying now.
It was about education, not tools. It was about people, not technology. It was an organizational question, not a technical one.
I can link to multiple examples where I said exactly what I’m saying now. What everyone in this space is saying now. I said it then.
And look - it wasn’t rocket science then. It’s not rocket science now. But it’s interesting to see how clearly things have played out.
The Un-Swedish Moment (But I’m Doing It Anyway)
I’m going to be un-Swedish here for a moment. In Sweden, we have something called Jantelagen - the idea that you shouldn’t think you’re better than anyone else. (It’s deeply cultural.)
But screw that for a second: I was right.
And I’m going to say it because it matters.
Where were all these people two-three years ago who are now rushing into “AI and organizational change”? These weren’t the discussions happening then.
When I posted about HR needing to own this, about it being fundamentally an organizational question, I got pushback. Lots of it. In Discord communities and forums, the dominant view was that this was a technical problem. HR people saying “we need to focus on the human side” were dismissed.
Fast forward to now. Many of those same skeptics have come around to saying exactly what I said then. That tells you something about how thinking has shifted. And honestly, it says something about the stage we’re at.
The technology is what it is. It’s the people part that matters.
I said that then. It’s true now.
The Frustration (And I Take It Personally)
Here’s what genuinely frustrates me: We, HR hasn’t moved faster.
As mentioned above. I wrote several articles on what to do. I hosted free webinars that laid out exactly how to make this happen, what you need to do. The steps to take. And yet most organizations still haven’t done it.
Back then, that was a hypothesis, “we should probably do this, because that is how we progress stuff”. Now I can say with certainty, I was right then and we should do it that way. I’ve validated the approach through working with over 200 organizations to date. Through a lot of hard work. And honestly, through things going completely sideways sometimes.
There are organizations I’ve worked with where I came i. Where they had the wrong prerequisites. Where we didn’t manage to make it work. Those taught me as much as the successes.
The AI Adoption Playbook I’ve developed isn’t pulled out of thin air. It’s built from actually doing this repeatedly. And I can see the pattern now: Long-term efforts. Short interventions over long time periods. That’s what makes the difference.
Not one big initiative. Not a single training session. Sustained work over time. That’s it.
The problem is most organizations still want to do a one-off training that takes 60 minutes and then go back doing stuff they always have been. Not build long-term initiatives.
Let me say this out loud and clear - that won’t move anything forward.
You need to do more. The AI Adoptions play book is 100% free (you don’t have to register or even drop your email to read it) but I assume that most people will still deem it to be “too hard” to internalize it.
If this is you, then bring someone in to help you.
The Question You Actually Need to Answer
And I get it. It costs money to bring someone in long-term. I understand that.
But then you need to go back to your why. Do we believe AI is important? Do we believe AI will make a difference?
If the answer is no, then fine. Continue what you are doing.
But if the answer is yes, then first: buy the tools. Once you’ve bought the tools, the next question becomes unavoidable: What are we going to do to get people to actually use them? How do we rethink our processes?
To be frank, you should look through the entire organization. Do we have the right prerequisites? The right people? How do we build a business strategy based on this? I get that’s a massive job. But you at least need to start somewhere. Look at which processes you can tackle. Build a long-term strategy.
That’s usually where someone external comes in. Someone like me - or honestly someone else who’s serious about this - can assess where you stand. Do honest analysis. Train your leadership team first. Map out what you should actually do.
What I don’t understand is when organizations don’t take that help. It’s a cost you recoup in a couple of months if you do this right.
I’ve done this enough times now, worked with organizations long-term, not just one-off things, to know it creates results. And to be fair, you can hire someone other than me. But for god’s sake, don’t hire some “AI guru” that’s never worked in an actual organizatio with organizational changes. Hire someone grounded in organizational reality and who’s not just a professional consultant or AI-I-like-to-have-opinions-but-have-never-faced-any-real-organizational-changes.
Here’s what I want to say clearly: You have nothing to lose by setting up a meeting. There's nothing to lose by potentially seeking help in this area, whether you talk to me or someone else.
The worst that happens if we meet for 30 minutes and talk this through is that you feel “ew, never going to talk to him again”. That’s literally the worst case. We’ve wasted 30 minutes. I don’t think that’ll happen, but that’s the absolute worst outcome.
But the opportunity cost of doing nothing? You miss this entire shift. Your organization doesn’t transform. And in eighteen months, you’re sitting there needing to make tough calls, wishing you’d started earlier.
I’ve worked with organizations across Europe and the US on long-term change programs. I’m starting to know what makes an organization actually move forward on this topic.
And of course, I’m going to advocate for booking me.
But book someone else if you prefer.
The important thing?
Do something. It’s not more complicated than that.