If you want to really create value through AI in your business, you need to start with the people. Vaughan replaced 80 percent of his workforce at his midcap software firm during his AI transition, en route to dramatically improving every part of his operations. He says there is one essential for success: “People that believe in how existential it is. That’s the difference.”
Rotar agreed: “I ended up spending 90 percent of my time on people topics, everything from change management to skills uplift, to change enablement, to organizational decision rights and so forth. So, the people side is much, much more tricky than the tech side.” What to do? They offered some practical ideas:
Find actual business uses. The discussion revealed a critical gap between AI activity and business results. Rotar said that most organizations struggle with measurement: “I would say maybe 80 percent, 70 percent get stuck in proof of concept, pilot, prototype mode. And then, for the ones that go into production, it’s very difficult to measure the actual business case for a proportion of those.”
Tie it to pay. Successful measurement requires connecting AI initiatives directly to business outcomes. One of Lontoh’s companies brought in a team of AI experts and structured the compensation package for this group with 50 percent of their comp as performance shares units “that are completely tied to the achievement of business goals.”
Think bigger. Recognize AI as exponential technology requiring bold thinking. Comparing AI to previous technological revolutions, Rotar urged leaders to think beyond incremental improvements and consider fundamental business model changes. If the cost of cognition approaches zero, how will that change your business, your industry? That’s a good question for a board to wrestle with.
Get hands on. Having seen numerous board presentations that failed to convey AI’s true potential, Rotar advocated for direct engagement with AI tools as the path to genuine understanding. Leaders who use AI personally develop better intuition for strategic decisions and investment priorities. “Don’t accept as a board member people showing you PowerPoints and talking about it,” he said. “Actually use it and live it in your role.”
Lead it. “This has got to come from the CEO down,” said Vaughan. “This is not a tech project.”
