Founder takeaway
An AI rollout will fail if leaders encourage adoption while employees believe that admitting AI use will hurt them. Align policies, performance incentives, and disclosure practices so responsible use is safer than hidden use.
Why it matters
Contradictory incentives push AI use underground, weakening trust, governance, and the quality of adoption data leaders need to improve the rollout.
Put it to work
Audit one AI-enabled workflow: Where might an employee be rewarded for using AI but penalized for disclosing it? Rewrite that incentive or policy to make transparent, responsible use the default.