The embedding of artificial intelligence in business operations represents the most significant disruption to our working lives since the internet, and for the majority of the workforce—who aren’t old enough to remember how the internet upended not only day-to-day work but entire career trajectories—it is the most tectonic change in their lifetime.

In the race to operationalize AI, employers are destabilizing company culture. Long-proven processes are being overturned, responsibilities reorganized, tasks eliminated, knowledge re-oriented, and jobs replaced. What once required a team to accomplish can be done with just one or two people. Some solopreneurs are able to mount wildly profitable companies with no team members at all.

As the workplace morphs into something entirely new, leaders must consider the effects on culture. The trouble is that many “companies often have a hard time understanding how quickly their organization changes,” said Miles Overholt, founder and CEO of Strategia Analytics.

A social psychologist by training, Overholt has watched as companies fail to consider the working environment during major overhauls, only to have communication breakdown, distrust spread, and changes ultimately fail. A company may start a new project, he said, “but by the time you’re into it, the company has already changed and the implementation strategy has to be adjusted.” 

Initiatives can easily fail unless leaders account for how changes will affect what Overholt calls “organizational DNA,” or the ways an organization interacts with internal and external environments. Organizational DNA is always evolving, but it is especially fragile during major shocks such as mergers, acquisitions, or operational overhauls, especially the introduction of AI.

To preserve a healthy culture, leaders must know what the company is today, and have a clear picture of what it should be in the future. 

The Rush to Adopt AI, While Failing to Account for Cultural Change

Many companies have already gotten ahead of themselves with AI. An analysis found that while major U.S. companies talk often about AI, “other than the ‘fear of missing out,’ few appear to be able to describe how technology is changing their businesses for the better.”

This raises the question: If companies can’t clearly state the impact of AI on the business, do they know anything at all about its impact on culture?

AI is shocking many companies because leaders failed to consider its effects on mentality and relationships of the workforce, said Dave Lopez, Strategia Analytics’ SVP of systems research. “When AI is introduced, employees en masse believe, rightly or wrongly, that they’re out of the door. If you’re introducing an AI system and your workforce is now concerned that they are about to become redundant or be made redundant and lose their job, how does that impact how your organization is functioning?”

Without clear communication about purpose, application, and goals, huge operational overhauls create distrust between workers fearful for their job security and leaders frustrated by slow adoption or outright resistance. 

How workers feel about operationalized AI depends on the industry and the role. Heavily routined industries such as manufacturing are seeing heightened anxiety, says Lopez. While in others, like financial services, “AI is seen more as a tool that can help you better perform your job, but your job is not necessarily at risk.” That’s not to say its effects on culture are smaller, only different.

When Neglect Overlooks DNA, Culture Cracks

Companies that fail to consider how AI will disrupt the way an organization interacts with both internal and external environments will face three critical problems.

First, a breakdown in communication that engenders distrust can occur.  

If AI rollouts are framed as efficiency plays without transparency, employees—especially those in highly vulnerable roles like customer service and software engineering—may suspect ulterior motives. Unless your people know where you’re going and why, they won’t follow you there.

In a From Day One webinar, Overholt recalled one spectacular breakdown in communication that left leaders and workers at aggressive odds. One of his early clients was a CEO who was certain that a fire on the machine floor was deliberately set and executive cars vandalized by employees. After investigating, Overholt discovered that while workers loved pleasing customers, they hated the work environment. 

“I’m listening to all these people in pain,” he recalled. “I’m watching supervisors trying to make things better, but they’re caught in the crunch between top management and employees, and nobody’s talking.” This gulf was widened when leadership built an executive parking lot fortified by a wall. Rather than take the time to understand what employees were feeling, the leaders drew battle lines and prepared for a fight.

“If you want to understand behavior,” he said, “you have to understand the individual and context that individual happens to be in.”

Next comes a disengagement from work.

Managers and supervisors are employees’ most crucial point of connection to the company. Gallup found that upwards of 70% of variance in team engagement can be chalked up to the manager alone.

If line managers who work directly with rank and file aren’t incorporated in AI rollouts early and eagerly, buy-in from the broader organization will suffer. Engaging managers will prevent leaders from seeing the organization as homogenous and unmoving—they are your key to understanding team dynamics, day-to-day operations, and likely roadblocks. Few leaders truly know why things don’t get done and why changes don’t land. But your managers do.

The last problem Overholt sees is changes that don’t stick. 

Without trust and engagement, work suffers. “Behavior is a function of the person and the environment,” Overholt said. If a company’s culture doesn’t actively support and reward the behaviors it wants to see, meaningful change simply won’t stick.

Some leaders are prone to see change as a zero-sum game: It’s good for business or it’s good for employees. But that’s not true, says Frances Almstrom, Strategia’s VP of systems research. 

“You can do what’s good for your company and what’s good for your people at the same time.” When you do, operations can change, quite successfully.

Practical Steps for Preserving Culture Amid AI Disruption

Resisting the urge to simply keep up with the Joneses is the first step. While benchmarking your competitors is useful, imitation is not an operational strategy. Success comes from understanding what truly fits your organization’s unique DNA and long-term goals, says Overholt. 

Before and after any AI rollout, leaders should take stock of how changes affect the organization across four dimensions: strategy, leadership, culture, and execution. By regularly measuring the root causes of underperformance, say, every six months, they can catch small problems before they metastasize into larger ones.

Managers play a pivotal role in guiding employees through transitions. Well-prepared leaders don’t just enforce new systems, they help employees understand the changes, address concerns, and model behaviors that reinforce the desired culture.

Communication strategies, too, must be thoughtful and nuanced. Employees will perceive AI differently depending on their roles, experiences, and industry context. Effective messaging anticipates these varied perspectives, highlighting both opportunities and challenges so that employees feel part of the process rather than casualties of change.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Strategia Analytics, for supporting this sponsor spotlight. 

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.

(Photo by FG Trade/iStock)