AI doesn't fail because of bad technology. It fails because of bad change management.

In this episode, Aaron Kopel sits down with Diana Williams, Director of Change Management at Project Brilliant, to explore why AI adoption is ultimately a people challenge. Drawing from her experience in state government and consulting across regulated industries, Diana shares how organizations often focus on building the technology, but struggle to get employees to actually use it. She explains that resistance is rarely about the tools themselves, but about fear, trust, and the impact on how people see their roles and value.

Diana discusses how AI represents a broader cultural and behavioral shift, similar to past transformations like Agile and DevOps. Through examples like IBM’s Watson Health and UPS’s ORION system, she shows how success depends on involving people early, building trust, and continuously iterating. She emphasizes that the organizations that win with AI aren’t the ones with the best technology; they’re the ones that bring their people along.

Key takeaways:

• AI adoption is a people and culture challenge, not just a technical one
• Involving employees early builds buy-in and reduces resistance
• AI implementation should be iterative, not a one-time rollout

Episode highlights

(00:00) Intro

(01:04) Lessons in change management in state government

(04:11) Why networking is critical for growth and learning

(07:04) Fear is the real adoption problem

(11:37) Case Study: Why IBM Watson failed and UPS ORION succeeded

(15:25) You can't automate your way out of bad data

(20:59) People don't resist change, they resist being changed

(25:54) Aligning teams and choosing the right use cases

(27:37) The role of the CIO goes beyond IT

(30:12) AI is a business initiative, not an IT project

(34:28) AI success depends on adoption, not capability

(35:49) Book recommendation: The Power of Habit

Diana Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-agilecoach/

Aaron Kopel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronkopel

Explore Project Brilliant: https://projectbrilliant.com

Buy Unlocking Momentum: https://a.co/d/hKPFqoS