Imagine you poured millions into a state-of-the-art AI engine for your business, but no one uses it. That’s the tragedy of many AI investments. Without strategy and change leadership, even brilliant tech fails to drive impact. Here’s why having an AI strategy and a change management framework matters and what’s at stake: 1. Turn AI from “cool experiment” into scalable business engine Many AI initiatives get stuck in pilot purgatory: estimates suggest that 85% of AI projects never make it to full production, and even among those that do, fewer than half generate significant value. Without alignment and change rigor, adoption lags, usage is patchy, and ROI remains unrealized. A clear AI strategy ensures you’re not chasing technology for its own sake — it ties use cases to real business goals (revenue growth, cost reduction, risk mitigation). It defines guardrails (governance, ethics, data quality), roles, and metrics. 2. People decide success (not tech) Prosci research shows that projects with excellent change management are up to 7× more likely to achieve their goals than those with poor change management. In fact, in their correlation data: • 88% of projects with excellent change management met or exceeded objectives • Only 13% of projects with poor change management did so In short: even with great AI tech, without change readiness, you might see low adoption, resistance, or outright failure. 3. The cost of skipping “people side” is real Poorly managed change leads to budget overruns, schedule delays, scope creep, or collapse of benefits. A commonly quoted—but debated—statistic: 70% of change initiatives fail (often because of insufficient stakeholder engagement or resistance) Even if that number is approximate, it signals the real risk lurking when change is underinvested. 81% of initiatives with strong change management come in on or under budget. 4. You can measure the value of change management The ROI of change management is really the lift in project value driven by adoption, usage, and proficiency. If a portion of your AI’s projected benefits depends entirely on people using it well, then change management is not overhead — it's value creation. Prosci You can model conservative, likely, and aggressive adoption curves and show leadership how much value is unlocked (or lost) depending on readiness. 5. WIIFM (What’s In It for Me?) — for executives, teams, sponsors StakeholderWhy This Matters to You Executive / CEO / BoardMaximize returns, de-risk your investment, avoid wasted ops/IT spend, turn AI from cost center to growth enabler Sponsors / LeadersGain credibility for delivering real transformation (not just technology), drive alignment and accountability Business Units / TeamsLess friction, better adoption, clarity of role impact, less fear and pushback EmployeesSafety in change, upskilling, clarity about how AI helps; not threatens roles