Who Really Should Lead Your Company's AI Strategy? The Answer May Surprise You

Who Really Should Lead Your Company's AI Strategy? The Answer May Surprise You

As artificial intelligence reshapes workplaces worldwide, organizations face a critical question: which department should drive their AI strategy? While Silicon Valley pushes its agenda and finance departments focus on cost savings, a compelling case emerges for a completely different approach.

The Contenders for AI Leadership

Silicon Valley's Self-Appointed Role: Big Tech companies have positioned themselves as the world's unofficial CTOs, eager to dictate AI strategies. However, as Quentin Millington from Marble Brook points out, you wouldn't let someone who rented you a cement mixer design your entire house.

Finance-Led Approaches: While cost efficiency drives many AI initiatives, purely financial strategies often miss the hidden value employees create. A nurse calming anxious patients or a hotel doorman building guest relationships provides value that spreadsheets can't capture.

Technology Departments: Though AI is inherently technological, the real impact lies not in the tools themselves but in how they affect workplace experiences, roles, and outcomes.

Why Traditional Ownership Models Fail

The article challenges the conventional wisdom of assigning AI strategy to any single department. Traditional top-down change management, despite persisting for over a century, consistently fails because:

Key Issues with Top-Down Change:

• Creates anxiety and resistance when change is imposed from above
• Crowds out employee discovery and autonomy
• Leads to decreased motivation, creativity, and wellbeing
• Results in exhaustion and disengagement when initiatives stall

A Fresh Approach: Distributed AI Discovery

Instead of departmental ownership, Millington advocates for a collaborative model where teams "discover new ways of working through small, reversible and yet strategic shifts." This approach:

• Executives set direction by clarifying AI's intended value and providing resources for experimentation
• Line managers promote dialogue to help colleagues explore how AI can create or constrain value
• Team members explore possibilities through cohesive experiments across the value chain

HR's True Role in AI Strategy

Rather than owning AI strategy outright, HR should champion human value throughout technological transformation. This means pressing for distributed change that empowers employees to grow and co-create solutions optimized for future work.

The key insight? AI strategy succeeds when it involves everyone rather than being dictated by any single department.

🔗 Read the full article on HR Zone