---
id: "action-appoint-ai-champions"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Engage Your People"]
tags: ["change-management", "leadership"]
related: ["org-rent-a-mac", "concept-ai-sabotage", "claim-human-bottleneck"]
action: "Designate peer AI champions to demonstrate real, practical use cases to anxious workforces."
outcome: "Reduces employee anxiety and resistance, dramatically increasing engagement and adoption rates (e.g. from 31% to 89%)."
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/match-your-ai-strategy-to-your-organizations-reality"
source_title: "Match Your AI Strategy to Your Organization's Reality"
sources: ["spine"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-spine"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-sig-55-match-ai-strategy-to-reality"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/match-your-ai-strategy-to-your-organizations-reality"
sourceTitle: "Match Your AI Strategy to Your Organization’s Reality"
---
# Appoint Internal AI Champions

**Action.** Designate peer **AI champions** to demonstrate real, practical use cases to anxious workforces.

**Outcome.** Reduces anxiety and resistance, dramatically increasing engagement — [[org-rent-a-mac]] recovered from a 7-week, $85,000 stall and lifted engagement from **31% to 89%**. A direct countermeasure to [[concept-ai-sabotage]] and the resistance documented in [[claim-human-bottleneck]].


## Related across articles
- [[claim-bottom-up-adoption-trust]]
- [[concept-pilots-vs-passengers]]