By David Fouse, Partner at Pinkston | Part 5 of our AI transformation series
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll reveals that 71% of Americans fear AI will permanently eliminate jobs, while 77% worry about political chaos from deepfakes. These aren’t abstract concerns. They reflect anxiety about a technology that feels like it’s happening to us rather than with us.
At Pinkston, we believe this distinction is crucial. The difference between AI as a threat and AI as a tool comes down to one factor: agency. AI anxiety isn’t addressed through better communication alone—it requires better participation, where people help shape the future.
The Problem
The widespread AI anxiety isn’t just about job displacement. It’s about control. When technological change feels imposed rather than collaborative, even beneficial innovations trigger resistance.
Our experience shows that employees who actively experiment with AI tools have higher comfort levels and explore more applications. This isn’t about a person’s technical competency—it’s about ownership in the discovery process.
Our Solution
Rather than rolling out AI tools with prescribed use cases or leaving adoption to chance, we’re working to create an environment where every team member owns the outcome and actively shapes how AI integrates into our work.
Leadership started earlier this year by setting clear boundaries with explicit guidelines about client confidentiality, data security, and quality standards. These aren’t restrictions, they’re a framework that makes exploration safe and possible.
Teams are now being asked to drive discovery through collaborative departmental assessments where department heads facilitate structured sessions with their teams to identify efficiency opportunities and fill service gaps. In our fourth quarter, teams are being asked to identify distinct AI applications across departments. These assessments will be reported to senior leadership for accountability, with learnings shared company-wide through monthly all-hands presentations and case studies.
This kind of individual agency is driving innovation.
For example, one junior team member recently used ChatGPT to analyze industry prompt patterns to develop client blog content designed to increase AI citation likelihood. This kind of self-directed exploration is happening across departments—another team member proactively set up a NotebookLM workspace for a client account inputting relevant materials to test messaging approaches and streamline the onboarding process for new team members joining the account. This initiative improved both client service delivery and internal knowledge transfer without being a mandated task.
These examples weren’t assigned work. They were curiosity-driven explorations within clear guardrails and together they, along with other AI use cases across the company, will transform the way we work and the work we deliver.
In 2026, we’re launching an AI training program currently in development that will build conceptual understanding and experimentation skills. Rather than prescribing workflows, the program is being designed to ensure everyone can participate in shaping our AI outcomes.
The Result
When people help design AI solutions, they develop psychological ownership that transforms threats into creative challenges. Individual discoveries become organizational assets through structured knowledge sharing. Most importantly, people connect AI exploration to outcomes they value—professional growth, client impact, and meaningful work. This creates a feedback loop where individual motivation drives organizational capability.
This approach requires a sustained leadership commitment to learning and experimentation, but the shift from resistance to curiosity is key to unlocking the human potential that an AI transformation requires.
The organizations that will thrive won’t necessarily have the most advanced AI applications or be the earliest adopters. They’ll be those who transform their workforces from AI passengers to AI drivers through structured empowerment.
In all efforts to adapt to this disruptive change, one thing remains clear: people matter most. When organizations do right by their workforce, the business benefits follow.
