New Research • 2026

From Hype to Human

The truth about leadership, trust and AI adoption.

We asked 24 leaders and executive coaches one simple question: what separates organizations where AI adoption is working from where it is stalling? The answer is not the tools. It is the leaders.

Take the Assessment Download the Full Report
0
Leaders & Coaches
0
Coded Snippets
0
Use AI at Work
0
Findings That Matter
The Question

What we wanted to know

AI arrived as a technology challenge but quickly manifested as a human one. People are being asked to change how they work, how they communicate, and in some cases how they understand their own professional identity, at a pace that makes thoughtful adaptation genuinely hard. Whether employees adapt or resist depends less on the tools available than on the actions of the leaders around them.

"AI is a mirror. It reflects your strengths and your gaps." — Head of Organizational Effectiveness, study participant
The Research

How we did it

A semi-structured qualitative study using reflexive thematic analysis. We went deep with a small, deliberate sample of leaders who are living the AI transition in real time.

24
Leaders & Coaches

Twenty organizational leaders across HR, L&D, change, comms, product, technology, sales. Plus four executive coaches with broad visibility into C-suite behavior.

45
Minute Interviews

Each interview audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Three domains: personal AI use, AI's impact on leadership effectiveness, and driving AI adoption in others.

249
Codes Across 1,190 Snippets

Hierarchical coding with up to three levels per snippet. Two frequency metrics tracked: snippet count and participant breadth, so depth and reach both stay visible.

By the Numbers

What the data tells us

Twelve signals from the dataset organized by theme. The percentages reflect the share of our 24 participants who raised each idea.

How leaders are using AI
100%
Of participants use AI

Every interviewee reported using AI in their work. This is not a study of adopters versus skeptics. It is a study of how thoughtfully people use it.

42%
Use AI daily or constantly

Substantial, but not yet a majority. A further 17% described AI as integrated into regular workflow but not quite daily.

83%
Intentionality separates value from noise

The leaders with the best outcomes are not the heaviest AI users. They are the most intentional ones. Ubiquity without intentionality is a liability, not an asset.

What AI is doing to leadership effectiveness
54%
Say communication is most enhanced

Communication is the leadership capability most affected by AI, with problem-solving close behind. Innovation and creativity follow at 21%.

50%
Say problem-solving is most enhanced

People who figure out how to use AI for problem-solving will go further. AI lets leaders focus on higher-value thinking instead of executional drag.

63%
Say human relationships are irreplaceable

Human relationships, judgment, emotional presence, and the ability to make meaning from ambiguous information remain distinctly and irreplaceably human.

How AI is reshaping leadership credibility
58%
Obvious AI output is the #1 credibility risk

The dominant risk to leadership credibility is not using AI. It is distributing obvious, unedited AI output. The corrective is to edit ruthlessly and own what you put your name on.

29%
Worry their voice is being "blanded"

Authenticity concerns are mounting. Several participants described identity threat: a core professional self-concept challenged by a tool.

25%
Built credibility through better preparation

Leaders gained credibility by showing up better prepared, with deeper insights and confident data use. AI as research accelerator, not as a ghostwriter.

What drives, and blocks, adoption
83%
Visible modeling is the #1 adoption lever

When leaders use AI openly, reference it in conversations, and share both wins and failures, teams follow. When leaders are absent, adoption stalls.

83%
Fear is the dominant emotional barrier

Especially fear of replacement. The most effective antidote is naming the anxiety directly, not minimizing it. Cost-savings framing validates the fear.

67%
Cite organizational complexity

The single most prevalent code in the entire context section. Global matrices, multi-layered hierarchies, and influence without formal authority.

These are the headline numbers.

The full report covers 249 distinct codes across 1,190 participant snippets, with every quote, the complete methodology, and the practitioner playbook.

Download the Full Report
The Findings

Five things every change leader should know

Click any card to read the finding, the supporting evidence, and the Monday Move you can run with this week.

01

Visible leadership is the #1 adoption lever

What you do beats what you say.
83%

When leaders use AI openly, reference it in conversations, and share both wins and failures, teams follow. When leaders are absent from the conversation, adoption stalls. Modeling was named the single most powerful adoption behavior across 83% of participants. This is not close to second.

"For leaders, you've got to lead by example. You will use it for meeting notes, this is not optional. When leaders don't use it, nobody's gonna use it."— Leader01, Head of AI Learning & Development
"Curiosity is contagious. When leaders model it, others follow."— Leader34, Head of Organizational Effectiveness
Your Monday Move

Coach one leader to share an AI experiment in their next team meeting, including what did not work. Vulnerability builds more trust than polish.

02

The credibility risk is not AI. It is careless AI.

First drafter to first reviewer.
58%

The dominant risk to leadership credibility is not using AI. It is distributing obvious, unedited AI output. 58% of participants recognized this pattern with pattern-recognition fluency. Another 29% worry their voice will be "blanded" by AI. The corrective is not to avoid AI. It is to edit ruthlessly, maintain your voice, and never distribute something you cannot stand behind and explain.

"You have to have real understanding first. If someone asks a question about what you wrote, you better be able to answer it."— Leader26, AI Strategy Consultant
"There is a voice, there is an authenticity. What happens when there's so much AI that we are all speaking the same speak? We are being blanded."— Coach02, Executive Coach
Your Monday Move

Pick one AI-assisted message this week. Read it out loud before you send. Does it still sound like you? If your name is on it, you own it.

03

Fear is the baseline. Address it head-on.

Especially fear of replacement.
83%

Fear, especially fear of replacement, is the dominant emotional barrier to adoption. 83% of participants named it. The most effective antidote is not minimizing the fear but addressing it directly: name the anxiety, separate augmentation from replacement in your language, and demonstrate through action that AI is making the work better rather than making the worker obsolete. When organizations frame AI primarily in terms of cost efficiency and headcount reduction, they validate the replacement fear.

"Fear of losing a job. Job loss itself is not necessarily scary, it's the consequences. The loss of security. So how do you address that?"— Coach01, Executive Coach
"You're telling me I gotta use this, and why? Will make job easier, faster, higher quality. But if it replaces me, why do I want to do that?"— Coach02, Executive Coach
Your Monday Move

Audit your AI talk track. Does it lead with cost-savings or with capability? Cost-saving framing validates replacement fear. Capability framing invites partnership.

04

Intentionality is the new IQ

Using AI and using AI well are two different things.
83%

The leaders who describe the best outcomes are not the heaviest users. They are the most intentional ones. The mindset shift matters more than the tool: thinking of AI as a thought partner rather than a shortcut, a first drafter rather than a ghostwriter, a collaborator rather than a replacement. Ubiquity without intentionality is a liability, not an asset.

"AI raises the floor on IQ tasks. EQ becomes the differentiator."— Leader21, Head of Organizational Effectiveness
"We talk about shifting from being first drafter to first reviewer."— Leader28, Head of Digital Leadership & AI
Your Monday Move

Before opening your AI tool today, finish this sentence: "The human judgment I'm bringing to this is ___." If you can't answer, do the human work first.

05

The human edge is the differentiator

What AI cannot do is what makes leadership leadership.
63%

Human relationships, judgment, emotional presence, and the ability to make meaning from ambiguous information remain irreplaceably human. As AI raises the floor on analytical, drafting, and research tasks, distinctly human capabilities become the differentiator. The more AI handles, the more human the leader must become. Communication is the leadership capability most enhanced by AI (54%), but only when paired with genuine voice and human judgment.

"I'm piloting the plane. AI is not the autopilot. Or if it is, I'm always at the controls."— Coach08, Executive Coach
"Leadership is about human connection. Can't outsource that to AI."— Leader08, Chief People Officer
Your Monday Move

This week, name one task you have been delegating to AI that should not be. Take it back. Notice what shows up when you do the human thinking yourself.

The Assessment

How credibly are you leading with AI?

15 questions. Five minutes. A personalized AI Leadership Credibility profile mapped to the five dimensions of our research. You leave with three Monday Moves you can run this week.

Before you start

Answer honestly. The whole point is to find your real growth edges, not score well. Research participants showed a consistent gap between self-rating and team-rating, and the gap was largest on the dimensions most visible to followers.

  • 15 questions across the five Credibility dimensions
  • Roughly 5 minutes to complete
  • Personalized score with a research benchmark comparison
  • Three Monday Moves drawn from your two lowest dimensions
1 / 15
Visible Modeling
Loading question...
Strongly DisagreeStrongly Agree

Your AI Leadership Credibility Profile

Mapped to the five dimensions from From Hype to Human.

—
out of 100
—

Your Monday Moves

Three actions from your two lowest dimensions. Pick one, run it this week.

For Change Practitioners

Three coaching moves you can use Monday morning

If you advise leaders through transformation, these are the highest-leverage interventions from our research. Want more tailored tips? Take the self-assessment to identify your specific gaps and get personalized recommendations.

01

Coach leaders to model out loud

Help leaders narrate their AI experiments in meetings, including the failures. Vulnerability builds more trust than polish (38% of leaders said transparency about wins and failures builds more trust than polished success stories).

02

Anchor AI to your team's values, not the org's profits

Cost-cutting framing validates replacement fear. Connect AI use to integrity, growth and the work people actually care about. The WIIFM principle showed up across this research as the difference between adoption and resistance.

03

Build a sandbox before you build a strategy

Experimentation and piloting was the single most-cited enablement approach (83% of participants). Create explicit permission to try, fail and share what worked. People who try AI in low-stakes contexts discover value, and discovery creates momentum.

The Full Report

From Hype to Human: The 2026 Full Report

Full methodology, all five findings unpacked, the complete coding scheme, dozens of unedited participant quotes, and a practitioner playbook with the frameworks behind every Monday Move.

Enter your email to download the full report:

Findings citable with attribution. No spam, just occasional research updates.

Or download directly without sharing your email

The Team

Stay curious. Stay connected.

Dr. Steve Rumery

Dr. Steve Rumery

Director Emeritus, Leadership Research Institute
Associate Research Professor, University of Connecticut
LinkedIn → Email →
Allie Hartman

Allie Hartman

Founder, The Change Curiosity Lab
AI Transformation Project Manager, AgileOne
Board of Directors, ACMP
LinkedIn → Email →
Patti Sanchez

Patti Sanchez

Founder, PattiSan Communication
Co-author of Illuminate: Ignite Change through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols
LinkedIn → Email →