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KeynoteAI Adoption

From Chaos to Clarity: AI Adoption

Most companies don't fail at AI because they picked the wrong tool. They fail because eleven people are quietly using eleven different chatbots and nobody's allowed to say so out loud. This talk is about what actually happens inside a business when AI shows up, and the small number of decisions that separate the teams getting real work done from the ones still running pilots.

Format

Keynote — 45 to 60 minutes, with optional Q&A

Who it's for

Leadership teams, operators, and anyone tasked with rolling AI out internally

What you'll walk away with

  • A shared vocabulary, so your finance lead and your creative director stop arguing about two different things.
  • A way to pick a first use case that's boring enough to succeed.
  • How to spot the difference between adoption and people humouring you in a meeting.
  • What to do about the shadow AI already running in your company.

How the session runs

Why the pilots die

We look at the usual pattern: a big announcement, a committee, a tool nobody asked for, and six months later a slide deck about learnings. I'll show where the energy leaks out and why it's almost never a technology problem.

The framework

Four stages we've used at ZGM and with clients — surface what's already happening, pick one workflow that hurts, put guardrails around it, then let the people doing the work teach everyone else. It's less exciting than a transformation roadmap and it works better.

What Monday looks like

The part most talks skip. Who owns it, what you tell your team, what you measure in the first ninety days, and how to handle the person who thinks the whole thing is a fad. Plus the mistakes we made so you can skip a few.

Feedback

From the room

Most AI adoption conversations treat governance as the roadblocks or stop signs. Peter treated it as the permission structure, and that distinction is core from the people change management side.
Theresa Lynn, CEO, Clarity at WorkUpper Bound
I found this session incredibly valuable. How to harness AI, but how to do so with guardrails in place. This workshop inspired my own organization to think about ethical framework, governance and IT.
Attendee, SocialWest
The most entertainingly insightful presentation was Peter Bishop's, where he explained that it is our perception of what is possible that limits us.
Karl Wolter, Director of Engineering, Strategy to ExecutionUpper Bound
Excellent! I was looking for a meaningful way to bring AI to my colleagues and came out with some great ideas.
Attendee, SocialWest
An incredibly engaging talk on how to bring everyone in your organization through the chaos into clarity with a framework designed for establishing proper AI use.
Michele F., Product Practice Leader, ENMAXUpper Bound
Great insights, appreciated the balanced AI approach.
Attendee, SocialWest
Another inspiring lecture. Anyone that has worked with me before knows a title like that would draw me right in. Did not disappoint!
Jacylyn Badduke, Product Manager, Alberta Energy RegulatorUpper Bound
Such a valuable and informative presentation during a time in which AI is becoming bigger and bigger.
Attendee, SocialWest
AI is a tool to augment our thinking, not replace the process — as Peter Bishop put it, “we combine our expertise with emerging technology to amplify humanity, not replace it.”
Rachel Gorman & Sean Gifford, iTracksUpper Bound
I found it super interesting and helpful for adoption in our organization.
Attendee, SocialWest
Interesting and informative, nice to hear about this from someone who's been around the industry for a bit.
Attendee, SocialWest

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