This keynote is a field report from a year spent inside organisations trying to embed generative AI into real work. We have never seen a technology this disruptive or this widely used, yet so poorly guided by the very organisations it is reshaping. The upside is huge, not just in productivity, but in producing better work, faster. But the difference is not tool proficiency alone. The people who perform best are the ones who can monitor their own thinking, question outputs, and refine what AI gives them. Mindset matters as much as capability.

Businesses, though, are not just collections of individuals. They are systems of norms, incentives, relationships and emotions. They are messy and cultural. Drawing on frontline lessons, this talk covers what actually works, what doesn’t, and why leadership, real-world training, behaviour change and impact tracking matter more than hype. It also explains why champions help, but rarely create the ripple effect people hope for.