Most conversations about AI seem to focus on one word: efficiency.
Which often translates as “job losses”.
At Unleash & Engage we’re not dismissing any organisation’s need to re-structure but we’re asking a more pertinent question: What’s the plan for those who remain?
If that question isn’t answered, a business can find itself in trouble. Research has already shown a worrying pattern.
- Up to 85% of AI projects fail to deliver expected benefits
- Fewer than 40% of organisations see any positive financial impact
- 95% don’t achieve meaningful return on investment within the first six months
It gets worse.
- 55% of employers regret AI-driven staff cuts
- Two-thirds end up having to re-hire human beings, often within six months
- 73% say they spent as much, or more, than they saved.
The problems come because organisations build technology plans and implement what they think are cost-cutting measures whilst completely ignoring the capability of their people.
One of the biggest mistakes in AI-led restructures is the failure to understand the real risk to a business. It’s not only the effect on those who leave but the impact on those who are left. The research uncovered that 74% of them admit to a decline in their own productivity whilst 87% would no longer recommend their employer.
The people left behind can also display a combination of anxiety, guilt, and disengagement that fundamentally changes how they work. Or don’t work. Adjustment can take up to a year but leaders are often expecting instant results.
And yet no-one’s talking about it.
Even though, as has been demonstrated time and again, a disengaged workforce can mean a decline in productivity and profit of up to 18%. By then, the projected benefits from AI aren’t just reduced, they can be entirely eliminated.
AI does not remove the need for people, it simply changes where and how they’re needed.
Even where the strategy is directionally right, organisations find themselves structurally unable to deliver it. With only 25% of employees getting leadership support with AI and just 12% receiving any AI training, this is no surprise.
So it leaves middle managers, who are already stretched, trying to introduce a huge strategic shift with no idea how to do it and are understandably anxious and resistant. So leaders start to panic, take control and the adoption of AI just grinds to a halt.
The organisations who benefit from AI are those who use it, not to replace their existing strategy, but to strengthen it.
That means that they’re:
- Planning work around people, not just technology
- Boosting leadership capability and belief
- Building trust in the process so people know that they’re part of the transformation
AI doesn’t fail because the technology isn’t good enough, it fails because organisations don’t know how to use it effectively, confidently and sustainably.
So before AI-led restructuring can even be considered, three questions need to be answered:
- How do we build belief in the organisation?
- What do we need the people who remain to be capable of?
- How are we going to join up the strategy with daily delivery?
Those who find the answers will reap the benefits of AI.
The rest will be be floundering – rehiring, recalibrating and not knowing why they didn’t get the results they expected.
To find out more, drop us a line info@unleashandengage.com
Data sources: Forrester, BCG, McKinsey, Gartner, MIT, Careerminds, LeadershipIQ, PwC and Gallup research — 2024 to 2026.