transformation insights

AI literacy is not something an organization just installs. It is something people need to practice, one task at a time. You can build a solid foundation and still end up with shallow use. Until individuals decide it is worth letting AI change how they improve their work, literacy remains a concept, not a capability. Not because people do not understand what AI is, but because real change always asks something back.

Two people can have the same AI tools and the same training. One integrates AI into daily work. The other stops using it after a week. The difference isn’t skill. It’s fluency. That gap shows up in small decisions most organizations don’t pay attention to. Why upskilling gets AI into the organization, but only fluency determines whether it actually sticks in day-to-day work.

AI does not replace decision-makers, and it does not remove accountability. What it does is introduce judgment calls that are increasingly uncomfortable to own. Those calls are often reframed as technical, procedural, or operational decisions, even when they clearly are not.

Most organizations are not struggling with AI simply because the technology is immature. They are struggling because AI forces clarity around how decisions get made, and many organizations have avoided that clarity for a long time. These problems already exist. AI just makes them harder to ignore. That is not an AI challenge. It is an organizational one.

This year did not radically change what artificial intelligence is capable of. What changed was how clearly organizational gaps showed up once AI moved from curiosity into real work. To be clear, this was not a year of sudden technological breakthroughs, despite the constant hype competing for attention. It was a year where AI moved closer to daily work. Across very different organizations, the same patterns kept appearing.

If you want next year to look different from this year, support the work that creates better outcomes. Give people the time and space to understand their work and shape it. Invest in tools that reduce friction. Build routines that make improvement normal and expected. Fixing keeps you afloat. Improvement moves you forward. Organizations that choose to fund improvement and support their people through it stop repeating the same patterns. They build momentum, confidence, and a

At MSSBTA, we believe performance optimization is not about pushing people harder; it’s about helping them work smarter. It is the discipline of simplifying how work gets done, aligning teams around what matters most, and creating the conditions for sustainable improvement. When done right, performance optimization builds organizations that adapt quickly, collaborate naturally, and deliver consistently strong results.

Everyone wants to move faster with AI. The challenge is that most skip the part that actually makes that speed sustainable: helping people build the confidence and curiosity to use AI well. It is easy to chase the newest tools and pilots. It is harder, and far more valuable, to build a shared foundation of understanding. Modernization and optimization that last always start with understanding. AI literacy gives organizations the confidence to adapt, not just adopt. When peopl

Modernization isn’t about buying technology or chasing the latest platform. It’s about doing the hard, necessary work of improving how people collaborate, how decisions get made, and how value gets delivered. The truth is you can’t modernize what you don’t understand. And for most organizations, that’s nearly impossible to do alone.