When ChatGPT hit the market, my science fiction childhoom dreams became a possible reality on the horizon, therefore I was understandably excited. Companies jumped at the topic and suddenly AI was everywhere, every tool was AI enhanced, every company AI first. After I spend a full year figuring out what that means and how to actually get there, I hope my insights can help someone else on their journey too.
Last year, management told us: we are going to be an AI-first company.
Great, right? Except… there was one small problem.
Nobody could tell me what AI-first actually meant in practice. There was no manual, no checklist, no clear path forward. Just the headline.
So I did what I always do: I started asking questions.
What I found was a massive gap. On one side: the vision — AI-first, future-ready, innovative. On the other side: the reality — we weren’t allowed to use a single AI tool.
Between vision and reality? Nothing but empty space. And everyone was staring at me like: good luck crossing that.”
So I went on a little tour. I asked Legal. Compliance. The data scientists. The AI engineers. Even management again.
Every time I asked, the answer was the same:
We don’t know yet.
After a while, it became clear — nobody had the answers. Not the experts. Not the leaders. Not even the people building the technology.”
One thing that I learned quickly is that AI was a topic that we were missing a user manual for. In the meantime the EU AI Act and other regulations are rolled out, but when we asked the first questions, nobody could answer us - maybe because there were no answers yet. And during that phase I learned that sometimes only courage (or bold cockiness) can bring you further. Nobody is coming to answer your questions, so at one point you just start answering them yourself to the best of your knowledge.
AI is not (only) a technical or legal challenge: It’s a leadership challenge.
We don’t need everyone to be AI experts. We need leaders who can make progress without having the full manual.
- Lead with principles
- In a messy area where nobody seem to be able to give you the answers you need, stay true to principles, have a compass if you can’t have a map.
- Enable through Governance, Adoption will follow
- Even if you are in the unclear - if you don’t set up any structure, governance or guardrails, you will have two outcomes:
- Some employees will ignore it all and potentially endanger your business
- More compliant employees will not try it at all to not risk anything, which hinders adoption