Today, Fortune highlighted the gap clearly: Companies are pouring tens of millions into AI, while 80% the white collar workforce are either bypassing the tools, not using them, or just straight up sabotaging them. That is not because employees are lazy. It is because most companies rolled out the Ferrari before giving their white collar employees the reason to want to drive the Ferrari, instead of their regular Toyota Prius. Remember, Ferraris are not low-maintenance vehicles! They are expensive, require lots of care, attention, and can be brittle, just like LLMs.
Most enterprise executives forget how cars are usually sold: It's all about the incentives!
If you want real AI adoption, don’t just issue AI directives, token subscriptions and AI usage KPIs. Pay your employees to build the AI habit. I think enterprise companies should seriously look at cash-based perks and incentives tied to increasing AI usage and agentic skill development. If an employee learns how to use AI well, applies it in workflow, and creates measurable productivity gains, that should show up in their non-salary compensation, but not someday. Give the incentive now.