Every executive I talk to is eager to show a return on their AI investments to justify future innovation. Oxford Economics projects U.S. enterprise spending on AI products and services to exceed $1 trillion by 2030.
But as with any major technological shift, initial ROI can take time to surface. In a recent meta-analysis, Master of Code calculated that only about 5% of companies have reported substantial AI ROI, while 35% have had partial returns. Our own 2026 G-P AI at Work report found that 73% of executives felt their AI spending fell short of expectations last year.
This isn’t a sign of failure but rather a signal of transformation. Giving your workforce a new AI tool is easy. True transformation requires rethinking how we work. The organizations achieving success are those shifting their focus from mandates to building deep, verifiable trust in their systems.
Here are three ways leaders can shift their strategies to unlock their own transformation.
Genuine Buy-In Over Forced Adoption
Top-down mandates make initial usage metrics look good, but true transformation requires employees to personally believe in the value of the tools. Our research found that 62% of executives admit they feel pressured to use AI, and 88% of executives are worried about teams engaging in “performative productivity”—using AI just to hit visible metrics, appear engaged and check boxes without meaningfully improving actual business outputs. This is the modern-day equivalent of looking busy while accomplishing nothing, and it is a massive drain on enterprise value.
The most successful organizations are moving past forced adoption. They recognize that buy-in grows organically when a product genuinely makes people’s jobs easier.
By taking a deep look at workflows, identifying friction points and integrating AI where it naturally fits, companies can turn the technology from a mandated chore into a powerful tool that employees want to use.
Human Skills, AI Scales
In the early stages of AI adoption, many teams experience a “monitoring tax.” In fact, 69% of global executives said their employees spend more time than ever reviewing, editing and fixing AI-generated outputs.
However, forward-thinking organizations are reshaping this dynamic. They are adopting a transformative perspective that 60% of worldwide executives in our report now follow: “Humans lead the work, AI provides data and speed.”
The ROI of this approach is significant. Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report found that 66% of organizations report productivity and efficiency gains from their AI initiatives. Instead of viewing human oversight as a tax, leaders are redesigning roles so that top talent focuses on strategy, creativity and judgment, while AI handles the heavy lifting of data processing.
By investing in AI tools that prioritize transparency and verifiability, companies are empowering their employees to work faster and smarter, elevating them from task-doers to strategic editors.
Confidence Through Purpose-Built AI
It is natural for professionals to feel hesitant about new technology. Our research found that only 23% of the executives we surveyed said they have complete confidence in their AI tools’ accuracy. They’re probably right to be skeptical. General-purpose AI tools can produce highly plausible-sounding answers even when the underlying information is inaccurate or fabricated.
This hesitation is actually guiding the next great phase of AI transformation: the shift toward purpose-built models. Trust in AI must be earned through demonstrable and consistent accuracy, especially in high-stakes domains like HR or legal.
For our customer Rackspace’s HR team, managing global compliance meant piecing together guidance from outside counsel, external consultants, government websites and individual institutional knowledge, depending on the question and the jurisdiction. The process was slow, inconsistent and expensive to scale.
With our AI-powered global HR agent G-P Gia, tasks that previously took several hours have been reduced to under an hour for first-pass policy reviews and statutory compliance checks. For more complex inquiries, the team estimates Gia reduces research and drafting time by roughly 50–75% compared with traditional manual workflows.
Because G-P Gia is an intelligent platform purpose-built for the global employer, it bridges the gap between raw legal data and HR culture. Instead of relying on a generic LLM, Gia goes beyond surface-level answers to provide comprehensive, legal-grade support.
When tools are designed to show their work and flag gaps in their knowledge, employees feel confident leaning into the technology to innovate boldly and safely.
Trust Is the Engine of Transformation
The initial friction of AI adoption is giving way to a more mature, strategic approach. In this year’s survey, the number of executives who said they were “aggressively using AI to innovate” shifted from 60% down to 42%.
This is actually incredibly positive news. It means organizations are moving away from reckless, move-fast-and-break-things experimentation. They are taking the time to ask the questions that really matter, opting for a deliberate approach that prioritizes employee trust, security and genuine synergy.
The organizations poised to lead the future aren’t necessarily the ones moving the fastest. They are the ones building trustworthy, transformative systems that empower their people to do the best work of their careers.
