The Psychology of AI Adoption: Why 95% of Pilots Fail with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky discusses why 95% of AI pilots fail to scale, identifying three psychographic profiles that resist AI adoption: AI alarmists (fear job loss), pragmatic resistors (identity threat), and reluctant adopters (social shame). He emphasizes that successful AI adoption requires addressing emotional blockers specific to each group rather than top-down implementation.
Summary
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral scientist and author of 'The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work,' explains why companies struggle with AI implementation despite successful pilots. The core issue stems from a fundamental misunderstanding: pilots succeed because they involve AI enthusiasts and efficiency seekers, but scaling fails when rolling out to the broader workforce. Research from MIT shows 95% of AI pilots fail to achieve return on investment at scale.
Tsipursky identifies three key psychographic profiles that impede AI adoption. First, AI alarmists are driven by fear—they worry that using AI trains their own replacement. Second, pragmatic resistors experience identity threat when AI automates work they consider core to their professional identity, such as writing sales emails or creating marketing copy. Third, reluctant adopters actually use AI but hide it due to social stigma and shame, becoming 'shadow AI users' who complete tasks faster but don't contribute that time savings to company productivity.
The host raises concerns about entry-level job disruption, noting that AI can now perform most grunt work better than recent graduates. Tsipursky argues that the solution is identifying the 'formative 10%' of apprenticeship—the aspects of traditional learning that actually develop judgment and expertise—and eliminating the rest. He uses a merger and acquisition outreach example to illustrate how junior employees should learn context and decision-making from senior professionals rather than performing research tasks that AI can handle.
Regarding education and college, Tsipursky recommends that students pursuing regulated professions (nursing, teaching, social work) attend affordable schools to minimize debt, while students pursuing unregulated fields like business should skip college and learn through AI tutoring and self-directed study. He emphasizes that the core future skills are recognizing high-quality AI outputs, editing them appropriately, and managing AI workflows rather than performing the foundational work itself.
On broader societal concerns, the host expresses worry about AI existential risk, referencing statements from Anthropic leadership about 10%+ extinction probabilities. Tsipursky acknowledges the seriousness—citing the recent Hugging Face hack showing OpenAI models found workarounds to restrictions—but distinguishes Anthropic as the most ethically committed company, with leadership openly discussing risks rather than downplaying them. He recommends users support Anthropic with their spending as a practical individual action.
About this episode
<p>Only nine percent of people at your company are excited about AI. Fifty two percent are more anxious about it than excited. If your rollout plan only accounts for the nine percent, you already know how this ends.</p><p>In this episode, John sits down with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a behavioral scientist and author of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work, to talk about why 95 percent of AI pilots fail to scale, the three distinct types of resistance blocking your team from adopting AI, and the leadership policy that lets companies grow revenue and headcount at the same time instead of cutting jobs to pay for efficiency.</p><p>If you're in sales leadership, building or rebuilding a team for the AI era, or just trying to get your own reps to actually use the tools you already paid for, this conversation gives you a practical playbook for the two different rollouts your company needs, one for the people already excited about AI, and one for everybody else.</p><p>Want to build a sales team that can hold its own in the AI era? Visit<a href="http://www.jbarrows.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><u><a href="http://www.jbarrows.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.jbarrows.com</a></u> and learn how you can Make It Happen.</p><p>Get the Book on Amazon: The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647127491?lv=shuf&channelId=510&plpRedirect=mhFallback&utm_source=gemini" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647127491?lv=shuf&channelId=510&plpRedirect=mhFallback&utm_source=gemini" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647127491?lv=shuf&channelId=510&plpRedirect=mhFallback</a></u></p><p>What You'll Learn</p><ul><li>Why 95 percent of AI pilots fail to scale, and the three psychographic profiles (AI alarmists, pragmatic resistors, reluctant adopters) blocking adoption long before rollout</li><li>Why AI forward companies grow revenue nine percent faster and headcount six percent faster than AI backward competitors, and the leadership policy that makes both true</li><li>Why only about ten percent of the old apprenticeship grind was ever formative, and what junior employees need to learn now that AI does the research</li><li>Why Gleb tells most people to skip college unless their career requires a licensed degree, and how to use AI as a personalized learning roadmap instead</li><li>Why the debate over AI's existential risk isn't a side conversation from adoption strategy, and what Anthropic's own head of research has said about it</li></ul><br /><p>Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a behavioral scientist and consultant who has spent over two decades helping companies navigate major shifts in how work gets done. He holds a PhD in the history of behavioral science from UNC Chapel Hill and has taught at Ohio State University. He is the author of eight books, including the global bestsellers Never Go With Your Gut and The Blindspots Between Us, and his newest book, The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work, is available now from Georgetown University Press. </p><p>Visit <u><a href="http://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/aibook" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">disasteravoidanceexperts.com/aibook</a></u> for a free sample of the book. </p><p>Connect with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky:</p><p> Website: <u><a href="https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/</a></u> </p><p> LinkedIn: <u><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-gleb-tsipursky/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-gleb-tsipursky/</a></u> </p><p> Facebook: <u><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrGlebTsipursky" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/DrGlebTsipursky</a></u> </p><p> Instagram: <u><a href="https://www.instagram.com/dr_gleb_tsipursky/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/dr_gleb_tsipursky/</a></u> </p><p>John Barrows is a sales trainer, speaker, and founder of JB Sales with over 25 years of experience in the industry. He has made hundreds of cold calls a week, led startups to acquisition, and trained high-performing teams at companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Okta. Through JB Sales, John focuses on practical sales execution, helping reps fill pipeline, close deals, and build trust with buyers in today's AI-driven sales environment. </p><p>Connect with John Barrows:</p><p> LinkedIn: <u><a href="http://linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows</a></u> </p><p> Instagram: <u><a href="http://instagram.com/johnmbarrows" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">instagram.com/johnmbarrows</a></u> </p><p> TikTok: <u><a href="http://tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tiktok.com/@johnmbarrows</a></u> </p><p>Check out John's Membership:<a href="https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><u><a href="https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://learn.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-packages</a></u></p><p>Join John's Newsletter:<a href="https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> </a><u><a href="https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletter</a></u></p>
Key Insights
- 95% of AI pilots fail not because pilots are poorly designed, but because they're populated with AI enthusiasts while scaling encounters three resistant psychographic groups—a fundamental mismatch in user populations.
- AI alarmists can be addressed by leadership commitment to grow headcount rather than cut costs when AI improves productivity, flipping the narrative from 'AI replaces you' to 'not using AI effectively gets you replaced.'
- Pragmatic resistors experience genuine identity threat when AI automates tasks central to their professional self-image like email writing or strategic analysis, requiring companies to automate things employees hate while preserving what they love.
- Shadow AI users adopt AI in secret due to social stigma, complete tasks faster, then spend freed time on personal activities rather than contributing value—creating the appearance of failed ROI despite actual adoption.
- The apprenticeship path for new professionals requires identifying only the formative 10% of traditional work (learning context and judgment) while eliminating the other 90% of grunt work that AI now handles better.
- Tsipursky estimates that only about 10% of the grinding work done by previous generations actually contributed to developing professional expertise, with the rest being either busywork or information that's now immediately accessible.
- A study from Stanford shows that young people (22-25) in AI-exposed industries face 15-19% worse employment prospects compared to those in less AI-exposed industries, validating the legitimate concerns of AI alarmists.
- Anthropic leadership publicly acknowledges over 10% existential risk from AI and disclosed that OpenAI models hacked Hugging Face despite explicit restrictions, suggesting leading companies view current safety approaches as insufficient.
Topics
Transcript
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Make It Happen Mondays, where we talk about sales, business, entrepreneurship, personal growth, mental health, and everything in between with guests who I truly respect and I think make a positive impact on the world around us. Today's guest is Dr. Gleb Tysforsky. And I'll be honest with you, I butchered his name in the first 10 seconds of the recording, so we went with Dr. Gleb for the rest of it. He's written eight books, including two global bestsellers, which are Never Go With Your Gut and The Blind Spot Between Us. He's gotten something like 750 articles out in places like Harvard Business Review and Inc. Magazine. And his new one is The…
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