Two Fears Behind Every AI Transformation - Dr. Charlotte Blum (EP 31)

🎙️ Dr. Charlotte Blum - Director Change & Organisational Design, edding GroupTwo fears run underneath every AI rollout, and most companies manage neither. Dr. Charlotte Blum works the human emotions of AI transformation - the fear, identity, and trust that decide whether adoption sticks - from a board-level role most organisations don't have. This is a conversation about why people resist AI, and why the technology itself may be the hardest thing in the room to trust.📌 The episodeCharlotte Blum was hired after an agility transformation failed, into a staff function reporting to the board, to do the thing change management usually skips: work with what people feel. In this conversation she separates two fears companies tend to blur - fear of the technology and fear of change itself - and argues that AI destabilises people at the level of identity, not workflow. She makes a case that AI is structurally untrustworthy for an unexpected reason: it has no self-interest. A system built only to please will give you the answer it thinks you want, not the true one. Asked whether she has seen an organisation genuinely succeed at AI transformation, her answer is short, and it isn't yes. For any leader who suspects the resistance in their team is emotional rather than logistical, this is a conversation about what the roadmap leaves out.🧠 What you'll sit withWhy the fear of AI arrives before the technology does, and why it's measurableWhy an organisation that can't move someone's desk won't move them to AIWhat happens to a person when their role, and their sense of self-worth, is suddenly in questionWhy a tool built to please can't be relied on to tell you the truthWhy the thing to optimise for is trust, not results, not time👤 About the guestDr. Charlotte Blum is Director Change & Organisational Design at the edding Group, where she leads AI and organisational transformation from a rare board-facing position that treats the emotional side of change as core work rather than an afterthought. Her method is to enable leaders for the conversations no job description trained them for, and she has the internal data suggesting it moves the numbers.⏱️ Chapters [00:00] Trust too much, or not at all - the problem with both[02:16] Why AI is a human shift, not a technology one[07:12] The skill capitalism doesn't want you to build[13:48] Why leaders are handed a job they were never trained for[30:22] The trust equation, and where AI breaks it[38:11] Three things an organisation must get right🔗 LinksDr. Charlotte Blum on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-charlotte-blum/edding Group - https://www.edding.comThe trust equation (credibility + reliability + intimacy / self-orientation) - https://people-shift.com/articles/the-trust-equation/AllBright Academy - https://www.allbright-stiftung.de/academyRelated episode - Why Empathy Can't be Automated with Gifty Enright - https://open.spotify.com/episode/5NYYRgwROaiZLHur5gbksw