For the past two years, organizations have been racing to adopt AI. Teams have experimented with pilots, automated workflows, tested use cases, and launched innovation initiatives at unprecedented speed. But in many companies, these initiatives are disconnected and AI adoption has outpaced governance, operating models, and even clear strategic direction.  

As part of the seventh edition of Prophet’s Catalysts research, we’re exploring whether AI’s next challenge is no longer adoption, but leadership. Through our qualitative research, several early hypotheses are beginning to emerge that we’ll continue to test through our upcoming quantitative research. 

As the initial wave of experimentation matures, a new reality is emerging: AI isn’t just changing how organisations operate; it’s changing the nature of work itself. To make the most of this opportunity, organisations must be structured, aligned, and upskilled enough to harness it. 

In last year’s Catalysts research, we explored the importance of building the human infrastructure around AI, emphasizing that transformation could not simply be technical, but needed to be cultural as well. That idea still holds true. But the conversation has evolved. In other words, the challenge is no longer just adapting to AI. It is fundamentally shifting how we organize and structure our work based on a new AI-enabled paradigm. 

Organizations are now moving beyond questions of readiness and adaptability toward something more fundamental: how strategy, talent, culture, governance, and operations work together as an interconnected system, and how to redesign work, not just layer AI onto outdated processes.  

This demands intentional focus from leadership and points to a broader shift: competitive advantage may increasingly come from an organization’s ability to continuously adapt, rather than simply adopt. We’ll be exploring how organisations can do this across the next four blog posts. 

What we’re seeing from the new research: 

1. AI Leadership is becoming change leadership

To succeed in the age of AI, leaders can no longer rely on certainty, fixed answers, or static transformation maps. As AI evolves rapidly, organizations need leaders who can guide through ambiguity, align teams around moving targets, and create momentum without having complete clarity. 

“You have to take into consideration all the human change management aspects.”

Business Leader, International Food Business

2. Leaders need to set the vision 

The most effective leaders are starting from the business need, not the tool, asking how AI accelerates what the organization is already trying to achieve and seizing the opportunity to innovate on the systems and processes that currently exist. 

“We had to create a visual of all the agents we had in existence to prevent people from building the same solution several times in different parts of the business.”

AI leader, Global Industrial Conglomerate

3. Leaders need to communicate openly

For employees to be engaged and excited around AI, leaders must build trust around it and communicate openly, about what AI can help the organization do, what it means for how people work and their jobs, and what they themselves are still learning or don’t yet know. 

“We’ve had to get everyone over the AI anxiety hump because everyone was talking about AI coming to take their jobs, but what does that really mean and what skillsets and mindsets do we need to develop to keep pace with this change?”

HR Leader, B2B Marketing & Sales 

What’s next for business leaders?

1. Get organized around AI, not just excited about it 

In last year’s Catalysts research, we emphasized the importance of building workforce readiness and fostering human-centered AI adoption. This year, we’re seeing organizations move beyond awareness and experimentation into a new challenge: organizational coordination. 

The companies pulling ahead are not necessarily the ones with the most AI tools; they are the ones creating alignment across strategy, governance, operations, talent, and leadership. The challenge is no longer simply adopting AI; it’s organizing the enterprise around it. 

2. Develop leaders who can operate through uncertainty  

Our 2025 research highlighted the need for leaders to build trust and create human-centered transformation environments. This year, we’re seeing leadership expectations evolve even further. Organizations increasingly need leaders who can navigate “known unknowns” without pretending to have fixed answers. Leaders that are embedding experimentation, iteration, and learning directly into how work happens, rather than treating transformation as a separate initiative running alongside the business.  

3. Normalize experimentation and course correction 

Organizations know they need experimentation, but many are still operating with cultures and systems optimized for predictability and risk reduction. 

In our last research, we emphasized experimentation as an innovation muscle. This year, it is increasingly becoming an operational requirement. Organizations need to create environments where teams can test, learn, adapt, and share insights quickly, while still operating within clear strategic guardrails. The strongest organizations are not eliminating uncertainty. They are building the institutional stamina to move through it faster. 

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As corporate leaders assess company performance, raises and bonus distribution, it’s imperative that they prioritise middle managers. Middle managers are the linchpins of organizational health, translating strategy into execution, culture into action and performance into results. It defies reason why these dogged workhorses climbing corporate ladders don’t get the investments they need to help them soar before they lose their footing.

In a 2024 survey, 75% of millennial middle managers reported feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or burned out — and nearly half said they were considering leaving their roles. These managers are feeling pressure from all sides: 39% cited increased pressure from senior leadership, while 37% pointed to greater demands from their teams.

Same holds true for middle managers. It’s senior leaders who get the shiny new toys. They get up to bat first when there are exclusive training programs and executive coaching sessions to be had. First to get rewarded when performance metrics are met. Front-line workers are also nurtured and groomed, given access to tools and training while they settle in and grow. Not so much for those in the middle. They’re expected to translate, deliver and execute sans the tailored support they so often need.

What a miss.

According to Gallup, 70% of the variance in employee engagement is directly attributed to the manager. McKinsey reports that companies with strong managerial capabilities deliver returns to shareholders that are 21 times greater than those with weaker managers.

So what do middle managers really need — and how can organizations better support and unleash their potential?

1. Make Their Lives Easier

Middle managers are drowning in complexity. Simplify wherever possible: streamline workflows, reduce administrative burdens and equip them with intuitive tools.

And communicate with them. It’s one of their biggest pain points. Establish dedicated manager forums or communities to serve as both peer support and direct communication channels. Make information easy to access, tailored to their needs and rooted in shared experience — not buried in intranets or lost in long email threads.

2. Give Them a Seat at the Table

Managers are uniquely positioned. They have proximity to the front line, insights into customer pain points and an intimate view of what’s working — and what’s not — on the ground. Treat them as strategic partners and reward them as such. Create intentional touchpoints between middle managers and senior leadership to foster transparency, trust and dialogue. Share how decisions are made, invite their input and — critically — close the loop by acknowledging when their feedback influences change. Visibility into impact fuels engagement and retention. And it just feels good.

3. Support Them as People Leaders

Many middle managers were promoted for being strong individual contributors but haven’t received the support to evolve into effective people leaders. They’re expected to motivate, coach and lead — but may not have the tools to do so. Invest in them and the dividends will flow.

When a healthcare client was introducing a new, simplified purpose, leadership made the strategic decision to create manager-specific summits that made the content and experience accessible to this critical level of leadership. The content and training were tailored to this audience, focused on equipping managers to bring the new organizational mantra to life through day-to-day coaching and recognition, compared to more strategically for senior leaders. Participants voiced appreciation that middle managers were trusted and engaged to lead the rollout which fuel-injected its success.

4. Empower Their Decision-Making

Managers want to lead — not just follow orders. Give them autonomy, backed by the right guardrails. Allstate introduced a decision-making model where senior leaders took on the role of “navigators,” while middle managers were cast as the “drivers.” This metaphor wasn’t just symbolic — it represented a tangible shift in accountability and empowerment.

With senior leaders as coaches, not bottlenecks, middle managers gained confidence and clarity in their decision-making.

5. Recognise and Develop Them

Middle managers carry immense weight — yet their efforts often go unacknowledged. Recognition doesn’t have to be flashy. Career development opportunities, visible appreciation and meaningful decision-making authority all go a long way.

In fact, McKinsey found that middle managers value empowerment — such as being trusted to make decisions — just as much as financial rewards. So as the year winds down, consider both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators when designing recognition strategies.

​Unilever’s FLEX Experiences, for instance, gave talent the chance to raise their hand for new internal projects across the organization. Expanding the pool for talent beyond typical structures, the AI-powered program helped align individuals on passion projects.

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In times defined by disruption, from market volatility and AI to geopolitical flux, growth must be designed, not assumed. For this installment of Uncommon Growth Leaders, Chiaki Nishino spoke with Beth Wood, Chief Marketing Officer, and Brad Kaufman, Head of Digital Marketing and Marketing Operations at Principal Financial Group, about what it really takes to lead with purpose, clarity and resilience. 

Beth, let’s start at the top. When everything around you is changing, how do you ground leadership? What’s most important to you in those moments of uncertainty? 

Beth: It starts with clarity of strategy, purpose and values. You need a strategy that recognizes the forces outside your walls and gives people something stable to hold onto. Once you’ve got that, you repeat it, over and over. I often say, communicate, communicate, communicate. 

And you can’t drift from your core values. Those have to stay constant no matter how much the world changes. At Principal, we make our values visible, literally. They’re on walls, desktops and in conversations. We measure ourselves against them. If we’re not living up to them, we act. 

The other piece is followership. You want to build an organization full of people who would follow you anywhere, not because they have to, but because they want to. That’s how you build trust. 

Followership isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about belief. People follow leaders who are consistent, transparent, and authentic, leaders who show them the “why” behind the work, not just the “what.” When your team understands the purpose, when they see that you’ll make the hard calls and stand behind them, that’s when loyalty and engagement take root. 

I tell my leaders all the time: your goal is to earn discretionary effort; the effort people give because they believe in you, not because it’s written in their job description. When you’ve built that kind of followership, alignment becomes effortless, communication becomes more direct, and performance accelerates. It’s not about charisma or being liked, it’s about credibility and care. People will follow you through ambiguity if they trust your intent and your direction. 

Brad, how does that show up in your day-to-day leadership? 

Brad: Consistency is everything. The best leaders don’t just communicate clearly once they keep reinforcing the same message until it sticks. Words matter, and how you use them shapes trust. 

Consistency doesn’t mean being rigid; it means being reliable. When people know what to expect from you, even in uncertain times, they can move faster and make better decisions. It builds confidence. If you’re changing direction every week or framing the story differently every time you speak, people lose track of what matters most. 

I remind my team that clarity compounds. Every time you repeat the same vision with the same intent, you’re reinforcing the signal in a world full of noise. Consistency gives your people something to anchor to, and that’s when influence becomes sustainable. 

And when it comes to driving transformation, we always start with the problem. Teams love to jump into solutions, but I bring them back to the core question: what problem are we trying to solve? Once that’s clear, alignment and creativity happen naturally. 

The past few years have been incredibly disruptive. How do you balance short-term performance with long-term vision? 

Beth: You have to think with both sides of your brain. Short-term results matter, but if you only chase the urgent, you’ll never innovate. Our teams understand their role in both horizons: to solve today’s problems and to imagine tomorrow’s opportunities. 

I tell my teams constantly; you have permission to think big. But people need to hear a long-term idea 10 or 20 times before they start to believe it’s real. Repetition turns aspiration into culture. 

Brad: Exactly. I always say it takes a thousand one-on-ones. You can’t just say the vision once and assume people internalize it. I literally pull out our original project decks months later to remind everyone where we started. 

And psychological safety is huge. If people don’t understand something — or disagree — they have to feel safe to say so. That’s how you keep people aligned and engaged for the long haul. 

Beth, how do you make sure your teams stay customer-centered, especially in a large, complex organization? 

Beth: We keep our finger on the pulse. We run monthly “pulse” surveys, maintain multiple customer panels, and manage the long-standing research called the Well-Being Index that tracks optimism and financial health among small and midsize business owners. 

We also co-create with customers. We ask them directly: how would this work for you? They always bring perspectives we’d never think of on our own. That collaboration builds better solutions and a stronger brand. 

Brad: And for people who don’t directly engage with customers, we build the mindset into the culture. Everyone should think like a student of the business, curious about what the customer is doing, and how it impacts their role. That outside-in perspective needs to be automatic, not occasional. 

When budgets tighten, how do you still foster creativity and innovation? 

Brad: It’s about bending the curve. Every team is asked to do more, with more complexity, at higher quality, in less time. That equation doesn’t add up unless you change how the work gets done. 

“Bending the curve” means finding leverage, through process improvement, smarter workflows, and, increasingly, technology. You can’t outwork exponential complexity, but you can outthink it. That’s where automation, data and AI come in. 

Our job isn’t to work harder; it’s to work smarter. That means auditing what’s manual and finding opportunities to automate, investing in skill development so the basics become second nature, and then deploying new tools to multiply impact.  

Beth: Our CEO made a commitment to train all 20,000 employees on using AI to improve productivity and customer experience. And it’s working. People are realizing it’s not about replacing work; it’s about freeing up time for higher-value thinking. 

The key is embracing it. The tools are here, but you have to be willing to learn, experiment, and use them to do things differently. 

You’ve both talked about performance and development. How do you manage that “vital middle” of performers — those who aren’t low performers but haven’t yet hit their stride? 

Beth: With clarity and courage. The top performers manage themselves. The middle is where leadership happens. I have regular “Why do you stay?” conversations because I want to understand motivation. 

Once expectations and skills are clear, the question becomes: are you filling the role we need? Half the time, people rise to the occasion. The other half, we talk openly about fit. Direct, transparent conversations are how you build trust. 

Brad: There’s nothing more motivating than the truth. You don’t have to be harsh, just real. People appreciate it when they know exactly where they stand. 

Beth, you’ve been described as a sponsor of talent. How do you think about growing leaders? 

Beth: I hire people for the job I think they’ll grow into, not just the one they’re hired for. With Brad, for instance, he came to me after 20 years at Principal and said, “I want to do something different.” That’s gold to me. I just needed to open the door, provide coaching, and get out of his way. 

I ask one question constantly: how can I help? That’s it. If people need me, I’m there. If not, I move aside. 

I also host something called The Orange Room, a casual, no-agenda session every few weeks where anyone in my organization can ask anything. It builds transparency, trust, and connection. 

Leadership isn’t just about skills, it’s about mindset. How do you build resilience in your teams? 

Brad: For me, resilience starts with perspective. I encourage my team to step outside their own viewpoint, especially in moments of tension or frustration. When conflict happens, I’ll ask, “What’s the other person thinking right now?” or “What do they see that you might not?” 

It sounds simple, but that question resets everything. It slows the reaction, diffuses defensiveness, and shifts people from emotion to curiosity. When you practice that regularly, it becomes a leadership muscle. You stop seeing challenges as personal attacks and start seeing them as opportunities to understand context and improve outcomes. 

Resilience isn’t about being unshakable; it’s about being adaptable. It’s the ability to take feedback, reframe setbacks and move forward with perspective. And when leaders model that it cascades through the team, people start mirroring calm instead of chaos. 

Beth: I completely agree. A big part of resilience is choosing how you interpret what’s happening around you. You have to assume positive intent and that can be hard when you’re under pressure. But most people aren’t out to make your life difficult; they’re simply trying to solve their own set of problems. If you can start from that mindset, conversations become more productive and you stay in control of your own energy. 

Another dimension is discernment. I always remind my leaders that not every battle is worth fighting. Every hill isn’t a hill to die on. Part of resilience is knowing when to engage deeply and when to let something go. Leaders who can focus on what truly matters, who can separate the noise from the signal, move faster and inspire confidence in others. 

I also think resilience grows from community. People are more resilient when they feel seen and supported. When leaders create space for honesty, vulnerability and reflection when they normalize saying, “This week was hard” that’s when resilience becomes collective, not just individual. 

Brad: Yes, and it’s contagious. When you model composure and curiosity under pressure, it gives everyone permission to do the same. That’s how you create a culture that bends without breaking. 

Personally, how do you both stay inspired and balanced as leaders? 

Beth: Watching my daughter play hockey grounds me, its joy, pure and simple. I also read constantly, mostly business books and blogs like Seth Godin and Simon Sinek. I pull one or two takeaways from each and apply them. If they work, I keep them; if not, I move on. 

Brad: I’ve tried to make my job about what I love: technology, data, process. When you align your work with what energizes you, you don’t burn out. 

And I protect my time. Nights and weekends are sacred. I tell my team the same; rest isn’t a luxury, it’s a performance strategy. 

Before we wrap, anything we didn’t cover that feels essential to uncommon leadership? 

Brad: We don’t talk enough about leading humans. There’s no playbook for when someone’s parent is sick or their kid’s struggling. You can’t lead effectively if your relationship is purely transactional. 

Beth: Yes, and that care has to be real. People can tell when it’s performative. Be authentic, be vulnerable and let people see who you are. That’s how you build trust. 

And remember: every person on the team has a role. As John Wooden said, everyone must know their role and trust that others will perform theirs. When you have that trust, everything else flows. 

Chiaki: Beautifully said. Thank you both for sharing so openly. What stands out to me from this conversation is how practical and human great leadership really is. It’s not about having all the answers about building trust, showing care and helping people find clarity in complexity. The way you balance both purpose, performance and empathy is exactly the kind of leadership that fuels uncommon growth. 

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The Illusion of Speed and Simplicity 

We live in an age of AI hype: infinite value, instant transformation, and algorithms that solve all types of problems. But as Paul Hlivko warns in Harvard Business Review, those headlines often mask a much slower, more friction-filled reality: “AI will transform industries … but on enterprise time: longer, slower, and with far more friction than most expect.” According to the article, corporate leaders routinely make six core mistakes, including underestimating the time needed, overestimating adoption, and obsessing over the models instead of the real, sustainable systems.  

This aligns with what we see in practice: many AI transformation programs default to a standard consulting playbook — assess, reengineer, select technology, train, integrate, roll out. That is not wrong — but it’s insufficient. The promise of rapid returns often collides with legacy systems, cultural resistance, risk-averse governance, and organizational inertia. When execution lags, stakeholders grow impatient. Business cases underdeliver. Trust erodes. And the opportunity to capture exponential value slips away. 

The Two Risks That Leaders Rarely Face Head-on 

1. Underperformance: The Gap Between Expectation and Delivery 

Even with strong investment, many AI programs will land somewhere in the “incremental improvement” zone rather than delivering dramatic transformation. According to KMPG’s 2025 Global CEO Outlook, leaders are betting big on AI — but they’re acutely aware that culture, adoption, and trust are real constraints:  

• 71% of CEOs say AI is a top investment priority. 
• 69% plan to allocate 10–20% of budgets to AI.  
• Yet 63% of CEOs express concern about AI’s impact on culture.
• 33% see employee resistance to change as a serious barrier. 

To HBR’s point: the world believes in rapid adoption, but in reality, enterprise adoption is often slow, uneven, and delayed by legacy constraints.  

The result? Many organizations operate under a “speed illusion” thinking they’re moving fast, but really lagging in impact, adoption, and value captured. While CEOs are aware of the issues, they are not necessarily addressing them head on. 

2. Cultural Erosion: The Risk of Becoming Soulless 

Even when AI “works,” it can hollow out what makes organizations human.  

HBR refers to fact that “We are automating work without really understanding it.” Many tasks involve “connective labor”, the human act of seeing others and reflecting understanding; something no algorithm can replicate. When machines take over more of what people used to do, employees start questioning their role and relevance. What remains if your unique ideas, judgment, or moral instincts are replaced by algorithmic suggestions? 

Worse still, cutting out swathes of humans to be replaced by machines, like recent Amazon and UPS announcements to lay off 14,000 and 48,000 people respectively, spreads fear like wildfire. Remaining employees will be looking over their shoulder every day while they try to learn new processes/tools all while silently second guessing their own identity/worth/value as knowledge workers and experiencing survivor guilt over their departed peers. 

Organizations are inherently social and human. Unchecked, AI transformation can erode purpose, identity, and distinctiveness—leaving behind a high-efficiency shell that feels no different from any other. In the worst case, leaders may wake up in a faster, but hollow firm, bleeding any talent that remains. 

The Leadership Challenge: Balancing Technology with Humanity 

The paradox is stark: you need both speed and soul. You need technology execution and human-centered change. Too much reliance on process and systems, ignoring identity, narrative and belief, and you risk cultural collapse. Too much focus on people without execution rigor, and you risk underwhelming returns. 

The leaders who win in this era embrace a third path: integrative transformation, where machines and humans are co-designers of the future. 

What does that require? 

• A change narrative that connects AI to purpose, identity, and meaning — not just efficiency. 
• Leadership that can manage emotional truth, change fatigue, and scepticism, not just process rollout. 
• Investment in a culture of experimentation, trust, and iteration — so AI adapts with you, not against you. 

What it Looks Like in Practice 

• Start small, learn fast: Use early AI pilots to test the interplay of tech and culture before scaling. 
• Layer on change ignition: Don’t just train — it matters how you engage, narrate, and embed belief in your people. 
• Protect the “connective labor” parts: Recognize where human judgment, empathy, and identity still matter (and always will). 
• Design for endurance, not demos: Move beyond one-off AI initiatives to sustained systems, governance, and cultural habits. 

At Prophet, our core offer sits here: we amplify AI transformations by ensuring that it is not just delivered — but believed, felt and owned by the organization. This is human-centered change. We don’t just help change processes. We help you become the transformed organization. 

Read our report, Human-Centered AI: Culture as the Catalyst for AI-enabled Growth, for more recommendations to prepare your organization for AI transformation here  

There Has Never Been a More Important Time for Organizations to be Human 

AI transformation is no longer optional — it’s happening, whether you lead it or are swept up by it. But most will not achieve it in the way that they imagine it. The most likely scenario is that change will be executed slowly, overbudget, and without meaning. You have choices; deliver speed but lose your identity, protect your culture but lag behind in impact or integrate both — becoming faster, more distinct, more human. 

In a world racing toward automation, the greatest prize isn’t just efficiency — it’s being more human than ever. 

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Innovation may spark growth, but credibility sustains it—and that credibility comes when brand and culture are working as one. Once treated as separate, brand—the external articulation of promise—and culture—the internal reality of behavior—are now inseparable. Their integration is essential for authenticity, differentiation, and long-term resilience. At their intersection lies the potential for uncommon growth—growth that is faster, more sustainable, and deeply human. Organizations that recognize this interdependence are better positioned to deliver consistent experiences, inspire trust, and achieve sustainable success. 

Defining the Relationship

A brand is more than a logo or tagline; it is the collective perception people hold of an organization, shaped by every interaction and experience. Culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide how employees work and interact. Brand answers, ‘Who are we to the world?’ while culture answers, ‘Who are we to each other?’ When they reinforce one another, employees live the values and customers experience them authentically. This alignment strengthens trust, attracts talent, and enhances reputation.

Example: Salesforce promises to be a trusted digital transformation partner. Its *Ohana* culture emphasizes trust, customer success, innovation, and equality—making the brand’s promise credible in every client interaction. This alignment not only fuels customer loyalty but also attracts talent seeking purpose-driven work.

Executing the Promise

Brand shows up in expression—design, messaging, voice. Culture shows up in behaviors—leadership choices, systems, daily interactions. When they diverge, credibility is lost, and the promise risks becoming superficial. Employees are often the first to sense these gaps; if they do not feel empowered to deliver, customers inevitably see through the disconnect. When alignment is achieved, however, it becomes a multiplier of uncommon growth, ensuring that ambition translates into performance and perception into loyalty.

Example: Siemens’ brand, *Ingenuity for life*, is supported by cultural initiatives that encourage collaboration, agility, and digital skills. This ensures employees can deliver credibly on its transformation narrative and maintain trust with both industrial clients and public stakeholders.

Culture as Competitive Advantage

Organizations today are not only evaluated on what they sell, but on how they operate and what they stand for. As markets shift toward values, experiences, and purpose, culture becomes a decisive differentiator. A hospitality brand, for example, can only deliver on its promise of warmth and empathy if those values are embedded in the internal environment. Employees who experience alignment between external promise and internal culture are better positioned to embody and extend those qualities to customers, strengthening both reputation and performance.

Example: Patagonia empowers employees to live its sustainability values through activism and company-supported programs. This alignment strengthens its purpose-led brand and builds loyalty among customers. Employees are not just ambassadors of the brand—they are co-creators of its meaning.

Evolving Together

Brand without culture is superficial. Culture without brand risks insularity. The strongest organizations treat the two as a feedback loop: culture informs the brand promise, and the brand promise reinforces cultural behaviors. This dynamic relationship must evolve as markets, technologies, and stakeholder expectations shift. Leaders who intentionally nurture this cycle ensure their organizations remain relevant and credible over time, even as conditions change. 

Example: American Express promises premium service and trust. Its culture empowers employees to solve problems with a customer-first mindset. This loop sustains both loyalty and pride, allowing the company to consistently deliver on its positioning as a relationship-driven brand. 

The Leadership Imperative

Alignment is not accidental—it requires leadership. Executives must act as the bridge between brand and culture, embedding values into governance, incentives, communications, and daily practice. Leaders are uniquely positioned to signal priorities and reinforce behaviors that make the brand real. When leadership embodies the connection, alignment cascades across teams and functions, creating momentum that drives both internal engagement and external performance. In many organizations, this leadership accountability has become the single most important factor in sustaining relevance and unlocking value. 

Example: At Target, CEO Brian Cornell linked the brand promise of affordability with style to cultural renewal. He raised wages, invested in engagement, and embedded inclusivity—ensuring the external promise of helping families discover everyday joy was fully supported internally. 

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