The AI adoption double standard

Here’s what we’re reading and thinking about in the news this week:

New data just dropped. 60% of companies say they'll fire employees who don't adopt AI. 75% of those same companies admit their AI strategy is "more for show" than actual guidance.

Read those two stats together.

Fun, right? 😅 

The double standard nobody's naming

A new survey of 2,400 executives and employees just dropped the most honest picture of enterprise AI we've seen. And the headline everyone ran with was the scary one: companies will cut you if you don't get on board with AI.

But the same survey says 55% of companies call their own AI adoption a "chaotic free-for-all." Only 38% of individual contributors even have access to AI tools. And 54% of C-suite executives admit that AI is "tearing their company apart."

So… companies are threatening to fire people for not adopting a technology they never structured, never resourced, and in most cases never even gave them access to.

That's not an adoption problem. That's a leadership problem!

The data shows: Firing people is not an adoption strategy

Here's where it gets worse. Gartner studied 350 companies running AI pilots and found zero correlation between workforce cuts and higher ROI. None. The companies actually seeing returns? They're doing "people amplification," enhancing what workers can do instead of replacing them.

Meanwhile, a survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that 59% admit they emphasize AI when explaining layoffs because it "plays better with stakeholders." Only 9% said AI has actually replaced roles at their company.

Our take: most companies aren't firing people because of AI. They're firing people and calling it AI because it sounds like strategy instead of cost-cutting.

Here’s the question nobody is asking…

So we will! Vote in the poll below and we’ll share the results in the next edition.

What to do this week

1. If you lead a team: Stop asking "is the team using AI?" Start asking "who owns making AI work here?" If the answer is "nobody", you found the bottleneck. It's not your team's motivation. It's a lack of ownership.

2. If you're an employee feeling the pressure with no support: Don't wait for your employer to set the pace. Pick one task you repeat every week. Write down the steps. Run it through an AI tool. Save what works. You just built your first playbook, and nobody had to give you permission.

Are you seeing this double standard at your company? Pressure to adopt AI without the structure to actually do it? Hit reply. We want to hear what it looks like from the inside.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Free workshop next week: How To Own Your AI Assistant (with Obsidian!)

We're hosting Nick Milo (Linking Your Thinking) for a free 75-minute session next week, on June 17. He'll show you how to combine Obsidian and Claude Cowork so your AI assistant runs on files you own, not data locked inside a platform.

If this week's edition hit a nerve, this is the practical next step!

LINKS

For your reading list 📚

• Apple just admitted to a "two-year gap between promise and delivery" on AI and rebuilt Siri from scratch on Google's Gemini. Tim Cook's last keynote as CEO. Big swing.

• Anthropic says Claude now writes 80% of its own code and called for a global AI development pause. Then filed for a $965 billion IPO the same week. Make it make sense.

• ChatGPT crossed 1 billion monthly users, faster than any app in history. TikTok took six years. ChatGPT did it in under four.

• 👀 The tool you use for work research now optimizes which ads to show you. ChatGPT's ad platform hit $100M in annualized revenue in six weeks.

That's all!

We'll see you again soon. Thoughts, feedback and questions are much appreciated - respond here or shoot us a note at [email protected]

Cheers,

🪄 The AMP Team (formerly: the AI Exchange Team)