Making Change Stick: Adoption, People and AI
In Making Change Stick: Adoption, People and AI, Helen Kewell explores why so many transformation and AI programmes struggle to take hold, and what helps them succeed.
Too often, adoption fails because the focus stays on the technology itself rather than the people expected to use it. Systems change faster than culture, incentives remain tied to the old ways of working, and employees are left balancing new expectations with outdated measures of success.
Drawing on Muuto’s experience helping organisations navigate complex change, Helen invites leaders to step back and look at the wider system shaping behaviour. Real adoption, she argues, comes when people understand why the change matters, feel safe to question and learn, and can see themselves in the new version of the organisation. When that alignment is built, new tools and processes stop feeling imposed and start feeling owned.
AI adds another layer to the challenge. Adoption fails when AI is introduced as a shortcut to efficiency rather than as a partner to human capability. But when it’s used to remove unnecessary effort, create headroom for learning and strengthen connection, it becomes a powerful accelerator of change. The most successful organisations use AI to enhance confidence and collaboration, not to replace judgment or relationships.
Helen’s reflection is ultimately a human one: change lasts when it is lived, not enforced. Leaders who build psychological safety, reward curiosity and keep purpose visible create the conditions for transformation that sticks - whether powered by AI, process or culture.
Read the full article to explore what it takes to make AI adoption work for your people, your systems and your future.
About the Author
Helen Kewell is a Client Partner at Muuto, with over 25 years' experience in managing transformation across diverse industries and always through the human lens, driving behaviour and culture change as well as enabling new capabilities and mindsets. She is also a qualified and practising psychotherapist with a specialisation in the psychology of life transitions, and a published author on the same topic.