5 ways to make your organization AI-ready
episodePreviously titled “5 ways to make your organization AI-ready without a million-dollar rollout -How to build psychological safety into your AI initiative before fear and distrust take hold -4 ways to equip your frontline with AI without losing control of the big picture” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
56 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main problem with AI adoption in most companies?
The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit IHear Everything.com. Welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts? Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Jordan Cooney.
Fewer than one in four companies have redesigned their workflows to capture value from AI. Even as adoption accelerates. That gap explains a lot because most teams have AI and But very few have changed how work actually gets done. So productivity bumps and then stalls. Not because the technology fails, but because organizations don't move with it. Old hierarchies, old incentives, old approval chains, all quietly rejecting new intelligence. I'm Jordan Cooney, and joining me today is Steve Wonker, Managing Director at New Markets Advisors. Steve has spent more than a decade helping Fortune 500 companies navigate AI transformation. He's advised companies like Microsoft and Meta. And he's the author of AI and the Octopus Organization.
Today we're going to talk about why AI success depends less on tools and more on how teams are designed to think, decide, and act. Steve, welcome to the Voice of the Search Podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Really excited to be here. This is a topic that I think is uh uh radically underserved, not just in in my industry, which is search and marketing, but just universally. I don't think enough teams, organizations, and leaders are talking about how to design, organize, and set up their their teams for success. Um, maybe before we even get deep into some of the questions, would love to know how you got into this space and how you got into thinking about how organizations are structured and organized to to be efficient and effective.
So look, I've been in companies, I've been in startups and large enterprises where we had to create things that were new and had to do it really quickly. I've understood for quite some time that the way an organization is set up can be at least as determinative of the output. as the underlying concept. So In my last book, The Innovative Leader, we looked at how organizations can operate in order to be more innovative, not just to create innovation, but in terms of their operations. In this book, we really wanted to bring AI through that lens to figure out how do organizations make the most of technology like AI. What we realized very quickly is that it's, as you said, Jordan, it's not the technology itself.
The technology is already quite good and it's getting a lot better every year. The organizations are changing a lot more slowly than the technology is. So we were trying to bridge that gap.
And you know, one of the things the the interesting concepts, not only that that we discussed as we prepare for this, but within within your book, is that most companies just bolt on AI technology to existing structure or process instead of actually thinking about redesigning or organizing differently based on how the technology can impact. Um What actually happens when teams just bolt on AI? Like I think so many of us, even in my industry, that's what we're doing today. Well well, we create content or we do these technical assessments or we have the we need this report for our our boss and all we just do is just Bolt on AI to do that without ever thinking or questioning what the report is or should we be creating that content or should we be doing that marketing initiative or are we organized the right way to be effective?
So here's some real company data from Johnson and Johnson. J and J recently tallied up the number of pilots for AI that they had going on in the organization. And they had At least nine hundred. There were certainly probably more, but there were at least nine hundred that the folks at corporate could figure out were going on.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main problem with AI adoption in most companies?
0:00–7:51
2
Why does simply ‘bolting on’ AI to existing processes fail?
7:51–13:55
3
What did Johnson & Johnson discover about the value of their AI pilots?
13:55–20:55
4
How does the ‘Octopus Organization’ model change team structure for AI?
20:55–27:08
5
What are the three diagnostic questions to assess AI readiness?
27:08–34:08
6
How can AI create impact in micro‑moments versus large‑scale initiatives?
34:08–42:15
7
What leadership practices and governance are needed for AI transformation?
42:15–49:55
8
What are the top takeaways for making an organization AI‑ready?
49:55–56:39