Listen to this week’s column:
Dear Idea Guy,
Our healthcare organization approved AI adoption, and the excitement was real. Leadership is aligned, teams are curious, and expectations are high. But now that we’re actually trying to use it, things feel off.
Some initiatives feel unrealistic, like fully automating complex clinical workflows. Others feel insignificant, like basic content generation. A few people really get it, but many don’t. Adoption feels uneven, and it’s not living up to the hype.
How does AI adoption actually happen when enthusiasm doesn’t translate into impact?
— Hopeful in Jamul
Dear Hopeful,
What you’re experiencing isn’t failure. It’s the point where most AI initiatives collide with reality.
The issue isn’t that AI “isn’t working.” It’s that adoption is being treated like a decision instead of a progression.
Approving AI is easy. Adopting it is not.
Right now, your organization is caught between two extremes. On one end, there’s overreach: big, sweeping ambitions like full automation that ask people to trust systems before they trust the process. On the other, there’s underreach: safe, low-impact uses that technically count as “AI,” but don’t meaningfully change outcomes.
Neither builds momentum.
Real adoption follows a different path.
First, adoption follows relevance, not approval. People don’t adopt AI because leadership is excited. They adopt it when it clearly helps their work, saving time, reducing friction, or improving decisions. If that connection isn’t obvious, enthusiasm fades quickly.
Second, uneven understanding is normal. In every organization, some people immediately see what’s possible, while others need proof. Adoption spreads through examples and credibility, not mandates.
Third, the middle is where progress actually happens. Before full automation, organizations need assistive use cases: places where AI supports judgment rather than replaces it. In healthcare especially, trust is built incrementally, not all at once.
Finally, adoption is a learning curve, not a launch. Early efforts should be framed as experiments, not implementations. What did we try? What worked? What didn’t? What did we learn?
When AI doesn’t live up to the hype, it’s usually because expectations moved faster than understanding. The goal isn’t to prove AI works. It’s to discover where it truly fits.
That’s how adoption becomes real.
— Kevin Popovic, The Idea Guy®
WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM? is a weekly column by Kevin Popovic, The Idea Guy®—a trusted advisor to CEOs and leaders across industries. Each edition answers real-world business challenges with clear, creative insights you can use to think differently and lead confidently.
Got a problem worth solving? Send your question to [email protected] – it could be featured in an upcoming column.
Kevin Popović is the trusted advisor behind What’s Your Problem?, the San Diego Business Journal’s weekly innovation advice column for business leaders. Known as The Idea Guy®, Popović helps CEOs and leadership teams solve complex challenges with clarity, creativity, and confidence.
A former Zahn Chair of Creativity & Innovation at San Diego State University and a TEDx speaker, Kevin has led award-winning agencies, launched innovation labs, and guided Fortune 500 companies, startups, and public institutions through high-impact change. As the founder of The Idea Guy®, he brings over 25 years of experience helping executives build cultures of innovation, improve strategic thinking, and generate results.
His work spans design thinking, creative strategy, and generative AI—equipping leaders to reframe problems and lead what’s next.
