Imagine you’re a frontline worker. A new AI system has been rolled out on your line. You’ve heard that it boosts productivity, but you’re not sure how it works or what it means for your role.

Would you:
• Spend 20 extra minutes entering data into it if you feel jotting notes on paper was just as effective? 
• Go out of your way to help it learn if you thought it might replace you?
• Proactively maintain machinery that was running smoothly because an alert flagged a potential issue?

If you said no to any of the above, you’re not malicious, or even unusual. You’re a human responding to change, and humans naturally resist change. Whether we’re employees, managers, or executives, we can dig our heels in even further when change feels imposed upon us or threatening.

When that human resistance collides with your digital transformation effort, your new system never delivers the promised ROI. Sometimes it doesn’t even get past the pilot phase. Workers on the plant floor develop shadow processes or simply revert back to the old way of doing tasks.

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