The Wild Thread

Could Action Research Offer a Better Approach to Change in the AI Era?

I recently attended our company’s leadership offsite and one thought stayed with me afterwards: change has never felt more relevant, or more human.

We are living through a period of extraordinary disruption. AI is accelerating at a pace that will reshape how we work, lead, learn, and create value. Alongside that sit geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, and the long shadow of climate change. Organisations are trying to respond to all of this at once while still delivering growth, performance, and stability.

At the offsite, AI dominated the conversation. Much of the discussion focused on opportunity, adoption, and the potential value AI might unlock. There was real energy around how we can embrace these technologies thoughtfully and move forward with pace. Listening to those discussions, I kept returning to this thought: the organisations that succeed with AI will not simply be the ones that adopt the technology fastest. They will be the ones that understand the human dynamics of change best.

Organisational change research has long suggested that people are far more likely to support what they help create. As organisations grapple with AI transformation, that insight feels more relevant than ever.

AI is not another standard transformation programme. It is likely to reshape work itself. Some functions will shrink, others will grow rapidly, and many roles will evolve beyond recognition. Almost everyone will need to rethink how they work, collaborate, learn, and contribute. The scale of adaptation required is enormous.

Organisations often talk about the need for employees to experiment more, innovate more, and embrace ambiguity. Yet experimentation requires conditions that many workplaces still struggle to create. People need time to learn, psychological safety, permission to try new things without fear of failure, and a sense of agency in the change itself.

This is where conversations about resistance to change often become oversimplified. People are not inherently resistant to change. Human beings adapt constantly. We move through changing seasons, technologies, relationships, careers, and identities throughout our lives. What people tend to resist is the feeling that change is being done to them rather than with them.

Agency matters far more than organisations often acknowledge. When people understand why change is happening, when they can influence how it unfolds, and when they feel their perspective shapes the outcome, engagement changes dramatically. The emotional response to change is shaped less by disruption itself and more by whether people feel included, respected, and able to navigate uncertainty with some degree of control.

That challenge becomes even more significant in the context of AI because the transformation is not only operational. It is psychological, cultural, and deeply personal. Many organisations are still approaching AI primarily as a technology implementation challenge. Increasingly, it feels more accurate to describe it as one of the largest people change challenges organisations have faced in decades.

One idea I keep returning to is whether AI transformation requires organisations to rethink not only what they change, but how they approach change itself.

Traditional transformation programmes often assume a level of certainty that simply does not exist in the current environment. With AI, organisations are implementing technologies while simultaneously trying to understand their longer term implications for work, capability, culture, leadership, and organisational design. That uncertainty may require a more iterative and participatory approach.

This is where action research feels increasingly relevant. The combination of action, reflection, learning, and adaptation offers a model for change that is less about imposing fixed solutions and more about co-creating responses as organisations learn in real time. In environments where nobody has all the answers, involving people directly in shaping new ways of working may not simply feel more inclusive; it may produce better outcomes.

AI will undoubtedly transform organisations. The more important question is whether organisations can evolve in ways that allow people to adapt alongside the technology rather than feel displaced by it.

The companies that navigate this well are unlikely to succeed through technology alone. They will succeed because they understand that meaningful transformation is, and always has been, fundamentally human.