You can have the best orchestra in the world, but if the concert hall has terrible acoustics, the music will fall flat. Culture, trust, and emotional intelligence are the acoustics of our enterprise concert hall. Without them, even the best AI becomes noise.
“Are you automating or solving our dysfunctions?” asks Rhea Ong Yiu.
Tamyra Walker reminds us that meaning-making must stay human. AI shouldn’t replace human thinking: it should deepen it. Just as relationship-building in education cannot be automated, corporate transformation remains a team sport.
This isn’t just theory. Walmart found that AI adoption soared only when employees and customers truly trusted the systems. They built that trust through tools that delivered real value and removed friction, rather than forcing change through mandates. In other words, people embraced AI when it actually helped them day-to-day. The same insight comes from the military: mission-command-style leadership (decentralised execution guided by intent) only works if there is mutual trust and a shared understanding between leaders and teams. Whether on a shop floor or a battlefield, culture creates acoustics where AI can either resonate or just make noise.
Therefore, before unleashing agents, we must:
- Map our values into ontologies and policies (encode ethics and principles into our AI systems).
- Reward collaboration over siloed heroics (align incentives with teamwork, not just individual brilliance).
- Keep AI opt-in & transparent until sustainable computing and bias controls mature (give people control and visibility when introducing AI).
Jesper Löwgren‘s call to action for leaders emphasises recognising the non-technical aspects through business architecture. This is becoming strategically essential, the key to unlocking agentic AI’s potential. Business capabilities can serve as anchor points for governance guardrails. In plain terms: if your cultural foundation is weak, the music falls apart.
What is one step you can take this week to improve the “cultural acoustics” for AI in your team?
The next part of our blog series is coming soon: The symphony awaits its conductor.