In 2023, Gartner found that 79% of business strategists considered the use of AI to be crucial for their company’s success in the next two years. However, AI had only been integrated into daily operations in 20% of cases. It turns out that successful implementation of AI hinges on two things: (1) what AI can actually do – which is improving rapidly – and (2) the willingness of people to genuinely integrate AI into their work.

In the February 2025 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Julian De Freitas, Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School, describes five obstacles to successful implementation and how to address them. What he describes is fully aligned with what we at Hi Automation experience during our implementations:

  1. AI is too opaque – a “black box.”
  2. AI has no emotions
  3. AI is not sufficiently flexible
  4. AI is too autonomous
  5. People prefer interaction with people

On top of that, there is the general concern that the introduction of AI will come at the expense of jobs. That there is a growing risk of data being used with malicious intent. And that roughly half of people believe a day will come when AI will attack humanity. Implementing AI within this general context is already a major challenge. And on top of that, the aforementioned obstacles must also be addressed in any specific company implementation.

That humans must be at the center of AI implementation and continued use is therefore evident. Being in close contact from the start and deeply understanding the underlying emotions and needs is crucial. Addressing these effectively is no easy task. An explanation in the context of an obstacle may be logically sound in itself, but may actually have the opposite effect and increase resistance.

This post is meant to point out these issues to you, not to delve into them further. The subject is too complex for that. The HBR article gives you an initial, somewhat deeper impression. Together with our subsidiary Hi automation, we at Axisto Group have the knowledge and on-the-ground experience and are happy to support you further.

Additional reading: How to achieve sustainable change at speed?