AI adoption: Lessons from the inside

In July 2026, Manyone's Martin Redigolo sat down with Conny Ploth, AI Transformation Leader & Entrepreneur, to explore how to turn AI ambition into reality.

Together, they unpacked the realities of enterprise AI adoption and explored what it takes to build alignment, foster curiosity, and create the conditions for AI to deliver meaningful outcomes across leadership, culture, and governance.

• AI is a powerful enabler, but it is not a "magic bullet" that automatically transforms a business. Successful AI adoption depends on people, culture, and execution – rather than just on the technology itself.

• Leadership mindset sets the pace for transformation. AI adoption requires leaders to model curiosity, experimentation, and continuous learning. If leadership remains attached to "the way we've always done it," meaningful transformation is unlikely to happen. Culture starts at the top.

• Balance speed with structure. Organizations need clear governance, leadership sponsorship, and compliant AI tools to avoid isolated pilots and reduce the risks of "shadow AI."

• Empower learning at every level. Deploying tools is relatively easy; getting employees to adopt them, experiment, collaborate, and change how they work is much harder. Success requires creating safe environments for experimentation and continuous learning.

• Question legacy processes. Rather than simply automating existing workflows, organizations should use AI as an opportunity to redesign processes, challenge assumptions, and solve genuine business pain points.

• Measure what matters. Every AI initiative should be backed by a strong business case with clear baseline metrics. Success should be measured not only through efficiency gains or the number of initiatives, but also through business growth, customer satisfaction, faster time to market, better decision-making, and reduced risk.

The session is now available on-demand.