Leading with AI Seven Steps to Transform Your Business and Empower Your People Mitch Jackson

Open Introduction

Introduction

According to MIT’s new report, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, based on 150 leadership interviews, a survey of 350 employees, and an analysis of 300 public AI deployments, 95 percent of enterprise AI pilots are failing. Recent McKinsey research shows nearly 8 in 10 companies are experimenting with generative AI. The problem? Just as many admit they have seen no significant impact on the bottom line.

IDC, a technology research firm, says business spending on generative AI will jump 94 percent this year, hitting 61.9 billion dollars. Yet S&P Global found that 42 percent of companies abandoned most of their AI pilot projects by the end of 2024, more than double the 17 percent that pulled the plug the year before. The failures stem not from the technology itself, but from poor workflow integration, organizational misalignment, and unrealistic expectations. Human factors like employee and customer resistance or lack of skills also play a big role.

If the biggest compani

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📚 Leading with AI: Seven Steps to Transform Your Business and Empower Your People

📚 AI in Law- Revolutionizing Your Legal Practice with Innovative Strategies and Tools

📚 The Metaverse Business Blueprint: How to Build, Operate, and Grow in Spatial Commerce

📚 Mastering The Art of Negotiation- Insider Secrets for Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Professionals

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Open Chapter One: The Ground Is Moving

Chapter One: The Ground Is Moving

The room always feels the same when leaders talk about change. People lean back in their chairs, hands folded, pretending to be calm. Inside, there is a storm. You sense it. You feel the weight of years of experience pressing against a world that seems to be rewriting itself at high speed. That is what happens when the ground begins to move. You think you are standing on bedrock, only to realize you have been on a fault line all along.

This chapter is about that shift. The one where the skills you worked hard to master no longer define your edge. The one where the tools you believed would protect your career begin to fade into the background because technology now does them faster, cheaper, and without fatigue. The moment feels unsettling. Yet this is also the exact moment when leadership rises in importance. The true value is no longer in how well you perform a single task. The true value is in how you help others find their place when the familiar breaks apart.

Open Chapter Two: The New Role of Leadership

Chapter Two: The New Role of Leadership

You have seen the ground move. You know the old playbook no longer secures the future. Now comes the deeper question: What does leadership mean in this new reality? If your people no longer look to you for answers on how to perform every task, what do they look to you for? The answer is vision, direction, and courage. Leadership today is not about mastery of the tools. Leadership today is about guiding people when certainty is gone and showing them where to aim when the path feels unclear.

Your people are watching you more closely than ever. They are not asking if you know every feature of an AI platform. They are asking if you can help them find meaning in what those platforms create. They are asking if you see what matters beyond the flood of output. They want to know you can take complexity and reduce it to direction.

Shifting From Manager to Vision Builder

Managers of the past were judged by how well they controlled process. They made sure peop

Open Chapter Three: Empowering the Human Edge

Chapter Three: Empowering the Human Edge

You have seen how the ground is moving and how your role as a leader is no longer tied to controlling tasks. You now know your responsibility is to set vision and direction. The next step is even more important. You must protect and amplify the human edge. Technology can execute, produce, and accelerate, but only people create meaning, connection, and trust. This chapter is about anchoring your leadership in those qualities and helping your teams bring them forward.

The Human Edge Defined

The human edge is not a slogan. It is the collection of qualities no machine can replicate. Creativity, empathy, integrity, intuition, and the ability to inspire. These are not secondary skills. They are the primary drivers of lasting value in business. A company does not thrive because its systems move faster. A company thrives because its people feel connected to purpose, customers feel understood, and teams feel motivated to give more than the minimum.

Your jo

Open Chapter Four: Step One – Define the Why and Wake Up to the Moment

Chapter Four: Step One – Define the Why and Wake Up to the Moment

You now understand how the ground is shifting, why your role has changed, and why the human edge is the anchor of lasting value. The next step is to bring focus. Every leader who wants AI to work inside their organization must start with one essential move. Define the why. Without it, your teams spin in circles, chasing tools and trends. With it, they know exactly why they are using AI, what problem they are solving, and what future they are building toward.

The Trap of Aimless Adoption

Leaders across industries are pouring money into AI without stopping to ask the most basic question. Why are we doing this? They approve pilot projects because competitors are doing them. They install tools because vendors promise results. They greenlight experiments because they want to look forward thinking. The result is frustration. Projects stall. Energy fades. Employees grow cynical. The truth is not that AI failed. The truth is that no

Open Chapter Five: Step Two – Build the Right Foundation

Chapter Five: Step Two – Build the Right Foundation

You now have your North Star. You have defined why AI matters for your business and why your people should believe in the purpose behind it. The next step is to make sure the ground you are building on can actually hold the weight. Without a strong foundation, even the clearest vision will crumble under pressure. Leaders often stumble here. They rush to install tools without preparing the workflows, data, and alignment needed to make them work. Your job is to slow down, set the base, and give your teams something steady to stand on.

The Cost of Weak Foundations

Look at the stories behind failed AI projects and you will see the same pattern. Leaders bought tools that looked promising. They skipped the groundwork. They ignored the messy reality of workflows, data quality, and team readiness. Soon the system was abandoned, the investment was wasted, and employees grew more skeptical of the next big idea. This is not a failure of technology. I

Open Chapter Six: Step Three – Create AI Native Workflows

Chapter Six: Step Three – Create AI Native Workflows

You have set the purpose. You have built the foundation. Now comes the moment that separates companies that talk about AI from companies that thrive with it. You must design workflows that are born with AI inside them. Workflows that treat AI not as a patch or a plug-in but as part of the structure. When you create AI native workflows, you stop forcing new tools into old habits. You begin building systems that flow naturally, where people and technology work together without friction.

The Problem With Add-Ons

Most organizations fail because they treat AI like an accessory. They buy a tool, drop it into an existing process, and hope it delivers results. What happens is chaos. Employees keep following the old process, only now they have another system layered on top. Confusion grows. Frustration grows. People wonder why the new system even exists. This is what happens when you add instead of redesign.

You cannot bolt AI onto a broken or

Open Chapter Seven: Step Four – Empower Your Teams

Chapter Seven: Step Four – Empower Your Teams

You now have purpose, foundation, and workflows designed with AI at the center. The next step is the one that will determine whether your progress holds or stalls. You must empower your teams. Technology is only as strong as the people who use it. A tool that sits unused delivers nothing. A tool used reluctantly creates noise. A tool used with confidence by an engaged team transforms a business. Your role is to make sure your people feel that confidence, take that ownership, and see their role in this new reality clearly.

The Frontline of Change

Executives often think transformation happens in the boardroom. It does not. Transformation happens in the daily choices made by your frontline teams. It happens in how a customer service agent uses AI to anticipate a need. It happens in how a lawyer uses AI to review contracts with greater speed and insight. It happens in how a nurse uses AI to prepare for patient care. These moments add up. They create

Open Chapter Eight: Step Five – Lead with Transparency

Chapter Eight: Step Five – Lead with Transparency

You have empowered your teams. They feel ready, confident, and capable of moving with the shift. Now the challenge is to protect that trust. Your people will only continue to engage if they believe the use of AI is fair, safe, and honest. Your customers will only continue to buy from you if they trust how you use their data and make decisions. Your partners and regulators will only stand with you if you operate with transparency. This step is not optional. Transparency is the lifeline that holds everything together.

The Fragility of Trust

Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. One mishandled data set, one hidden use of AI, one mistake brushed aside without explanation, and trust evaporates. Employees feel betrayed. Customers feel deceived. Regulators step in. Once trust is broken, rebuilding it is slow and painful. This is why you must make transparency a daily practice, not a reaction to crisis.

Transparency does not mean sharing everyt

Open Chapter Nine: Step Six – Measure What Matters

Chapter Nine: Step Six – Measure What Matters

You have defined your why. You have built the foundation. You have redesigned workflows with AI at the center. You have empowered your teams and committed to transparency. Now comes the step that separates stories from results. You must measure what matters. Without measurement, you are leading blind. Without clarity, you cannot prove progress, learn from mistakes, or keep momentum alive. Leaders who fail here drift back into old habits. Leaders who succeed here create a cycle of growth that compounds.

The Trap of Vanity Metrics

Too many organizations fall into the trap of measuring what looks good instead of what makes a difference. They count the number of pilots launched, the number of tools installed, or the number of meetings held. These numbers may look impressive, yet they mean little. A dozen pilots that never scale are a distraction. A room full of licenses that no one uses is waste. A dashboard full of charts that no one acts on is noi

Open Chapter Ten: Step Seven – Adapt in Real Time

Chapter Ten: Step Seven – Adapt in Real Time

You now have purpose, foundation, redesigned workflows, empowered teams, transparency, and meaningful measurement. The final step is what keeps it all alive. You must adapt in real time. AI moves quickly. Markets shift daily. Customer expectations evolve constantly. If your company cannot adapt, it will freeze. If your company adapts as a habit, it will thrive. Adaptation is not an event. It is a culture. It is the ability to see change early, respond quickly, and turn uncertainty into progress.

The Myth of the Finished System

Leaders often treat transformation as a project. They believe that once the system is in place, the work is done. This belief is dangerous. There is no finish line. AI is evolving month by month. Competitors are experimenting every day. Regulations are shifting. Customers are raising new expectations. Treating adaptation as a one-time event leaves you behind the moment you pause.

You must release the idea of completion.

Open Conclusion: The New Future of Leadership

Conclusion: The New Future of Leadership

You have walked through seven steps. Each one builds on the last. Together they form a leadership model designed for a time when the ground never stops shifting. This is not a model that relies on control. It is not a model that rewards clinging to the past. It is a model that calls you to lead with clarity, courage, and conviction in the face of constant movement.

The future of leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room. It is about being the clearest person in the room. Your people do not look to you for technical answers. They look to you for direction. They look to you for stability in purpose. They look to you for proof that they matter in a world where machines perform so much of the work.

The Role of Visionaries

The leaders who succeed are visionaries. Not visionaries in the sense of predicting the future with perfect accuracy. Visionaries in the sense of seeing clearly what matters today and holding steady to purpose tom

Open Epilogue: The Choice in Front of You

Epilogue: The Choice in Front of You

You have the steps. You have the map. You know that leadership in the age of AI is not about the tools, it is about the people. The ground will keep moving under your feet, and the temptation will always be to freeze, wait, or hope things settle down. They will not. The pace will only accelerate. The difference between companies that fade and companies that flourish will come down to leaders who act with clarity and courage.

You are one of those leaders. You would not have made it to this point in the book if you were not. You know the responsibility in front of you. To guide your people with honesty. To create trust where there is doubt. To give direction when others are confused. To use AI not as a replacement but as a partner that frees humans to bring their best.

The world does not need more pilots that fail. It does not need more leaders who chase trends. It needs leaders who know why they act, who prepare with discipline, who design with vision, and who

Open Copyright and Disclaimer

Copyright and Disclaimer

This book, and everything connected to it, including the website, digital resources, and any content we’ve built for Web2, Web3, or the metaverse, is protected by copyright. That means you can’t copy, repost, or reuse this content in any format without written permission. All rights are reserved, and that includes what shows up in spatial platforms, AI outputs, blockchain apps, and anything else that touches this work. Just because something is digital doesn’t mean it’s up for grabs.

Also, although I'm a pretty darn good lawyer, I'm not your lawyer. Nothing in this book creates a legal relationship between us. And let's be crystal clear- no legal advice is being given. This isn’t legal, financial, or professional advice tailored to your unique situation. It’s educational and meant to point you in the right direction. By reading this, using any of our services, or interacting with me or the team in Web3 or the metaverse, you agree to do so at your own risk. That includes acce

Open About The Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mitch Jackson, Esq.

Mitch is an award-winning trial lawyer, private mediator, legal tech advocate, author, and keynote speaker who has spent more than three decades fighting for justice and guiding clients through high-stakes cases. His courtroom skill and jury verdicts have earned him recognition as California Litigation Lawyer of the Year and Orange County Trial Lawyer of the Year.

Mitch enjoys speaking and sharing commentary on new technology and breaking news stories, and he has appeared twice at Tony Robbins’s Business Mastery before audiences in the thousands. He has also been a guest on shows with Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, Peter Diamandis, and others. He has served multiple times as a consulting expert for the California State Bar’s Effective Introduction of Evidence (chapter on technology) and has written ten other books, including Artificial Intelligence in Law, The Web3, Metaverse and AI Handbook, Mastering the Art of Negotiation, and The Metaverse Business

Open Recommendations

Recommendations

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“Mitch is a master connector. He’s humanized his law practice with online content and through social networking. In fact he does such a great job that I’ve written about him in my books and discussed his ideas in my many speaking engagements around the world.”

David Meerman Scott [Author of 12 books including “New Rules of Marketing & PR” and WSJ bestseller FANOCRACY | marketing & business growth speaker | advisor to emerging companies]

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“Mitch Jackson’s keynote was a masterclass in understanding the transformative power of AI in professional service firms. His deep knowledge and engaging delivery left a lasting impression, as evidenced by multiple speakers referencing his insights throughout the event. Mitch’s ability to bridge law, technology, and business made his presentation not only informative but truly inspiring. Attendees walked away with actionable strategies and a renewed confidence in navigating the future of AI.”

Scott Duda- Partner, Ch