While many organizations are eager to explore how AI can transform their business, its success will hinge not on tools, but on how well people embrace them. This shift requires a different kind of leadership rooted in empathy, curiosity and intentionality. Successful AI adoption requires a carefully thought-out framework, which is where the “four E’s” come in. 1) Evangelism – inspiring through trust and vision. Before employees adopt AI, they need to understand why it matters to them. Use meaningful metrics like DORA or cycle time improvements to demonstrate value without pressure. When done with transparency, this builds trust and fosters a high-performance culture grounded in clarity, not fear. Enablement – empowering people with empathy. Empathetic leaders recognize this and build enablement strategies that give teams space to learn, experiment and ask questions without judgment. 3) Enforcement – aligning people around shared goals. Enforcement is about creating alignment through clarity, fairness and context. Set realistic expectations, define measurable goals and make progress visible across the organization. Performance data can motivate, but only when it’s shared transparently, framed with context and used to lift people up, not call them out. 4) Experimentation – creating safe spaces for innovation. Small experiments lead to big breakthroughs. A culture of experimentation values curiosity as much as execution. Empathy and experimentation go hand in hand. One empowers the other. By embedding empathy into structure and using metrics to illuminate progress rather than pressure outcomes, teams become more adaptable and resilient. When people feel supported and empowered, change becomes not only possible, but scalable. That’s where AI’s true potential begins to take shape.