AI Shame and Why You Can't Skip the Grunt Work

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Organizations keep telling Johannes Sundlo, the host here, "we've got the basics covered, skip ahead." Then he asks them to show how they use AI, and gets blank stares. This episode is about AI shame, where it comes from, and the one step you can't skip.

In this episode:

• AI shame, what it looks like and why it's more common in 2026 than 2025
• The pattern behind it. Buyers say "we're proficient, go straight to processes," but the proficiency is a sliver of what the models can do
• Why this shows up most in leadership teams, and why leaders who skip the grunt work can't set credible AI expectations for their organization
• The missing step. You can't jump to agentic processes before you've done the unglamorous work of learning what the model can do
• Educate everyone, including truck drivers without computers, because employees are already getting AI advice on salary and managers in their spare time
• Why being practical beats strategic-only thinking in AI adoption right now
• Lessons from roughly 110 workshops this winter and spring, and why Johannes is scaling that down