There’s a wealth of information circling about what makes a good AI tool, how to install them, and how to use them effectively within an organization. Everyone is focused on the tools themselves: which are the right ones to choose, how to use them, and how to set them up. But as with most new technologies, we often overlook the most important factor: the people who will be using them. Very few companies are focused on the people and how they feel about the tools they’re going to interact with and adopt.

Transformation and adoption best practices continue to show that it doesn’t matter how much money you spend on a tool or a technology system; if the end users don’t adopt it, use it, and embrace it, it’s ultimately worth nothing. Adoption of technology systems is traditionally focused on helping employees to understand what they are doing in the new system, why they are doing it, how it will change their job, and what the benefit of that change brings to them and the organization as a whole. This allows employees to engage with a new tool, know where to get more information, and feel confident using it.

There is something unique, though, when it comes to an AI project: trust. With AI, we are often asking colleagues to use a tool to improve their jobs, teach that tool how to do their jobs, or use a tool to potentially look for ways to replace their jobs, so they can focus on other high-value-add activities. Employees need to have trust in their organization, trust in their leaders, and trust in the overall process for this to work. When a company says they will not use AI to replace employees, employees need to know they are being honest.

Unfortunately, trust is not something that we can build in one day. It’s something that takes months and even years of direct action. Research by Gallup, a global analytics and advisory company focused on workplace research, found that “only 23 percent of U.S. employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization.”1 That creates a big hill for many companies to climb as they begin to build trust with their employees.

Trust echoes in the things that we say, the actions we take, and all aspects of the culture of an organization. Many companies may have an uphill battle to build trust in their employee base, which will be key to successful AI implementations.

There are three key ways that organizations can build trust with their employees:

1. Communication

Communication is one of the most important and most overlooked areas of corporate culture. For employees to trust their organization, the communications they receive must be clear and authentic. Employees know when leaders are not being honest or not sharing the full set of information.

Communication also needs to be a two-way street, sharing with employees, but also listening to them so that they feel seen and heard. Gallup research shows that “employees who say their manager is always willing to listen to work-related problems are 4.2 times as likely to strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization.”1

2. Consistency

When organizations take actions, they need to be consistent, so that every employee feels that they are being treated fairly. It is important that everyone feels that they have a fair shot at promotions, development opportunities, and, when needed, that discipline is consistently applied. The organization also needs to do what they say they will and be consistent in their actions so employees can trust that what is shared at a strategic level will play out in day-to-day activities.

The Stanford Social Innovation Review notes in an article on how organizations build trust that, “If your action or decision turns out to be a mistake, own it. People see what’s happening, even if they don’t say it. It may be hard in those moments to not get defensive or shift the focus from impact to intentions. But it is in these moments when there is real opportunity to build trust.”2

3. Safety

Employees want leaders who make them feel safe within the organization and within their teams. They want to be safe to share their opinions without fear of repercussions. This echoes the earlier point around communication and whether they can share in a two-way format. Safety also applies to workplace deliverables and processes. Are employees safe to explore new paths forward that may lead to potential rework or failure? Finally, are they safe with their managers and peers to know that those colleagues have their back and offer the best intentions for them as they work through development or other challenges that teams face?

Only when an organization has created a culture of trust, good communication, consistent actions, and employee safety will it be able to successfully implement projects based on mutual trust, like an AI implementation. For that employee to teach a machine to do their job, trust is the key factor in the relationship. This will alleviate their fears as they know the company has created an environment that supports them.

An article by Harvard Business Review on the neuroscience of trust tells us that “the effect of trust on self-reported work performance was powerful. Respondents whose companies were in the top quartile indicated they had 106 percent more energy and were 76 percent more engaged at work than respondents whose firms were in the bottom quartile. They also reported being 50 percent more productive, which is consistent with our objective measures of productivity from studies we have done with employees at work.”3

Trust is the secret sauce for corporate culture, especially when it comes to AI, but it is more than words on the wall. Trust is built with everyday actions between employees and their leadership.