In collaboration withInfosys Topaz
Implementing enterprise-grade AI involves overcoming two significant challenges simultaneously. Initially, it’s crucial to grasp and deploy the technology itself. Next, it’s vital to cultivate a workplace culture where staff can fully leverage its benefits. While there are notable technical obstacles, the human factor can be even more impactful; apprehension and uncertainty can hinder progress on the most promising projects.
Psychological safety—being able to voice opinions and take calculated risks without concern for career repercussions—is crucial for effective AI deployment. In environments where psychological safety is prioritized, team members are emboldened to question assumptions and express concerns regarding new technologies without fearing retaliation. This is essential when ushering in a cutting-edge and immensely powerful technology that still lacks widely accepted best practices.
“Psychological safety is essential in this new AI-driven landscape,” asserts Rafee Tarafdar, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Infosys. “The technology is advancing rapidly—organizations must experiment, and there will be failures. A safety net is necessary.”
To understand the impact of psychological safety on the success of enterprise-level AI, MIT Technology Review Insights carried out a survey of 500 business leaders. The results show high self-reported psychological safety levels yet indicate that fear continues to have its grip. Industry experts point to a disconnect between corporate messaging and actual experiences; organizations might publicly endorse a culture of safe experimentation, but internal cultural dynamics can undermine that message.
Establishing psychological safety necessitates a unified, systemic strategy; human resources (HR) alone cannot achieve this transformation. Organizations must fundamentally integrate psychological safety into their collaborative practices.
Key insights from this report include:
- Organizations with cultures that encourage experimentation have more success with AI initiatives. A significant majority of the executives surveyed (83%) believe a culture that emphasizes psychological safety positively influences the success of AI projects. Four out of five leaders concur that companies that cultivate such safety are more adept at embracing AI, and 84% have noticed correlations between psychological safety and concrete AI results.
- Psychological barriers appear to be more substantial impediments to enterprise AI adoption than technological challenges. Happily, nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents feel secure in offering candid feedback and sharing thoughts freely within their workplace. Nonetheless, a considerable proportion (22%) admit they’ve hesitated to spearhead an AI initiative due to fears of being blamed for any failures.
- Attaining psychological safety remains an ongoing challenge for many organizations. Less than half of leaders (39%) assess their organization’s current level of psychological safety as “very high.” A further 48% report a “moderate” level. This suggests that some organizations might be pursuing AI integration on cultural foundations that are not yet solidified.
This content was created by Insights, the custom content division of MIT Technology Review. It was not authored by the editorial team of MIT Technology Review. It was developed, structured, and written by human authors, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the formulation of surveys and data compilation for surveys. Any AI tools employed were limited to secondary production processes that underwent rigorous human scrutiny.
