EP 263 AI is the App. Culture is the OS.

AI doesn’t fail in organizations because the tools are bad. It fails because culture is glitchy. In this solo episode, host Susan Diaz explains why AI is just the “app” while your organizational culture is the real operating system - and she shares six culture pillars (plus practical steps) that determine whether AI adoption becomes momentum… or messy risk.

Episode summary

Susan reframes AI adoption with a simple metaphor: AI tools, pilots, and platforms are “apps”. But apps only run well if the operating system - your culture - is healthy. Because AI is used by humans, and humans have behaviour norms, and they value incentives, safety, and trust.

She connects this to the “experiment era” where organizations see unsupervised experimentation, shadow AI, and uneven skill levels - creating an AI literacy divide if leaders don’t intentionally design expectations and values.

From there, Susan defines culture plainly (“how we think, talk, and behave day-to-day”) and shows how it shows up in AI: what people feel safe admitting, whether experiments are shared or hidden, how mistakes are handled, and who gets invited into the conversation.

She then walks through six pillars of purposeful AI culture and closes with tactical steps for leaders: naming principles, building visible rituals, supporting different AI archetypes, aligning incentives, and communicating clearly.

Key takeaways

Stop treating AI like a one-time “project”. AI adoption doesn’t have a clean start/end date like an ERP rollout of yore. Culture is ongoing, and it shapes what happens in every meeting, workflow, and decision.

The “experiment era” creates shadow AI and uneven literacy. If unsupervised experimentation continues without an intentional culture, you get risk and a widening gap between power users and everyone else.

Six pillars of an AI-ready culture:

• Experimentation + guardrails - Pro-learning and pro-safety. Define sandboxes and simple rules of the road not 50-page legal docs.

• Psychological safety - People won’t admit confusion, ask for help, or disclose risky behaviour without safety. Leaders modelling “I’m learning too” matters.

• Transparency - A trust recession + AI makes honesty essential. Encourage show-and-tell, logging where AI helped, and “we’re not here to punish you” language.

• Quality, voice, and ethics - AI can draft, humans are accountable. Define what must be human-reviewed and what “good” looks like in your brand and deliverables.

• Access + inclusion - Who gets to play? Who gets training? Avoid new “haves/have-nots” dynamics across departments and demographics. AI literacy is a survival skill.

• Mentorship - Champions programs and pilot teams only work if mentorship is real and resourced (and doesn’t become unpaid side-of-desk work).

Four culture traps to avoid:

• Compliance-only culture (all “don’t”, no “here’s how to do it safely”)

• Innovation theatre (demos and buzzwords, no workflow change)

• Hero culture (1-2 AI geniuses and nothing scales)

• Silence culture (confusion and shadow AI stay hidden and leadership thinks “we’re fine”)

Culture is the outer ring around your AI flywheel. Your flywheel (audit → training → personalized tools → ROI) compounds over time, but culture is what makes the wheel safe and sustainable.

Episode highlights

[00:01] AI is a tool. Culture is the system it runs on.

[01:30] The experiment era: shadow AI and unsupervised adoption.

[02:01] The AI literacy divide: some people “run apps,” others can’t “install them.”

[03:00] Culture defined: how we think, talk, and behave—now applied to AI.
[04:56] Pillar 1: experimentation + guardrails (sandboxes + simple rules).
[07:23] Pillar 2: psychological safety and the shame factor.
[11:37] Pillar 3: transparency in a trust recession.
[13:57] Pillar 4: quality, voice, ethics—AI drafts, humans are accountable.
[16:33] Pillar 5: access + inclusion—AI literacy as survival skill.
[19:00] Pillar 6: mentorship and avoiding unpaid “champion” labour.
[23:31] Four bad patterns: compliance-only, innovation theatre, hero culture, silence culture.
[25:47] The closer: AI is the latest app. Culture is the operating system.

If your organization is buying tools and running pilots but still feels stuck, ask:

1. What “AI culture” is forming by default right now - compliance-only, hero culture, silence?

2. Which one pillar would make the biggest difference in the next 30 days: guardrails, safety, transparency, quality, inclusion, or mentorship?

3. What ritual can we introduce this month (show-and-tell, office hours, workflow demos) to make AI learning visible and normal?

Connect with Susan Diaz on LinkedIn to get a conversation started.

 

Agile teams move fast. Grab our 10 AI Deep Research Prompts to see how proven frameworks can unlock clarity in hours, not months. Find the prompt pack here.