How should internal communicators win hearts and minds during an AI rollout when the traditional know-feel-do model falls short?
The traditional know-feel-do sequence does not work well for AI adoption. Charlotte Halligan found that flipping the model and starting with the "do" piece was far more effective: giving employees a chance to play with generative AI in a safe, low-stakes environment builds the confidence that then builds capability — a genuine virtuous cycle.
In practice, this means carving out the first ten minutes of regular team meetings for short, fun AI-based activities. The point is not training, and it is not a formal demo — it is simply giving people permission to experiment without pressure. That hands-on experience dissolves the anxiety that no amount of top-down messaging can shift, because employees discover for themselves what the technology can and cannot do.
Halligan also stresses the importance of where the story comes from. Rather than relying solely on central communications from senior leaders, she recommends leaning heavily on managers and people on the ground to carry the narrative. Peer-level voices are far more credible to most employees than executive announcements, particularly when the change feels as personal and uncertain as AI adoption. Explore the full conversation on Listenly.
"It's not necessarily that AI is going to take your job, but somebody who knows AI is going to take your job. So you kind of have to get on the bus or get off the bus."
— Charlotte Halligan, Internal Communications LeaderAbout Charlotte Halligan
Charlotte Halligan brings over 20 years of experience in internal communications, having lived through multiple waves of technology change across complex organisations. That long career means she has seen many "this changes everything" rollouts come and go — which gives her a grounded, unsentimental perspective on what actually shifts employee behaviour versus what merely checks a communications box.
By her own account, Halligan was initially slow to embrace generative AI personally. Rather than treating that hesitation as a weakness, she turned it into insight: she understood exactly what reluctant employees were feeling, because she had felt it herself. When she stepped into a role whose central mission was rolling out generative AI tools at enterprise scale, she was navigating her own adoption journey in parallel with the organisation's — a dual perspective that sharpened her thinking considerably.
The rollout she led was not a contained pilot. It spanned a complex global organisation with highly varied roles, overlapping legislation, and regional regulatory constraints, making a one-size-fits-all communications approach impossible. That experience is the direct source of her recommendation to move away from centrally-driven, senior-leader-led messaging and toward manager-level, ground-up storytelling — because she saw firsthand which approach actually moved people. Her participation as a speaker at the sold-out Barn to Ballroom 2025 event, attended by approximately 70 internal communications professionals in West Sussex, reflects how widely her practical approach to AI adoption is recognised within the IC community.