Everyone chases models, prompts, and tools. Fewer chase what makes them stick.

The AI era is not just a technology story. It’s an experience story.

If people can’t find their place in the new workflow, they won’t find their best work either.

Quiet disengagement follows. Then exits.

McKinsey’s 2025 view is blunt:

Almost every company invests in AI. Only 1% say they’re mature.

The choke point is leadership, not employees. (McKinsey, 2025).

So let’s talk about the gap. Not the tech gap. The employee experience gap.

Does this make sense?

Micro-story

A support organisation rolled out AI assistants to triage tickets and draft replies.

Response times halved. On paper, a win.

Three months later, exit interviews told a different story: “I’m unclear where I fit.” “I used to solve problems. Now I supervise a machine.”

They didn’t resist AI. They resisted ambiguity. That’s on leadership.

The Experience Mindset

Caring is operational.

Maxwell’s line is classic for a reason. People read care in your design of work, not your posters. They read it in the clarity of roles, the quality of tools, and the fairness of recognition.

This is where Tiffani Bova’s Experience Mindset is sharp.

Balance EX and CX with equal obsession. If you focus on customers and starve employees, both degrade. AI accelerates the loop. (Bova, 2022).

What the research says.

MIT Sloan and BCG show the organization gets value when the individual does.

Employees must feel more competent, more autonomous, and more connected. Only then do the enterprise numbers move. (MIT SMR/BCG, 2022).

Deloitte pushes another pivot.

Stop fixating on raw productivity. Aim for human performance in key areas, including learning velocity, quality of decisions, team resilience, and customer outcomes. AI gives us better data here. Use it. (Deloitte Italia, 2024).

Mortensen and Edmondson warn against shallow EVPs.

Flexibility and perks are not enough. Redesign work itself so people can thrive long-term: growth, connection, meaning, and purpose.

Exactly the ingredients AI can either amplify or erase, depending on your choices. (Mortensen & Edmondson, 2023).

Are you following?

The EX Operating System for the AI Era

Four shifts. Practical. Daily. Future-ready.

1. From perks to purpose-built roles.

Write role charters that separate “human judgment” from “machine scale.”

Show the why. Show the boundaries. Invite feedback. Clarity reduces fear. Purpose fuels energy.

2. From adoption to ownership.

Don’t “roll out tools.” Co-design usage norms with the team.

Let people choose when AI drafts and when they drive.

Ownership raises perceived competence and autonomy – the levers that predict value capture.

3. From productivity to human performance.

Build a simple scorecard. Two learning metrics, two collaboration metrics, two customer metrics.

Use AI for pattern spotting, not surveillance. Discuss trends in retros every two weeks.

4. From solo heroics to system fixes.

Map the top three friction points your people face with customers.

Fix one per sprint. Celebrate the team that removed the drag.

Recognition is a core EX driver and shows up fast in CX.

Tactical week – put this in your calendar.

• Monday 30 min. Clarify the line. What stays human, what shifts to AI. Re-say it.
• Wednesday 45 min. One strengths-first 1:1. One tool “show and tell.”
• Thursday 30 min. Sit in a real customer moment. Watch the handoff.
• Friday 15 min. Recognize a micro-win. Ship a system fix. You get the picture.

FAQs I get from leaders.

What if people game the system?

Then your system is fragile. Add transparency and peer review. Trust rises with clarity and fairness.

What if quality drops with AI drafts?

Add a “human final pass” rule for anything customer-facing. Randomly audit five items a week. Quality will climb.

What should I say to the team?

Try this: Here’s what AI will do. Here’s what stays human. Here’s how we’ll measure performance. Here’s how we’ll learn together.

Then listen.

Make it concrete.

Florin

P.S. Save the date.

On October 23, Live2Lead Gothenburg gathers leaders who want to turn AI into a people advantage, not just an automation project.

We’re at Uni3 by Geely. You’ll hear from thinkers like Tiffani Bova and leave with practical tools to balance EX and CX in the year ahead.

If you lead people, this is the room. If you serve customers, this is the room. If you want both to thrive, this is the room.