How to Get Your Team Aligned on AI (Start With Your Leadership Team)

The short answer: you get your team aligned on AI by aligning your leadership team first. Agree on what AI is for, who owns it and what's allowed. Then turn that into a short plan everyone can repeat, give your managers what they need to lead it, and measure whether the message actually landed. Alignment is not a tool rollout. Your people are already using AI. The question is whether they're all pulling in the same direction. The fastest first step is the free AI Leadership Alignment Scorecard: 10 questions, about 3 minutes, and an instant read on where your leadership team stands.

I run a company, and I've watched this play out up close. The technology is rarely the hard part. The hard part is getting a room full of capable people to agree on what we're doing with it, and then getting everyone else to hear the same story.

Why isn't my team aligned on AI?

Most of the time it's because the leaders aren't aligned, and the team is just reflecting that.

The research is blunt about it. In Grant Thornton's 2026 AI Impact Survey of 950 senior executives, 39% of CIOs and CTOs said their workforce is fully ready for AI. Only 7% of COOs said the same. The split repeats on results: 44% of CIOs and CTOs said AI is accelerating innovation, compared with 20% of COOs and 22% of CFOs (Grant Thornton, 2026). Those are leaders at the same companies looking at the same initiatives and seeing very different pictures.

When the people at the top disagree about whether the team is ready and whether AI is working, the team gets mixed signals. One leader is pushing. Another is quietly skeptical. A third hasn't said anything. Employees notice.

How do I know if we have an alignment problem?

Look for the gap between what leaders say and what employees hear. It's usually bigger than leaders think.

• There's no clear plan. In Gallup's 2026 workplace data, only about a quarter of U.S. employees (25%) say their organization has communicated a clear plan for AI, even though nearly half (47%) say their organization has already integrated AI in some way (Gallup).
• The message isn't landing. BCG's 2026 AI at Work survey of nearly 12,000 people found that only about a third of frontline employees say leadership's AI communication is clear. Just 28% see a strong connection between what leaders say about AI and what the organization actually does (BCG, 2026).
• People are figuring it out alone. In the same BCG study, 66% said they get limited or no guidance on what to do with the time AI saves them.
• Rules are fuzzy. Grant Thornton found 78% of executives lack strong confidence that they could pass an independent AI governance audit within 90 days.

If any of that sounds like your company, the fix isn't another tool. It's alignment.

What should leaders agree on first?

Before you say anything to the wider team, your leadership team needs the same answers to five questions:

1. What is AI for here? Name one or two business problems, not "use more AI."
2. Who owns it? One accountable leader, with clear decision rights.
3. How fast are we moving? Pilot, expand or pause, and what triggers each.
4. What's allowed? Which tools, which data and where the lines are.
5. How will we know it's working? One or two measures you'll actually review.

Grant Thornton's recommendation lines up with this: a shared definition of what AI success looks like and clear decision rights at the top.

A simple test: have each leader write the company's AI strategy in one sentence, without talking to each other first. Compare the answers side by side. The differences are your agenda.

How do I get my leadership team on the same page?

Start by measuring where you actually are instead of assuming. Here's the sequence I recommend:

1. Get a baseline. Have each leader take the free AI Leadership Alignment Scorecard on their own. It scores five areas: Leadership & Strategy, Adoption & Execution, Workforce Readiness, Governance & Risk, and Process, Data & Measurement. You get a score out of 100, a stage, your biggest gap and a next step.
2. Compare results in your next leadership meeting. The point isn't the number. It's where your answers differ.
3. Agree on the five answers above and write them down on one page.
4. Pick one problem to solve first. Alignment gets real when it's attached to a specific workflow, not a slogan.

For a fuller version of this with your whole leadership team, see our guide to the AI leadership assessment for teams and how to align your executive team on AI strategy.

How do I explain the AI plan to the rest of the team?

Keep it short enough that any manager can repeat it from memory. A good AI plan for employees answers four things: why we're doing this, what it means for your job, what you're allowed to use, and where to go with questions.

It matters more than most leaders expect. Gallup found that employees who say their organization has a clear AI plan have an engagement rate 15 points higher than those who don't (Gallup, 2026). A plan isn't paperwork. It's what makes people feel safe enough to try.

Then repeat it. One all-hands announcement is not alignment. Bring it up in team meetings, one-on-ones and when you celebrate wins. If people are worried about what AI means for them, address that directly. Silence gets filled with the worst assumptions. (More on that in why employees are quietly worried about AI.)

What role do managers play in AI alignment?

A bigger one than the executive team. Managers are where the plan either becomes real or dies.

Gallup's data shows it clearly. Only 36% of employees strongly agree that their manager actively supports their team's use of AI. Those employees are 1.7 times as likely to use AI frequently, and 7.4 times as likely to say it helps them do what they do best (Gallup). Manager support also shows up in engagement: 48% of employees with strong manager support for AI are engaged, compared with 30% without it (Gallup, 2026).

So equip your managers before you ask them to lead. Give them the one-page plan, the rules, a few real examples for their team's work, and permission to say "I don't know yet, let's find out."

Training matters too. BCG found 72% of employees say skill expectations have shifted because of AI, but only 36% feel adequately upskilled. Close that gap with small, job-specific practice, not a one-time seminar.

What if people are already using AI on their own?

They almost certainly are, and that's not a bad thing. Microsoft's 2024 Work Trend Index found that 78% of AI users were bringing their own AI tools to work. In the same report, 60% of leaders worried their organization's leadership lacked a plan and vision to implement AI (Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2024).

Don't shut that down. Find the people who are already using AI well, learn what they're doing, and turn it into the shared playbook. Your early adopters are your best teachers, as long as leadership gives them a clear lane and clear rules. (See how to get your team actually using AI.)

How do you measure whether your team is aligned on AI?

Measure two things: whether leaders tell the same story, and whether the team heard it.

• Leadership consistency: do your leaders' one-sentence strategies match? Do their scorecard results point to the same biggest gap?
• Team understanding: ask a sample of employees three questions: What is our AI plan? What am I allowed to use? Who do I ask? If the answers vary a lot, the message isn't landing yet.
• Behavior: is AI showing up in the one workflow you picked to start with, and is that workflow getting better?

Re-take the scorecard every quarter and compare. Alignment isn't something you do once. You keep it up.

Where should I start this week?

Take the free AI Leadership Alignment Scorecard yourself today. It takes about 3 minutes. Then ask the rest of your leadership team to take it before your next meeting, and spend 30 minutes on one question: where do our answers differ, and why?

That single conversation will tell you more about your AI alignment than any new tool will.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean for a team to be aligned on AI?

It means leaders and employees share the same answers about what AI is for in your company, who owns it, what's allowed and how success is measured. You'll know it when any manager can explain the AI plan the same way the CEO does.

Why do AI initiatives stall when the team isn't aligned?

Because people get mixed signals. If leaders disagree about whether the workforce is ready or whether AI is working, which Grant Thornton's 2026 survey found is common, employees either wait for clarity or experiment on their own with no shared direction.

Should I align my leadership team or the whole company first?

Leadership first. Employees take their cues from leaders and managers. If the leadership team isn't aligned, any message to the wider company will splinter as it travels.

How long does it take to get a team aligned on AI?

You can get a baseline in one meeting. Have every leader take the scorecard, then compare the results together. Building real alignment across the company is ongoing. Plan to revisit it at least quarterly.

What's the fastest way to see where my team stands?

Take the free AI Leadership Alignment Scorecard. It's 10 questions and takes about 3 minutes. You get an instant AI Readiness Score out of 100, your stage, your biggest gap and a recommended next step.

Do I need new AI tools to get my team aligned?

No. Alignment comes from clarity, not software. BCG's 2026 research found that strategic clarity matters more than which tools a company uses. Start with the plan, then choose tools that serve it.

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Patrick Somers is the founder of Take Control AI, President & CEO of General Air Conditioning & Plumbing, owner of two healthcare businesses, and host of The Human Edge: Winning with AI. More about Patrick.

Sources

1. Grant Thornton, "Without C-suite alignment, AI performance sputters," July 14, 2026. 2026 AI Impact Survey, 950 senior executives. https://www.grantthornton.com/insights/articles/advisory/2026/without-c-suite-alignment-ai-performance-sputters
2. BCG, "AI at Work: Strategy Matters More Than Tools," June 3, 2026. Nearly 12,000 respondents. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2026/ai-at-work-why-strategy-matters-more-than-tools
3. Gallup, "Artificial Intelligence" workplace indicator (May 2026 data). https://www.gallup.com/699797/indicator-artificial-intelligence.aspx
4. Gallup (Jim Harter), "Employee Engagement Remains Flat as AI Adoption Accelerates," July 21, 2026. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/712433/employee-engagement-remains-flat-adoption-accelerates.aspx
5. Microsoft & LinkedIn, 2024 Work Trend Index, "AI at Work Is Here. Now Comes the Hard Part." https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/ai-at-work-is-here-now-comes-the-hard-part