What leaders and teams ask us about AI adoption
The questions we hear most from leaders, their teams, HR and coaches, after talks and in our inbox.
How can leaders improve AI adoption in their team?
Start with the people, not the tools. AI adoption often stalls on fears nobody says out loud: losing the craft, losing control, losing the job. Give those fears an anonymous place to land, listen without reassuring, then move the team to what it can control: the skills it will need, and one small action each for next week. A Hopes & Fears session does this in about 90 minutes.
What is a Hopes & Fears session?
A 90-minute team conversation for when AI starts changing people’s work. Everyone writes their hopes and fears about AI on sticky notes, alone and in silence. The facilitator reads every note aloud and fixes nothing. Then the team names the skills they’ll need in the next two to three years and agrees small actions for Monday. If you work in tech, you’d call it a retro: it’s the hopes-and-fears exercise from agile retrospectives, built for AI adoption.
Why do people resist AI at work?
Often it isn’t resistance, it’s grief. When AI takes over work people were proud of, they lose part of their professional identity, their confidence in the craft and the familiar shape of their day. William Bridges’ transition model calls this the ending: every change asks us to let something go before something new can start. A 2026 study of a software company a year into AI adoption found the same, naming craft identity disruption and meaning erosion among its engineers.
How do I talk to a team that’s afraid of AI?
Listen before you explain. Give the fears an anonymous place to land, read them aloud, and don’t reassure or promise, because you can’t promise it anyway. Then move to what the team can control: the skills they’ll need, and one small action each. Gallup’s research among US workers points the same way: those who feel respected, and feel their organisation cares about their wellbeing, fear losing their job to AI noticeably less.
Is it only for engineering teams?
No. We first ran it with software engineers, but it works wherever AI is changing the work: customer support and service desks, sales, finance, HR and school staff rooms. It’s for whoever leads that team and the people in it, and for the HR, L&D people and coaches helping them through AI adoption.
I’m not the team lead. Is this for me too?
Yes. The fears sit with the people doing the work, so the session is as much for them as for the leader. Share the blueprint with your lead and suggest running it together. Or start on your own: write down your hopes and fears about AI, notice which of the four pathways you’re in right now, and pick one skill to grow.
How long does it take, and what do I need?
About 90 minutes with the whole team. You need five boards (hopes, fears, skills, happy in 2030, actions), sticky notes and a timer. Notes stay anonymous. It works in a room or online on a shared whiteboard.
Is the blueprint really free?
Yes. Leave your first name and email and we send you the blueprint, a one-page guide to running the session, then three more short emails, one a week. Reply “stop” to any of them and that’s it.
Can you run it with our team, or speak at our event?
Yes. An online workshop (two hours), for leaders on their own or with their team, or half a day just for your team or leadership group, in person or online. For personal guidance through the change, Irene offers one-to-one coaching and Matej offers mentoring. And we give talks at events, conferences and companies. Write to hello@hopesandfears.ai.
Who is behind Hopes & Fears?
Matej Strašek, a senior engineering manager at a travel tech company who spent this year taking about 12 engineers through AI adoption, and Irene Anggreeni, a mental fitness coach, trainer and TEDx speaker who works with the Positive Intelligence method on the human side of change. They first told this story at the Service Desk & IT Support Show in Utrecht in September 2026.