Data and tools topped the list of what’s blocking AI, and process came third, but underneath almost every conversation sat something harder to name: people couldn’t picture what AI would actually do in their own job. Eleven of sixteen described some version of it. Skills, the thing everyone assumes is the problem, almost never ranked first.

 

And when we asked what would fix it, more than ten leaders described the same person unprompted, a domain expert inside their own function who is fluent in AI. That person is really three people. Hunting for one is how organizations stay stuck.