If you are responsible for your AI strategy, don’t hire an AI Lead.

AI strategy may borrow from the playbook of previous technology implementations. So far as lead, you’ve:

✅ Chosen a tool
✅ Rolled it out to the company
✅ Provided training
✅ Tracked adoption numbers and perhaps tokens
✅ Made a case for and got approval to hire someone to lead the rest of the journey

🛑STOP🛑

This is not that moment. Listen, I have read the job descriptions. Most sound a lot like either:

➡️ A training lead
➡️ A project lead
➡️ An IT architect
➡️ Sometimes a change management lead
…all with minimum years of AI experience required, and almost always positioned at a level that will not make or have input on decisions about AI strategy.

The last role is my favorite among them, but none of them is the best approach in this moment, especially if your organization does not have a very clear, and clearly articulated to your organization, AI roadmap for the next 18-36 months.

Yes, there is uncertainty with AI. Yes, AI is changing rapidly. But at this moment in time, we know enough to determine how AI fits into our organizational goals and how our workforce will change to support it.

What? You haven’t thought about the workforce yet?

That’s exactly why you need to stop before you hire someone. This moment calls for clear, different strategic thinking, not the same recipe we’ve used for every other technology implementation.

🛑 Because the very fabric of our organization systems is shifting
🛑 Because entire roles and functions will dramatically change
🛑 Because your people still want to contribute even as the sands are shifting beneath them

I’ve built and led teams my entire career. I know the feeling of getting approval for headcount and the future relief it promises. But I also know the frustration of hiring a superstar into an ill-defined role and the frustration we both feel trying to fit them into an ambiguous future.

For almost every organization I’ve worked with, talked to, or have been following, this is not a hiring moment.

This moment is about getting clarity on a strategy that looks different than every other one you’ve created. It’s about uncovering what’s uncomfortable and working through it to create the future vision.

If you want to get there quickly, reach out. It’s exactly what we built Talent Rewire to do. We can put you on the right path this year, so you can define the right roles you need for your AI strategy going forward, and get them in place and productive in this budget year.