Why AI Adoption Fails (And It’s Not the Tools) | Liza Adams

Why do so many companies buy AI tools and still fail to change how work gets done? Liza Adams, AI advisor, go to market strategist and founder of GrowthPath Partners, explains why AI adoption breaks down when leaders treat it as a tool rollout instead of human change management. In this episode of Tech Unhinged, host Rabia Javeed and Liza talk about the mindset shifts that have to come before behavior change, why making old work faster is only the floor of what AI can do, and how a failure impact matrix shows governance teams where controls belong. Liza walks through how PointClickCare brought security in as a co builder from day one and rolled a brand workflow out to roughly 2,000 people. She also explains how AI search now forms an opinion of your brand before a buyer ever talks to you, and shares the day her Claude digital twin cursed at her. If you lead AI adoption as a CIO, CTO, IT leader or go to market executive, this conversation gives you a practical playbook for moving from AI pilots to real enterprise adoption. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Meet Liza Adams 01:00 What people first, AI forward means 03:26 Five tech waves and why AI is different 05:38 Why companies get AI in the building but not into the work 07:34 The mindset shifts behind real AI adoption 10:14 What reimagining work with AI looks like in practice 14:44 Is leadership the real AI bottleneck 17:46 Why leaders have to use AI themselves 20:03 The failure impact matrix for AI governance 21:33 Inside the AI Adoption Accelerator 24:14 Democratized building and centralized enablement 26:01 PointClickCare case study with security as a co builder 30:32 How fast AI adoption can realistically move 34:00 How AI search shapes buyer decisions 36:26 Is AI making marketing better or just noisier 39:30 Are services businesses dead 42:24 Liza’s AI tool stack 46:51 The day Claude cursed at her 49:03 AI and diverse voices in tech 53:31 The hardest leadership lesson to unlearn 54:45 Wrap up 🎙️ Guest Liza Adams   / lizaadams   GrowthPath Partners https://www.growthpath.net/ 🎧 Host Rabia Javeed   / rabia-javeed   🌐 More episodes https://techunhinged.com/ 🔔 Subscribe for more candid conversations with tech leaders    / @techunhingedpodcast   Tech Unhinged is powered by Code District. [AIAdoption, AITransformation, ChangeManagement, AIGovernance, GoToMarket, AILeadership, TechUnhinged]