Episode Details

Stephen Forte explores why AI investments are failing and the answer is not what you think. Drawing on the CIA 1944 Simple Sabotage Field Manual and a landmark 2026 survey showing 29 percent of employees actively sabotage their company AI strategy, he unpacks the invisible resistance destroying AI ROI.

• The CIA Manual: How 80-year-old bureaucratic sabotage tactics are alive and well in your AI steering committee
• The Data: 29 percent sabotage rate (44 percent among Gen Z), plus a 30-point perception gap between executives and employees
• The Failure Landscape: 95 percent of AI pilots deliver zero ROI (MIT), with BCG attributing 70 percent of failure to people, not technology
• The Fear Factor: 89 percent of workers worried about job security, 55,000 AI-related layoffs in 2025
• The Spectrum of Resistance: From overt refusal to invisible pretenders, plus the vicious cycle that makes sabotage look like technology failure
• The Solution: Champion networks achieve 3x implementation success. Find the domain experts already using AI on their own

Key insight: The programming language of this era is English. The real skill is domain expertise. Find your champions, reward them, and let your laggards self-select out.

Sources: Writer/Workplace Intelligence 2026 Survey, MIT NANDA Initiative, BCG, RAND Corporation, ADP Research, Aalto University, CIA Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)