The Ethical AI
Leadership
Project

Something’s missing
from AI adoption.

Hey 👋, it’s Rob from Innovating with AI.

These days it’s easy to feel frustrated with AI adoption and the tech industry. In fact, everyone who cares about the people around them probably senses that something’s missing.

You can doomscroll a million news articles to try to figure out what it is, but I prefer to talk to real people, including the 2,000+ students in our programs here at Innovating with AI.

See if you recognize this:

Notice what’s happening here: These are smart, compassionate, forward-thinking people. They’re not AI boosters, and they’re not luddites. They’re in the thoughtful middle — they see AI’s potential, and they’re looking for a way through.

This new question is unique to those of us who are both thoughtful about the world and curious about new technology. The people who want to use tech to make things better — not to enrich ourselves at the expense of others.

People like us are wrestling with a new problem:

How do I adopt AI at work and keep up with the times… without leaving my standards and values behind?

I’ll give you an example from my own life (and my most important job — being the best dad and husband I can).

I was sitting on the couch with my son (12 years old) and showing him how AI image generation works. We thought up some funny stories and made a few wacky images to go along with them, using AI. We laughed, we learned, we had fun. Later, I showed my wife.

Her response, only half joking: “How much water did that cost?” 😧

My heart sank.

I do not want to be the kind of person who’s callous or careless or wasteful — and the resource usage of data centers is a real worry. At the same time, I do want to teach my son to be tech-savvy and prep him for the AI era. I think that’s my responsibility as a dad.

And I know for a fact that it’s not all (or even mostly) bad: AI is being used for genuine, win-win improvements in business, medicine, education and beyond.

At the same time, the questions I hear from my loved ones, my students and my employees — all of whom are in that thoughtful, curious camp — demand concrete and compassionate answers.

Questions like:

Am I putting my hard work and reputation into the right thing?

Can I embrace the good parts of AI without accidentally aligning myself with people who are ruthless, heartless and (correctly) reviled?

How do I help my team use AI well — without someone pasting sensitive data into a chatbot?

And if I do want to become an AI leader at my organization, how can I do it in a way that doesn’t leave me overwhelmed with 1,001 tools and a million articles I don’t have time to read?

With all the negativity spiraling around AI, you’d have to be a little crazy not to worry. The problems are no joke: AI used to wage war, data centers bursting at the seams, layoffs, and college kids anxious about the future.

And that question — “am I part of the problem?” — gets louder and louder.

And there’s a second question, quieter but just as real: my organization is going to adopt this whether I’m ready or not. Who’s going to make sure we do it right? Right now, in most workplaces, the answer is nobody.

When I hear from real people — the consultants who are helping actual companies (from small businesses to Fortune 500), the executives who are finishing their weeks on Wednesday, and the creators who are building software without writing a line of code — they tell me the answer is quite simple, quite obvious, and quite old-fashioned:

Every organization — big and small — needs someone to take on a new role: the Ethical AI Leader.

But it’s not the kind of thing where a company names an “AI person” and forgets about it. It’s a new type of responsibility (and mindset) that needs to be embedded into every team, every department and every layer of every organization.

Why now? Every company and organization is adopting AI, especially since the models have gotten so much better in the past year. This naturally creates disruption and controversy. The mistake, in my mind, is assuming the disruption is something that’s outside of our control. Yes, there are some things — like international treaties and the inner workings of Google and OpenAI — that a regular person can’t influence very much.

But AI adoption done well isn’t just a top-down thing. The hard work and meaningful decisions get made by the people doing the work every day, in everyday settings like Zoom calls and conference rooms and brainstorming sessions. And most people basically have no idea what to do. The folks in our workplaces need everyday leadership to make sure the AI wave lifts them up rather than crashes over them.

I refuse to simply opt out. I want to be active and knowledgeable so I can play a role in the decisions that shape our future — and I want the curious, responsible and ethical people to be there with me, too.

So my team and I built the program we kept wishing existed.

A way for a thoughtful person to become an Ethical AI Leader in their organization — without checking their conscience at the door.

Before we get into the details, I want to show you what life looks like once that gut-wrenching question — “am I part of the problem?” — finally has an answer.

Fast-forward 6 months.

It’s a regular Tuesday at work.

A flashy new AI tool is all over the internet and everyone’s panicking about falling behind. You glance at it, and within 30 seconds you can tell whether it matters to you — and then you get on with your day. The information firehose can’t drown you anymore.

Then your manager stops by. The company’s rolling out an AI tool next quarter and legal wants a policy, and everyone in the room is either excited or scared and nobody has a process. You do. You wrote one for your own team two months ago, and it fits on four pages.

And the people on your team? They’ve stopped quietly guessing. They know what’s safe to share, when to double-check, and who to ask. A few of them have even started to enjoy it. That’s your work, too.

You’re getting real work done — a long report, a complex project, a messy bit of planning — in a fraction of the time it used to take. And feeling genuinely good about it. No gimmick. No guilt. You know precisely where your boundaries are, and you’re nowhere near them.

Now you’re out to dinner with friends.

Someone brings up AI — the layoffs, the data centers, the latest scary headline — and you don’t tense up or quietly change the subject. You can speak to the hard parts with a clear, fair head. You’re not a cheerleader, and you’re not a cynic. You’re the person who’s actually thought this through. And you’ve become the person your friends and family seek out for straight, balanced advice.

Then you’re back home.

Now you’re sitting with your son, daughter, niece or nephew — just like I was — dreaming up something silly with the help of AI, making images and laughing. Only this time, when the tough questions come up, you have real and satisfying answers.

You know the real tradeoffs. You know which tools are lighter on resources and when the differences matter. And more than that, you’re not just teaching a kid to use AI — you’re teaching them to use it wisely. You’ve become exactly the kind of grown-up the AI era needs.

And the best part of all: that voice asking “am I part of the problem?” is finally gone. Not because you ignored it — because you finally answered it. You’re using powerful technology in a way you can stand behind, completely. You’re not part of the problem. You’re one of the thoughtful, careful people making sure it goes right — for yourself, for your community, and for everyone who looks to you to show them the way.

This is what the AI era can look like for anyone curious and conscientious enough to do it right. All you need is a curriculum to learn it, a community of practice to do it with, a certification that proves it, and the mindset to lead the people around you through it.