Brandon Van Blerk’s Post

Leading through AI. Jamie a buyer I know well, leads a team in a volatile industry grappling with automation and AI. The board announced a new “AI strategy” and expected instant results. Tools were rolled out quickly, but adoption lagged because people didn’t trust or understand them. Jamie felt stuck between executives demanding progress and a team afraid of being replaced. When Jamie spoke of the gaps, he was explicit about not needing another software demo. He needed to build confidence, judgement and communication. Hemsley Fraser surveys show 86 % of UK organisations rank core people‑management skills as the top leadership priority, while 71 % say #AI and #digitalfluency are critical future skills. Yet 56 % admit their people lack the #skills or support to use AI confidently, and only 10 % strongly agree AI is being adopted with strong stakeholder buy‑in. So when Jamie joined a leadership cohort where he practised communicating AI‑driven change, coaching teams through uncertainty and framing decisions in a way that built trust, he learned alongside peers facing the same pressure, using real data from his own environment. Across his company, more than 2 000 leaders have taken part, reporting high satisfaction (4.5/5) and improved engagement scores among their teams . They saw tangible increases in the leadership behaviours the programme targeted . For Jamie, the real win wasn’t just implementing AI, it was knowing his team felt valued and prepared for the new reality. Want to build AI Fleuncy across your teams? Download our programme guide to find out more - it’s in the comments.