Chief AI Architect at NYU Conor Grennan: How to Adopt AI Without Causing Chaos

Is adopting AI more about behavior than technology? Today on Digital Disruption, we’re joined by Conor Grennan, Chief AI Architect at NYU Stern School of Business and a best-selling author. At NYU Stern School of Business, Conor builds generative AI fluency across the institution. He is also CEO and Founder of AI Mindset, an AI consulting company that trains professionals, leaders and organizations on a new and effective framework for generative AI. Conor has worked with teams across industry, including OpenAI, McKinsey, NASA, Google, Amazon, and many more. Conor sits down with Geoff to share his unconventional takes on successful change management in AI adoption. They discuss why integrating AI isn’t just about implementing new tools, it’s about changing behaviors, training senior leadership, adapting talent strategies, and redefining productivity. He explains that AI adoption rates are low because AI itself doesn’t teach new skills but rather requires a change in behavior. Simply instructing employees to use AI isn’t enough; organizations need to recognize and address the psychological resistance to change. In this episode: 0:00 Intro 0:21 The importance of AI adoption and change management 0:38 AI is not like normal technology 1:55 AI doesn’t require you to learn anything 3:05 Use cases don’t really work 5:22 Organizational use of AI for managers and leaders 7:12 Train senior leaders first 9:33 Do we need to separate the AI from the person? 10:03 Laws and limitations 12:33 Helping organizations understand AI 14:44 Who is going to win 17:49 Use AI as a tool to attract the best talent 19:42 The framework and how it works 23:40 The story of AI use cases 26:18 Is everyone struggling to adopt AI? 28:42 Are we playing catchup with technology forever? 30:55 How to drive AI adoption and understanding 34:33 The age of AI agents 37:13 The potential and possibilities 40:11 Two types of bubbles 43:58 The autonomous enterprise 47:03 Prompt engineering Connect with Conor: Website: https://www.ai-mindset.ai/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conorgrennan_official/ X: https://x.com/conorgrennan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorgrennan/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCS9HfvYleu3t8MDqsZr8lLA Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@conorgrennan_official Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InfoTechRG