Brené Brown reveals the hidden reason your AI investments are failing

(SeaPRwire) –   Good morning!

Today, most C-suite executives are fixated on preparing their employees for the AI age by teaching new technical skills. Brené Brown argues they’re only addressing half of the challenge.

The billions poured into AI won’t yield returns, she says, if companies fail to invest in the human foundations—trust, growth, and culture—that determine whether these tools actually boost performance.

“I don’t fault the C-suite for wanting to believe it’s all about skills because that’s easier than fostering a deep sense of purpose, courage, trust, and autonomy,” author and researcher Brown told me last week.

Recent data suggests that whether AI improves performance may depend less on how much leaders use it than on the type of culture they build around it. In a BetterUp survey of full-time workers in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., managers with high AI usage in high-trust, high-development cultures saw team performance rise by 6%. Managers with equally high AI usage in low-trust, low-development cultures saw performance drop by 9%.

Across all sectors, leaders who paired AI investments with human-focused initiatives—like building relationships with employees or actively coaching their teams—saw 17% stronger performance in productivity, work quality, and effectiveness compared to those who prioritized AI while putting less focus on people.

This conclusion may sound intuitive. But BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux says only top-performing managers are using time saved by AI to reinvest in their teams—mainly because most are burnt out. That has real consequences.

If companies want workers to embrace AI instead of resisting it as a threat, Robichaux says, leaders need to start by building genuine personal connections.

“The problem is we’re bad at the human part, but it’s forcing our hand to get good at it because it’s the only area left where we can compete,” he says.

His recommendation? Go back to basics. Take employees out for coffee. Check in with them. At its core, it’s all about building trust.

Brown, who serves as executive chair of the BetterUp Center for Daring Leadership, says trust is earned through small, consistent moments when leaders show genuine interest in their employees’ lives.

“These are seen as difficult because they’re time investments,” she says. “But you think building trust is expensive? Try not having trust. That’s going to cost you everything.”

Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Live Media
kristin.stoller@.com