10/16/2025

For AI Productivity Gains, Let Team Leaders Write the Rules

It is time to empower team leaders to make implementation decisions

Corporations are rushing to invest in artificial intelligence (AI). But corporate-wide AI policies alone cannot transform work, according to recent research. For AI efforts to pay off, executives must set clear guardrails while enabling teams to write the rules that make tool adoption real. Only then will AI deliver the meaningful returns that organizational leaders are pursuing.

In the productivity classes one of us (Robert) teaches at MIT, many executives are keen to learn about AI but unsure about how current corporate rules would let them use the new technology. This led to the design of a survey, taken by 348 business professionals — including various industries' senior executives, line managers and team members — about who gets to make AI rules and how AI rules actually function inside their companies. The findings are clear-cut: Businesses have been overlooking the team dimensions of AI governance and implementation.

A striking 72 percent of survey participants said that corporate headquarters should establish overall AI guidelines, but individual teams must set their own rules within those boundaries.

Please select this link to read the complete article from MIT Sloan Management Review.