Inside the human-first AI adoption trend, prioritizing people and psychological safety over tech

When fear of failure rules, innovation can’t breathe. AI adoption is stalled by culture, not tech, and psychological safety is the real unlock. Alicia Picard, VP of Customer Success & Engagement at tech services company Connext, is building that kind of culture. Her "fail forward" approach centers on thoughtful, ethical AI adoption, with people—not only automation in isolation—at the core.

Flops welcome: "With any new technology or innovation, you really need to allow failures to happen. You have to fail forward," says Picard. Progress, she argues, depends on a culture that treats missteps as momentum, not mistakes.

"If your team is afraid to try something new because of how failure is treated, you’re not going to have an open policy for innovation," she adds. "It doesn't have to be perfect." That permission to stumble creates the psychological safety needed to experiment, adapt, and actually move forward.

For AI's sake: The fail forward mindset shapes how Picard approaches AI: not as a shortcut, but as a tool to elevate human effort. "There's tons of AI out there, there's tons of opportunity," she explains. "But you need to ask if it'll help the audience feel more supported, rather than just automating or implementing AI for AI's sake." The goal isn’t to replace people; it’s to give them room for more meaningful work.

"AI is driving efficiencies and it's helping people stay informed from a research standpoint," she says. Research that used to take hours to gather is possible "within a few seconds" with AI agents. "Everyone's really busy. We only have so many hours in a day," says Picard. In a world short on time, that speed matters.

Stack smarts: Picard favors practicality over flash when it comes to AI adoption, opting for off-the-shelf tools that slot neatly into existing systems. "So many of our platforms have already rolled out AI," she says. "We try to be thoughtful around our tech stack, considering what is available to us already rather than just layering on more and more technology that doesn't talk to each other," explains Picard.

To stay grounded amid the noise, Connext’s internal innovation team briefs leadership monthly, keeping AI investment decisions aligned and strategic. It’s a guardrail against what Picard calls “decision paralysis,” a real risk in a market packed with shiny, overwhelming options.

Think before you paste: Picard is clear-eyed about AI’s promise, but also its risks. Responsible innovation, she notes, means knowing what you're feeding the machine. "Depending on what you're implementing, your information is at risk. It's learning from your information as well," she warns. Without an enterprise version in place, she adds, "you do not want to put proprietary intelligence or confidential information" into the system.