Before the bots, build the bridges
Why digital culture is the foundation before intelligence can scale.
Conversations about AI and digital strategy fill boardrooms and conferences. The energy is almost like the early 2000s, when the internet and later social media would completely re-imagine the fabric of our daily interactions. And after all, it’s exciting and fun to dwell in visions and plans of the near future.
But every reverie needs its return to reality.
What I am seeing in my work with many organizations and mid-sized firms is that something simpler remains unresolved: product, marketing, and sales still struggle to share a basic customer note, let alone the digital tools.
Information gets trapped. Teams work in isolation. The systems implemented to bring people together often end up sitting unused.
The result is inefficiency, friction, discontent.
Customers feel the gaps first, when they’re asked the same question twice, when answers don’t line up, when the experience feels fragmented.
Inside the company, employees feel it too: frustration at chasing information, wasted effort, a sense that tools exist but don’t support real work.
Why culture outpaces systems
Technology alone doesn’t shift how people work. And if after two decades of digital transformation we haven’t learned that yet — good luck to us with the next decade of AI! While most companies have learned that new platforms can be installed quickly, the habits, incentives, and relationships that shape daily work are frozen in time.
Progress is not a rollout, relaunch, or upgrade. It’s when a customer conversation is smoother than before. When a frontline employee has fewer obstacles in helping someone.
Transformation only takes root when the culture surrounding the tools supports their use.
Shaping (behavior) change in practice
Bring leaders closer to the work.
Decision-makers should spend time alongside frontline teams before signing off on new tools. Direct exposure to daily frustrations sharpens judgment in a way no dashboard can.Simplify the landscape.
More systems don’t mean more progress. A smaller number of shared tools — trusted and consistently used — creates clarity and alignment.Value collaboration itself.
When departments solve problems together, those moments should be recognized. Not as exceptions, but as examples of the kind of work the organization wants more of.Choose technology that opens doors.
Adopt tools that make it easier for people to connect, share, and coordinate. If a system deepens isolation, it may be efficient in theory but destructive in practice.
The competitive reality
Markets are moving quickly. Customers expect coherence across every interaction. Employees choose workplaces where they can do meaningful work without endless friction. Competitors born digital move faster because their structures encourage collaboration from the start.
What slows many established organizations isn’t a lack of tools. It’s the absence of environments where those tools genuinely support connection.
Where to begin
Follow one customer journey end to end. Notice the moments where information fails to pass from one team to another. Notice where customers must repeat themselves. Notice where employees feel blocked. These are pain points, but they’re also signals.
Each one is an invitation to build a bridge: between teams, between processes, between technology and the people meant to use it. Address them steadily, and transformation begins to feel less like a program and more like the natural way of working.
A different kind of digital future
The organizations most likely to thrive are not those with the grandest technology plans. They are the ones where people are equipped and encouraged to use what’s available together, in service of both the customer and each other.
The future of transformation is less about speed and disruption, and more about building the connective tissue that lets people and systems work as one. Progress, in this light, looks quieter, more human. And ultimately, isn’t that what we all hope for?
Next step: Closing the gap together
I am currently working with organizations and mid-sized firms to help them close the digital maturity gap, focusing on three core outcomes:
Aligning teams and structures so organizations function as cohesive digital enterprises.
Unlocking immediate value from existing automation and data tools.
Embedding digital-first culture that prepares the organization for emerging technologies like AI.
If your organization is serious about not just talking about the digital future, but living it, this is the moment to act. If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and consider subscribing if you haven’t already.