12 October 2026
When workers bring AI to work
From private experiment to organisational capability
How employee-led AI experimentation becomes organisational capability—and why responsible adoption depends on recognising the knowledge, judgement and informal learning that make AI useful at work.
By Robert Schouten
Generative AI often enters organisations through employees’ private experiments before it becomes a formal organisational capability. This article examines how organisations can recognise and govern that development without suppressing the practical knowledge, professional judgement and informal learning that make responsible AI use possible. It connects employee-led adoption with AI literacy, worker participation and organisational governance.
Forthcoming publication
This article has been accepted for publication in the State of AI Ethics Report, Volume 8. The full article will be published by SAIER on 10 November 2026. A link to the publication will be added here upon release.