AI enabled is elevating the role of Change Managers, rather than replacing it.Â
Change professionals are rethinking Change Management and exploring new possibilities in how feedback, insights, and human readiness shape transformation. Throughout the discussion, Tim Morton and Pauline Melnyk share detailed experiences and observations on where traditional approaches fall short and how AI-enabled sentiment analysis is shifting the way change practitioners work.
Where Traditional Change Falls Short
Lagging feedback and lack of great insights can sink great plans. Tim recalls being challenged in 2018 by a global CIO who asked why data was not being used to drive change across transformations. This became the spark for building AI-enabled change tools.
Pauline outlines the limits of traditional methods and identifies three main points she wants Change Managers to recognise:
- Limited feedback loops stop the way change can be achieved
- One size does not fit all
- Long gone are the days of manual analysis
Key reasons traditional methods fall short:
- Traditional surveys miss real-time shifts in data
- Key components of the stakeholder voice are often absent
- Interviews take time and not everyone participates in surveys
- Generic change strategies fail to address individual needs
- Practitioners may not have the most up-to-date information
- Cultural nuances are frequently missed
- Manual data processing is slow
Using AI-enabled sentiment tools, you can view data within the first 24 hours of a survey closing, providing faster and more relevant insight.
AI-Enabled Change and the Role of the Practitioner
The aim is never to reduce or replace Change Practitioners. Great practitioners make others look brilliant and often do not receive the credit they deserve. The intent is to give them better tools and better insights.
Traditional practice means spending four to six weeks creating lengthy strategies and change plans based purely on discussions with leaders and PMs. AI-enabled insights create opportunities to:
- Augment practitioners with timely sentiment
- Enable targeted change
- Segment work across different parts of the business
- Direct limited change resources to the areas of greatest impact
Planning remains essential, but listening at scale and pivoting based on real-time insights is now critical.
Capturing and Actioning Sentiment
People feel heard and involved when insights lead to action. This supports psychological safety and enables individuals to be part of the process.
An example was a major M&A integration where sentiment insights helped leaders prepare people, reduce anxiety, and maintain engagement. Segmenting data by role helped leaders understand what their teams needed. This approach created:
- Greater involvement
- Increased engagement
- A movement effect when actions linked to insights
Understanding the Full Change Story
The full change story emerges when practitioners gather data in ways that uncover the voice of the employee and customer. Tim notes that:
- Information is hidden within data
- Humans bring bias to manual analysis
- Safe environments help people share what matters
- Key themes should be the focus, not individual complaints
Natural language analysis uncovers how people like to be spoken to and what communication styles resonate. She highlights three enablers:
- Actions informed by advanced natural language analysis
- Understanding language preferences for communication planning
- Faster processing to support decision-making
This creates opportunities to extract insights at scale and build change plans that align to what people actually need.
Where AI Gets Its Data
Data can be ingested from various sources:
- Historical documents
- Meeting outputs
- Collaboration tools
- AI-enabled surveys
- Ongoing feedback mechanisms
The combination of these sources helps create a more comprehensive change story.
AI provides this understanding more quickly and in real time. You can query the tool in the same way she would query a chatbot, but with outputs trained specifically for change management contexts.
Supporting Middle Managers and Reducing Cognitive Overload
The benefit of sentiment insights as supporting middle managers, customising communications help them:
- Respond more effectively
- Connect quickly with their teams
- Engage in ways relevant to their stakeholders
Leaders are increasingly open to new ways of understanding change and transformation, especially as organisations explore AI more broadly.
From System Readiness to Human Readiness
- Understanding how well the team is doing
- Seeing real people behind the data
- Using sentiment insights to inform wellness considerations
Key Takeaways from the Speakers
Pauline’s key takeaway:
- Linking to humans
- Making work easier through better understanding
- Mentoring teams more effectively
- Bringing project managers and business analysts along
- Helping leadership understand change more quickly
Tim’s key takeaway:
- Exploring different ways of leading change
- Appreciating the brilliance of change practitioners
- Ensuring practitioners have better tools
- Listening in new ways
- Leveraging sentiment as a leading indicator
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