AI speeds up whatever culture you already have.

In The AI Shift book I talk about Marcus and his team at Awesome Smiles. Marcus finally sits everyone down to talk about AI, and about three minutes in, Sandra, who’s been with him nine years, raises her hand and asks, “Is this going to replace any of our jobs?”

How he answered that one question decided whether his team would trust anything AI-related he brought in after it.

Here’s what I want you to think about. That question is being asked in your practice right now. Probably not out loud. It’s getting asked in the break room, in the parking lot, in a text between two team members after the huddle where you mentioned “trying out some AI stuff.”

Look around your own team for a second. You’ve probably got someone already using ChatGPT on the side to write emails or sort out the schedule, and they haven’t mentioned it because the last time someone brought up a new idea, nothing happened. You’ve got someone else who’s read one too many headlines about AI taking jobs and is quietly wondering how long hers will be around. And you’ve probably got someone who’s watched five “new systems” show up and disappear and is just waiting for this one to go away too.

Same team. Same huddle. Three completely different stories about what AI means for them.

That’s the real starting line. And it’s why so many owners buy a tool, announce it on a Monday, and six months later are paying for software nobody opens.

Here’s how I see it. AI speeds up whatever culture you already have. If your team trusts you, AI hands them back hours and they spend those hours on patients. If they don’t, the exact same tool feels like surveillance or the first step toward cutting staff, and they’ll quietly work around it. You can’t skip the culture part and expect the tech part to stick.

So here’s something you can do this week. Find the person on your team who’s most nervous about AI and ask them one question: what part of your week would you love to never do again? Then find the person who’s already using it and ask what they’ve figured out. Those two conversations will tell you more than any software demo.

Proactive, Productive, and Profitable,
Dino