Lead with Clarity - Setting Ambition in the Age of AI

anna05637
Oct 2
3 min read

Updated: Oct 3

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for the launch of our Tillon Talks Webinar Series. We kicked off with the first session in our 4-part journey on Leading in the Age of AI, where we explored ambition, value, and leadership behaviours in an AI-driven world.

If you missed it you can catch the full conversation here.

And here are some highlights and learnings from the session:

Setting Ambition

We opened by unpacking what it means to lead with clarity in the age of AI. With speed, shadow AI, and knowledge gaps at the top all creating organisational noise, leaders face real tensions between control and innovation.

Key insight: AI is being used more than leaders understand and in ways that are not always clear — by your people, your customers, and using your data. Leaders must establish a shared language and understanding of what they have and need, to steer decisions, balance risks with benefits, and allocate resources wisely.

We asked attendees what was impacting their AI adoption at an organisational level and they gave us their thoughts.

Polling Results:

The biggest factor influencing AI adoption was Value (43%) — confidence that it delivers ROI
Close behind were Skills & Adoption (43%) and Control (36%) — signalling the need for guardrails and capability building

Finding Value (Signals in the Noise)

With that in mind, we started to explore some of the ways and areas that ROI could be tested and measured. Beyond the hype, we wanted to understand where people saw the biggest potential gains and what their biggest concerns were.

Polling Results:

62% believe AI can lift productivity by 20–30% within two years.
54% flagged compliance and reputational risk as their top concern.

We explored the need to take a systematic and targeted approach to AI, testing discrete, value defined use cases and assessing the impact on ROI – the clarity and insight that can be gained from picking one function, one business need, a process that already works and has good data, one clear owner. This does not stop experimentation simultaneously across different areas of the business but it gives a laser focus in each area to really understand what AI could help achieve.

We unpacked what some of the worthwhile signals may be in the business that show areas to look at more closely for AI opportunities – where there is a riser demand for cleaner data and increasing reskilling needs within teams to use available tooling.

Key insight: The real test of AI lies in finding the measurable state changes where something of business value has definitively changed for the better and is not just greater activity or usage — the shifts that impact the P&L, not just hype-driven pilots.

What’s Expected of Leaders

Finally, we looked at behaviours leaders and teams need to navigate AI effectively.

Polling Results:

Leaders want to be recognised as demonstrating Curiosity (92%), showing an openness to experiment and learn.
What they are hoping for from those they lead is innovation but importantly some Discipline (77%) meaning that they use AI responsibly and adhere to guardrails.

These results show what we commonly see amongst our client base, an openness to adoption but concerns around daily application and risks

Key insight: Leadership is about alignment — setting direction from the top, empowering teams bottom-up, and creating safe spaces for experimentation and feedback.

Here to help

Perhaps like the leaders who attended our webinar you are excited about the opportunities AI presents but are unsure how best to set a clear organisational ambition or to unearth real measurable benefit. We would love to help.

Our AI Use Case Labs enable you to quickly get to the bottom of where AI could bring the most benefit to your business.

Learn more about AI Use Case Labs

Looking Ahead

This was just the beginning. We’ll continue the conversation in our next session on 15th October, where we’ll dig deeper into Discovery, Opportunity, and Risk with AI.

Book Your Place