There is a particular stillness in Scandinavian winters.
A kind of soft pause—where the world stands briefly between what was and what can be.
This season, I’ve found myself living in that pause.
Over the past months, I’ve had the privilege of leading our GenAI Copilot initiative. What began as a pilot has grown into a movement—of curiosity, of courage, of people daring to ask: How might our work feel different if machines could think with us, not for us?
This is a story about that journey. Not in metrics or dashboards, but in the human experience underneath.
Starting Small, Thinking Big
When we kicked off the initiative in October, I imagined we were starting a technology program. In reality, we were inviting our colleagues into a new mindset. We asked them to experiment, to play, to trust something unfamiliar—often without the comfort of having all the answers.
There’s something deeply Nordic about that approach:
Begin simple.
Stay grounded.
Let the value emerge through honest use.
And it did.
From hands‑on labs and hackathons to literacy sessions and peer learning, people leaned in. They tried, failed, laughed, got frustrated, tried again. Slowly, the organisation started to realise:
This isn't about AI replacing us. It's about AI giving us back the space to be more human.
What Surprised Me Most
I’ve worked in digital adoption long enough to know that change rarely behaves. But this initiative surprised me in different ways.
People were braver than the technology required.
Superusers didn’t just adopt tools—they built agents, challenged assumptions, shared stories, sparked new micro‑communities. The hunger for learning was palpable.
Community became our engine.
The real magic didn’t happen in slides or roadmaps.
It happened in Teams threads at 21:00.
In someone posting a small win in our GenAI community.
In colleagues helping colleagues make sense of prompts or compliance.
The value was real, even when the data wasn’t perfect.
Self‑reported or not, people felt lighter.
Work felt faster.
Quality felt higher.
Mental effort felt lower.
That matters.
Sometimes perception is the first proof of transformation.
The Challenges That Humbled Me
For all the excitement, we faced our fair share of friction—some expected, some not.
Data access and measurement
We often found ourselves navigating dashboards that didn’t give us the granularity we wanted. It reminded me that innovation always starts a little blind—trust first, clarity later.
Skill gaps and confidence gaps
Not everyone begins from the same place. Some jumped right in; others stood quietly at the edges, unsure whether they belonged in the conversation yet.
Compliance and responsible use
As we scaled, our relationship with risk deepened. The Nordic principle of “responsibility over speed” guided us—steadily, sometimes slowly, but always deliberately.
What Excites Me
There were moments of pure electricity.
Watching a team build an AI agent that previously required three developers.
Hearing someone say Copilot gave them two hours back in their day.
Seeing employees who once doubted their tech abilities become ambassadors for others.
But the most exciting part?
We’re only at the foothills.
The map ahead is largely unwritten—and we get to draw it.
What Scares Me (In a Good Way)
It scares me how fast we are moving—because speed without intention can quickly become chaos.
It scares me how powerful these tools are—because power without humility can mislead.
And it scares me that, in the rush to automate, we might forget the quiet value of craftsmanship.
But fear isn’t the enemy.
In Scandinavia, we treat fear as a signal:
Pay attention. Hold on to your values. Step forward anyway.
Where We Go From Here
2026 will be the year we shift from a pilot to a practice.
We will broaden the community.
Embed AI in more of our daily tools and workflows.
Lean into value tracking—but without losing the human stories behind the numbers.
Strengthen compliance.
Build for interconnectivity, not isolation.
And help every team—not just superusers—discover what GenAI can unlock for them.
Above all, we will continue leading with intention.
Technology may accelerate exponentially, but culture evolves organically. The two must meet each other with respect.
A Final Reflection
Looking back, this initiative wasn’t about Copilot.
It was about us.
About who we are as an organisation when we stand at the edge of the unknown—curious, collaborative, anchored in trust.
And in the stillness of this winter, I feel something quietly powerful:
We are ready.
Not because we have mastered the tools, but because we have strengthened the mindset.
The future didn’t arrive loudly.
It arrived in small steps, soft conversations, shared learning, and a community that chose to grow together.
And that, more than anything else, makes me hopeful for what comes next.
Quiet feedback is appreciated.
An open invitation
This space is for people paying attention.
To how technology shapes our days.
To how work affects us beneath the surface.
To what it takes to stay human while things keep accelerating.
I share thoughtful writing on AI, work, fatigue, ambition, and the inner life that doesn’t always fit into systems. No hacks. No urgency. Just writing that makes room to think.
If that speaks to you, you’re welcome here.
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