Operational excellence is therefore necessary, but not sufficient, to change this trust. Only consistently positive experiences can ensure that narratives change sustainably. If this doesn’t happen, even a successful project will continue to be interpreted as an exception and not as evidence of real change.
Die Enabling-Gap
A practical example illustrates the concrete effects of these dynamics: An international industrial group introduces an AI assistant into its ERP landscape. From an IT perspective, the project is a success: It was neatly integrated, rolled out on time and clearly regulated. The message is: “The AI assistant is available. We are AI-enabled”. However, disillusionment quickly sets in in the specialist area: the results are largely generic, the business context is largely missing and the productivity gains are therefore limited. This is where the so-called “enabling gap” becomes apparent: the technical provision is not congruent with actual, business-effective use.
While the IT project is formally completed, the actual work begins for the department. External support is necessary to transfer the AI assistant into the specific business context – a role that, from the department’s perspective, should actually lie with internal IT. It is organizationally understandable to see the department as responsible for the use of content. However, this is counterproductive for IT that wants to be perceived as an enabler. Because this role doesn’t end with providing technology – it goes beyond that.
In this respect, experiences like these reinforce the existing narrative of IT delivering technology but leaving value creation to others. It is precisely in this environment that shadow AI can grow and thrive – not as an exception, but as an obvious alternative for departments that are looking for quick and effective solutions.
5 levers for a new governance narrative
The perception of IT is therefore a decisive factor in whether governance is accepted and implemented or circumvented. The good news: This perception can be actively controlled through targeted narrative management. This is done in five steps.
1. Make narrative visible: Before a narrative can be changed, the existing one must be understood. What matters is how IT is talked about when it is not in the room. Qualitative interviews with stakeholders provide reliable evidence for this. The focus is not on individual opinions, but rather recurring patterns. Attributions such as “preventing” or “complicating” mark the real starting point of every change.
