AI and Change Management: A New Dynamic for Leadership

For decades, public managers and CIOs have talked about “managing change.” They designed workshops, created communication plans and introduced initiatives with clearly defined beginnings, means and ends. But in the age of artificial intelligence, change is no longer a sequence of events, but a continuous state of being. AI is not just another innovation to adapt to; It is changing the nature of change management itself. As AI makes its way into our public and private organizations, a significant shift is occurring that takes us from linear models to living systems.

Classic change management frameworks – like Lewin’s Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model or Kotter’s eight steps – were developed in a time when change could be planned, sequenced and stabilized. Leaders could resolve old behaviors, implement new ones, and then return the organization to a new, stable state. This approach worked when the…