In 2025, I said the AI adoption crisis would not be a technology problem. It would be a people problem. In 2026, BCG, McKinsey, MIT, and Gartner confirmed it with their own data.

In this solo episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell walks through the three calls she made in 2025 — and the independent data that confirmed every one of them. Then she names the three patterns she is watching for the next 12 months.

TOPICS COVERED:

• Why the 70% transformation failure rate has held for two decades — and why GenAI is accelerating it

• MIT NANDA: 95% of GenAI pilots delivering zero measurable ROI

• Gartner: predicted 30% abandonment, actual came in at over 50%

• BCG AI Radar 2026: 72% of CEOs now own AI decisions, 50% believe their job depends on it

• Pattern 1: The governance gap will separate scalers from stallers

• Pattern 2: The measurement crisis will force a reckoning

• Pattern 3: Trust becomes the adoption currency

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Welcome and Show Introduction

(00:18) The Adoption Gap Crisis Explained

(01:05) Why the Failure Is Human, Not Technological

(01:35) The Adoption Gap as the Real Crisis

(01:54) Training Is What You Pay For, Adoption Is What You Get

(02:31) MIT NANDA — 95% of GenAI Pilots Fail

(03:00) The Acceleration Thesis — 70% to 95%

(03:15) Three Patterns for the Next 12 Months

(03:18) Pattern 1 — The Governance Gap

(04:02) Pattern 2 — The Measurement Crisis

(04:50) Gartner — The 30% to 50% Abandonment Reality

(05:20) BCG AI Radar 2026 — CEO Accountability Shift

(06:50) Pattern 3 — Trust as the Adoption Currency

(07:43) The Pattern I've Watched for 48 Years

(08:34) Get the Book and Work With Me

(09:30) Closing — Mind the Gap

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ABOUT DONNA P. MITCHELL:

Founder of The Transformation Authority™ and CEO of Mitchell Universal Network LLC. Official Member of Forbes Business Council. 48 years of Fortune 500 experience across 5 industries, enabling 150,000+ professionals.

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Three financial services leaders. 77 combined years across fintech, insurance, and commercial banking. They have never met, never compared notes, and never coordinated a message. And they all arrived at the same conclusion: AI adoption in financial services fails when governance, people, and experience are treated as afterthoughts. 

In this compilation episode of Pivoting to Technology Adoption, host Donna P. Mitchell brings together the sharpest moments from three conversations that independently validated her 70%

TOPICS COVERED:

•        Why AI is "a sociopath with no understanding of

•        Why governance is THE key player in AI adoption for

•        Why AI will not replace commercial lenders — there is

•        How "agency equals bias" when amplified

•        Why 30 years of industry expertise cannot be replaced —

•        How vibe coding reduced fintech development from 125

•        Why executives who invest in AI now will see ROI by

•        The audit, compliance, and interoperability gaps nobody

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Welcome and Introduction

(00:27) The 70% Failure Rate and Behavior Change — Jeff Mahony

(02:33) AI Is a Sociopath — Jeff Mahony

(04:01) Human Oversight and Anomaly Management — Jeff Mahony

(04:46) Audit, Compliance, and the Governance Gap

(06:21) Why Enterprises Fail at AI — Srinath Chandramohan

(08:27) Governance Is the Key Player — Srinath Chandramohan

(08:45) 30 Years of Expertise Cannot Be Replaced — Srinath Chandramohan

(11:18) Executives Must Invest in AI Now — Srinath Chandramohan

(12:47) Vibe Coding: 125 Hours to 25 Hours — Walt Postlewait

(17:03) Technology Adoption Failure: $200K+ Lost — Walt Postlewait

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FEATURING:

Jeff Mahony is Co-Founder of RYT and Save Daily Holdings with more than 30 years building scalable financial systems. He is the voice behind the "AI is a sociopath" framework for responsible AI governance. (EP101)

Srinath Chandramohan is a Senior Manager at EY with 17+ years driving enterprise transformation in regulated industries. He advises executive stakeholders on insurance modernization, AI adoption, and governance frameworks. (EP104)

Walt Postlewait is Co-Founder of Portfolio Watch and Chief Credit Officer at MStreetX. With 30+ years in commercial banking and CDFI leadership, he grew Craft3 lending from $14M to $55M and deployed $600M+ to underserved communities. (EP105)

ABOUT DONNA P. MITCHELL:

Founder of The Transformation Authority™ and CEO of Mitchell Universal Network LLC. Official Member of Forbes Business Council. 48 years of Fortune 500 experience across 5 industries, enabling 150,000+ professionals.

GET THE BOOK:

Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap

amazon.com/dp/B0GP3CWH2H

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YouTube:

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Official Member of Forbes Business Council

Adoption gaps are not technology problems. They are

TOPICS COVERED:

•        Why adoption gaps are really leadership gaps and

•        The CRAFT Agilities Framework™ — the leadership system

•        What a real enterprise platform failure looks like from

•        Why chasing AI before fixing the experience is a costly

•        How SMBs can use AI as a business intelligence tool

•        Contact center modernization: culture, metrics, and

•        Healthcare AI: where it is advancing and where legacy

•        

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Welcome and Introduction

(02:55) Customer Experience as a Business Discipline

(04:05) AI in the Contact Center: Automation vs.

(06:10) The CRAFT Agilities Framework™ Explained

(08:57) Who Should Be in the Room: Leadership and Adoption

(11:29) Real Client Story: The ERP Failure No One Saw Coming

(13:23) The Next CX Economy: Why Experience Is the

(16:41) SMB Advantage: Data, Agility, and AI as Business

(19:19) Contact Center Modernization: Getting Unstuck

(25:46) The Conversion Rate Question and Culture vs. Metrics

(32:17) Healthcare AI: Legacy Systems, Compliance, and Agent

(39:11) Who Bryant Serves and How to Connect

(40:45) Embrace Waiting Children: Mission-Driven Leadership

(42:32) Nonprofits, Technology Adoption, and the Tools

(46:03) Closing

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ABOUT THE GUEST:

Bryant Richardson is the founder and president of Real Blue

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bryantrichardson/

Website: bryantrichardson.com | thenextcxeconomy.com

ABOUT DONNA P. MITCHELL:

Founder of The Transformation Authority™ and CEO of Mitchell

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Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap

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70% of technology transformations fail. In this panel episode, two Oracle leaders explain why the AI adoption gap is widening — and what enterprises must fix before the next investment cycle.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) Welcome and Panel Introduction

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Pradyumna "Prady" Kodgi is a Multicloud Integration Specialist at Oracle Health & AI and technical reviewer for O'Reilly (Secure APIs). With nearly two decades of enterprise integration experience, he architects scalable, event-driven systems across multi-cloud environments.

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New episodes every Tuesday.

Why do 70% of technology transformations fail? Six experts. Six gaps. Mind the Gap. In this special compilation episode, Donna P. Mitchell brings together six of the sharpest voices from Pivoting to Technology Adoption to answer the question every C-suite executive is asking — and most are getting wrong.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) Introduction — Why 70% of Technology Transformations Fail

(00:52) Allen Martinez — Shadow AI and the Shadow Ledger

(02:56) Rupali Kumbhani Who Should Be in the Room When AI Strategy Begins

(03:06) Rupali Kumbhani - AI Cannot Be Your Strategy

(05:50) Rupali Kumbhani - The Banking CEO Who Asked the Wrong Question

(07:04) Rupali Kumbhani - What Conversation Should C-Suite Be Having

(07:20) Chris Majer — The 3 Variables Framework and the AT&T Transformation

(10:25) Pradyumna Kodgi - Cloud Integration

(20:54) When AI Is Already Off the Rails — Who Do You Call

(21:30) Paul Crafer — AI Governance and the ARISE Framework

(21:59) Paul Crafer — BYOD to AI: The Bottom-Up Adoption Pattern

(23:14) Digs Sen Gupta — Why Data Readiness Determines AI Success

(26:27) Closing — Mind the Gap

FEATURING:

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Integration is not a back-end IT function — it is a business foundation. In this episode, Oracle's Pradyumna Kodgi explains why enterprises that skip integration strategy before adopting AI are setting themselves up for failure.

WHAT'S COVERED:

Why integration should be driven by business requirements, not technology

How data silos are the biggest barrier to AI adoption

Why healthcare has the most challenging integration landscape

How agentic AI will transform healthcare operations

Why you should design your systems for peak load, not daily volume

(00:00) Welcome and Introduction

(05:47) Why Every Enterprise Needs an Integration Strategy

(07:40) How AI Depends on Integration

(08:33) What Does the Right Data Look Like?

(13:08) Why Companies Adopting AI Without a Foundation Fail

(15:24) Use Case: 2 Million Transactions a Day

(18:24) Healthcare, AI, and the Most Siloed Data in Any Industry

(22:17) Retail Trends and AI-Driven Integration

(26:39) The Elements of Successful Integration

(30:14) Key Takeaways: Integration Is a Business Foundation

ABOUT THE GUEST:

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Why do 70% of enterprise AI transformations fail? Because organizations chase tools instead of strategy. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Rupali Kumbhani — Global Strategic Transformation Executive who has led enterprise-wide change at Revantage (Blackstone) and University of Chicago Medicine — about why the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn't the technology. It's leadership mindset, data readiness, and organizational trust.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) AI Cannot Be Your Strategy — AI Is Part of Your Strategy

(00:16) Introduction

(02:41) AI Cannot Be Your Strategy — The Mindset Shift

(04:32) The Banking CEO Who Asked the Wrong Question

(05:38) It's Not Who's in the Room — It's How They Think

(07:03) Active Listening Without Bias

(07:55) Finding Your Change Ambassadors

(09:00) Winning Over Resistant Teams

(12:36) AI Frustration, Burnout and Loss of Trust

(13:41) Leadership Confusion in the Age of AI

(15:08) Clarity in Chaos — Short-Term vs. Long-Term

(19:02) Two Levels of AI Fear — C-Suite vs. Employees

(19:49) The Adoption Model — Education and Governance

(21:54) Data Security — What Keeps Transformation Leaders Up at Night

(22:14) Why Most Organizations Are NOT Ready to Scale AI

(24:02) Nonprofits and Data Strategy

(26:35) Responsible AI — Bias, Algorithms and Human Accountability

(28:51) Implementation Rescue — Global Enterprise Methodology

(31:59) AI Chatbot Launch Through Teamwork

(32:59) How to Connect With Rupali Kumbhani

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How does a news photojournalist covering crime scenes become a med tech storyteller funding nonprofit impact? In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Jason Ellinger, Co-Founder of Beard & Bowler Productions, about how covering an 11-year-old's funeral made him rethink his entire career — and how his company now uses the HERO Grant model to fund nonprofit storytelling through corporate revenue.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) You're Not the Hero, You're the Guide

(00:09) Introduction

(01:58) Jason Ellinger — Who Is Beard & Bowler

(04:09) The 11-Year-Old's Funeral That Changed Everything

(06:31) Deacon Willie Davis and the Community Garden

(08:11) Finding the Why — Storytelling for Impact

(08:52) How the HERO Grant Was Born

(10:31) The Number One Mistake Businesses and Nonprofits Make

(11:05) The 7-Part StoryBrand Formula

(12:23) Why 70% of Revenue Came From Med Tech

(14:40) The Impossible Goal — 50 HERO Grants in One Year

(15:48) The Flip — Team Buy-In and 100% Conviction

(17:15) Pivoting From Nonprofit to Enterprise

(21:45) AI Adoption — Automation for Nonprofits and Executives

(24:01) Master Operating Prompt and Voice Maps

(26:18) Custom GPT for Story Editing — Days to Hours

(28:13) Second-Degree Recon — AI-Powered LinkedIn Outreach

(30:19) Donna's Gut Check — Protecting Your Network

(33:22) Med Tech Storytelling — Nerve Blocks to Ankle Replacements

(35:05) Who Jason Wants to Reach

(36:29) How to Connect With Jason

(36:57) Closing

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Most organizations in critical sectors have significant AI governance gaps. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Paul Crafer — VP Services EMEA at Assessed Intelligence, ForHumanity Fellow, and former Apple leader — about why most organizations are failing at AI governance and what the free, hand-mapped ARISE framework does to fix it.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) Risk Shouldn't Be a Competitive Differentiator

(00:17) Introduction

(03:15) Paul's Journey From Apple to AI Governance

(04:45) How He Found ForHumanity

(05:58) DeepSeek as a Sputnik Moment

(09:01) What Is the ARISE Framework

(10:28) Why ARISE Is Free and Hand-Mapped

(15:05) Risk Shouldn't Be Competitive

(21:59) What Is Temperature in an LLM

(24:06) Nigeria Financial Inclusion Project

(27:53) Nigerian Presidential Committee Partnership

(31:17) Where Assessed Intelligence Operates

(33:52) Will the EU Stand Firm on the AI Act

(36:16) AGI Hype — Do Not Panic

(36:50) How to Connect With Paul

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99% of transformations start with systems and processes — and that's why they fail. In this episode, Donna P. Mitchell speaks with Chris Majer — founder of the Human Potential Project, Amazon best-selling author, and transformation architect behind $4 billion in documented client results — about why most organizational transformations fail and what actually works.

TOPICS COVERED:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:38) The 3 Variables Framework: Mood, Leadership, Systems

(02:55) Why Mood Is Everything in Transformation

(04:55) The Paint Scraping Analogy: Why New Systems Don't Stick

(08:09) Allianz Life Case Study: $10M to $685M Return

(10:40) Why 9-Month Programs Work, Not 3-Day Workshops

(13:48) Action Cycles: For the Sake of What?

(17:02) Navigating Governance Without Waiting Forever

(18:25) Two Types of Companies That Won't Transform

(19:03) The Training Camp Speech: Why Cutting Investment Fails

(21:42) How COVID Killed Innovation and What to Do Now

(24:45) Radio to TV to AI: Historical Perspective on Disruption

(28:06) Reskilling for the AI Era

(29:27) Embodied Competence: Understanding Is the Booby Prize

(31:38) No Learning Occurs Inside Your Comfort Zone

(33:06) Centering Practice and Final Wisdom

(34:27) How to Connect With Chris

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New episodes every Tuesday.

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