Most AI strategies assume the hard part is getting frontline teams to use new tools. In practice, that’s rarely where adoption breaks.
It breaks in the middle.
Middle management decides what actually gets used, what quietly gets ignored, and what becomes standard practice. If that layer doesn’t trust a tool, doesn’t reinforce it, or doesn’t use it themselves, it never scales — no matter how good the technology is.
Most rollout plans skip this layer entirely. They focus on procurement and training and treat managers as a pass-through. But managers are the transmission mechanism for any operating change. When they’re bought in, behavior shifts. When they’re not, the initiative stalls no matter how strong the pilot looked.
If you want AI to stick in a portfolio company, start with the people who set the daily standard — not the ones at the top who approved it, and not only the ones at the front who are asked to use it.