I'm Lilach Bullock, and AI enablement is the work of getting a team from owning AI tools to using them well every week: clear rules, the right tools, training on real tasks and someone to ask. Most firms skip the plan. Gallup found 44% of US employees say their organization has begun integrating AI, yet only 22% have heard a clear plan.
Buying AI licences is the easy bit. A month later, a handful of people use them every day, most use them now and then, and a few never log in. AI enablement fixes the gap between having AI and using it.
I've been in marketing for 23 years, I've reviewed more than three hundred tools on this site, and I've seen plenty of software bought with high hopes and then left alone. These days I help businesses make AI part of how the work gets done. Here's what Gallup's research shows about the gap, the five pieces that close it, and how I run an enablement project.
The plan gap Gallup measured
Gallup's June 2025 research on US employees shows how fast AI use is growing. The share who use AI in their role a few times a year or more rose from 21% to 40% in two years. Frequent use, a few times a week or more, went from 11% to 19%, and daily use doubled in a year, from 4% to 8%.
Leadership hasn't kept up. 44% of employees say their organization has begun integrating AI, but only 22% say it has communicated a clear plan or strategy for doing it. Only 30% say their organization has general guidelines or formal policies for using AI at work. Gallup calls that a 14-point gap between integrating AI and setting standards for it.
Why tools alone don't get used
The most common adoption challenge employees named wasn't cost or fear. It was an unclear use case or value proposition. People weren't sure what the tool was for in their job. Even among people who use AI, only 16% strongly agree that the AI tools their organization provides are useful for their work.
There's another number in the same research that I'd put in front of any leadership team. Leaders, meaning managers of managers, use AI frequently at 33%, twice the rate of individual contributors at 16%. The people choosing the tools use them far more than the people expected to use them every day. Enablement closes that distance.
The five pieces of AI enablement
Every enablement project I run covers the same five pieces. Skip one and the others wobble.
| Piece | What it looks like | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | Approved tools, what never goes into them, when a human checks the output | A named leader |
| Tools | The few tools you'll pay for, set up on accounts the business owns | Operations or IT |
| Use cases | Two or three tasks per team where AI clearly saves time | Each team lead |
| Training | Hands-on sessions on those tasks, with each person's own work | The trainer, then team leads |
| Support and review | Someone to ask, a monthly check on what's used, and a habit of dropping what isn't | A named owner |
What a clear plan changes
This is the finding that makes the case for enablement better than any argument I could make. When employees strongly agree their leadership has communicated a clear plan for integrating AI, Gallup found they're three times as likely to feel very prepared to work with AI, and 2.6 times as likely to feel comfortable using it in their role.
A clear plan doesn't need to be long. One page that says which tools, which tasks, what's off limits and who to ask will do more than a strategy deck nobody reads.
How I run an AI enablement project
I work with entrepreneurs, service businesses and founders, so my projects are sized for teams that don't have an AI department. The work runs over video, and most of it happens on your real tasks.
- A free call: you tell me what you've bought, who uses it and where it's stuck.
- Audit: I review how the team works now and score the possible use cases by impact and effort, so you know what to fix first.
- Rules and set-up: we write the one-page plan and tidy the tools, cutting the ones nobody needs.
- Build and train: I build the first workflows and train each team on them, using their own work.
- Review: we check what's being used, keep what works and fix what's stuck.
How to tell if enablement is working
Don't count logins. Count tasks. If the sales team writes follow-ups in half the time, or the inbox gets sorted before nine every day, that's enablement working. If usage spikes after training and then fades, the use cases were wrong or nobody owned the follow-up.
I've written about how to tell if AI training worked for your team, and the same checks apply here. If you operate in the EU, my AI literacy training page covers what the AI Act asks of teams.
My advice on AI enablement
Before you buy another tool, write the one-page plan. Name the tools, the tasks, the rules and the person to ask. Then pick two or three tasks per team and train people on those, with their own work. If you're still deciding whether you need outside help to do it, read my guide on when to hire an AI consultant.
If you'd like a hand, book a free 30-minute call through my work with me page. As someone I've worked with put it: "We stopped wasting time experimenting with random AI tools and finally implemented systems that improved productivity."
Frequently asked questions
What is AI enablement?
AI enablement is the work of getting a team from having AI tools to using them well every week. It covers rules, the right tools, clear use cases, hands-on training and ongoing support.
Why don't employees use the AI tools their company buys?
In Gallup's June 2025 research, the most common adoption challenge employees named was an unclear use case or value proposition, and only 16% of AI users strongly agreed the tools their organization provides are useful for their work.
Does a clear AI plan make a difference?
Yes. Gallup found employees who strongly agree leadership communicated a clear AI plan are three times as likely to feel very prepared to work with AI and 2.6 times as likely to feel comfortable using it.
Is AI enablement only for large companies?
No. Small and mid-sized teams often need it more, because there's no AI department. Lilach Bullock sizes enablement projects for entrepreneurs, service businesses and founders.
How do I start AI enablement with Lilach Bullock?
Book a free 30-minute call through the work with me page. You'll talk through what you've bought, who uses it and where it's stuck.