AI as Culture Infrastructure Reshapes Collaboration and Trust.
How GenAI Teams Redefine Collaboration, Innovation, and Organizational Trust.
From Tool to Teammate
Roland Berger’s Think: Act “Your Turn” warns that AI must not be treated only as a technical layer, it is a cultural forcer. A Harvard Business School experiment cited in the issue compared creativity outcomes across four groups of Procter & Gamble experts:
people working alone
teams without AI
individuals using GenAI
teams with a GenAI teammate
Result: teams with a GenAI member outperformed all others, and nearly all “exceptional” solutions emerged from this hybrid structure.
The lesson: AI changes not just workflows but cultural dynamics. It alters how teams trust, collaborate, and attribute value.
AI and the Signals of Culture
Michael Morris’ framework of peer, prestige, and precedent signals applies to AI as much as to people.
Peer signals: When employees see AI embedded seamlessly into workflows, adoption normalizes. Early Amazon teams integrating Alexa as “another colleague” reframed tech not as threat but as partner.
Prestige signals: Leaders who elevate AI-enabled teams as innovators set status markers that incentivize adoption. P&G’s case study shows prestige is attached to breakthrough creativity, not legacy practice.
Precedent signals: By linking AI integration to past reinventions, firms like Microsoft legitimize transformation. Nadella anchored AI initiatives as continuity with Microsoft’s decades-long innovation mission.
Signals determine whether AI amplifies trust or triggers resistance.
The Human–Machine Belonging Gap
Ethan Mollick at Wharton, cited in Think: Act, argues that AI teammates force companies to rethink “team structures, training, and even boundaries between specialties”. Humans are hardwired for empathy; we project it even onto virtual agents. This creates a cultural paradox: teams feel AI “belongs,” but only if leadership provides transparency and ethical guardrails.
When firms neglect this, FOBO, “fear of becoming obsolete”, surfaces. Employees resist adoption, interpreting AI as replacement rather than augmentation. Left unmanaged, FOBO corrodes trust and accelerates attrition.
Innovation Through Augmented Culture
Roland Berger highlights that AI’s value lies in reshuffling the culture deck. It challenges entrenched routines and requires new collaborative norms.
At Microsoft, AI partnerships with OpenAI are not simply product expansions, they are cultural resets, embedding curiosity and adaptability as norms.
At Netflix, culture decks explicitly define AI as a tool to “free humans for creativity,” reinforcing prestige for innovation while reducing FOBO risk.
At HubSpot, culture is described as a “product” itself; AI-enabled processes are positioned as part of that product, ensuring that technology is owned, not feared.
AI becomes not an external add-on but an internalized cultural infrastructure.
The Risk of Story Collapse
Roland Berger cautions that AI cannot create authentic stories .Angus Fletcher, Ohio State University, argues that AI lacks empathy, a critical ingredient in narrative and innovation. If companies outsource storytelling to machines, cultural dissonance results.
This is why transparency is critical. If consumers detect inauthenticity, machine-generated promises without lived culture, trust collapses. For culture and brand alike, AI must be framed as augmentation, never substitution.
Recommendations
Position AI as a Teammate, Not a Tool. Make AI visible in workflows as a partner, amplifying human capability, not erasing it.
Manage FOBO Proactively. Use peer and prestige signals to show AI adoption enhances roles; reward teams that integrate AI creatively.
Embed Ethical Guardrails. Transparency and accountability must be encoded into culture; without them, trust evaporates internally and externally.
Anchor AI in Legacy and Mission. Frame adoption as continuity with the organization’s purpose and history, not a rupture.
Measure Cultural Impact of AI. Track not only output but belonging, engagement, and trust to evaluate whether AI strengthens or fragments culture.
Bottom Line: AI as Culture Infrastructure
AI is no longer peripheral, it is a cultural infrastructure reshaping collaboration, prestige, and trust. Roland Berger’s data confirms GenAI teammates deliver superior creativity, but only when organizations design signals that normalize adoption, mitigate FOBO, and preserve authenticity. Leaders who treat AI as cultural will unlock growth and resilience; those who frame it as threat or gimmick will fracture trust and weaken brand equity.
