Most experts aren't resisting AI. They're protecting something real.
In 2008 I finished a doctorate at the University of New Brunswick. The study is called Commodifying Self: A Grounded Theory of the Senior Year of Undergraduate Study. It's catalogued at Library and Archives Canada.
I used classic grounded theory. That means I didn't pick a theory and test it. I sat with what people actually said and built the theory out of that.
I learned it from the people who built it. I presented my work at Barney Glaser's seminars in Mill Valley and New York in 2007. His foundation gave me an award for it that year. Later I spent six years editing the Grounded Theory Review.
What came out of the study was three reactions to being told to make yourself more marketable. Some people take it in. They shape themselves to what the market wants and give up something they cared about doing it. Some step back. They delay, usually knowing what the delay costs them. And some find a third way through. Slower. More work. But they keep what they built.
Eighteen years later I'm watching the same three reactions. Same pattern. Different pressure.
That's what the current research is about. Credentialed professionals, told to adopt AI before they've decided anything. I'm building it on a live log of real incidents, not interviews.
It describes almost every expertise-led business owner I talk to.
The doctorate was the foundation. I spent 18 years in higher education teaching and faculty development, from my first course in 2001 through 2019. Ten of those years were spent leading technology adoption at Saint Mary's University, OCAD University, and the University of Toronto: Blackboard, Canvas, and Quercus rollouts that meant helping faculty actually integrate new tools into their teaching rather than just switch them on. Add seven years running marketing and advertising systems for small businesses. The combination is unusual: someone who understands both the human side of adoption and the practical side of implementation.
Right now, AI adoption is being sold from two extremes. One side says AI will make everything you've built irrelevant. The other says go all in, automate everything, move fast or get left behind. Neither is useful. What your business needs is a thoughtful path through: one built around how you actually work, what you've earned, and what should never be handed to a tool.
AI adoption must be conscious and deliberate. The stakes are high. Most people selling AI advice are either too technical or too theoretical. This sits in between: research-grounded, practically built, and designed around how expertise-led businesses actually work.
