Most experts aren't resisting AI. They're protecting something real.
My doctoral research looked at how people respond when they're under pressure to become more marketable. Some internalize it: they tailor their behavior to what the market wants, make sacrifices, and pursue whatever path signals the right kind of value, even when it costs them something they cared about. Some step back entirely: they avoid or delay, often knowing the cost, but unwilling to pay it. And some find a third path: more deliberate, more work, but it lets them move forward without giving up what they've built. I studied that pattern in 2008. It describes almost every expertise-led business owner I talk to today, now applied to AI instead of the market pressures I first studied it under.
That research 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.
