Culture Eats AI for Breakfast: Building Teams That Actually Use the Tools

Alicia Kidd

Founder & CEO

CoCo Noir Labs

Alicia Kidd, MPA, is an AI strategist and founder of CoCo Noir Labs, an Oakland-based consulting firm focused on AI strategy, governance, and security. Over nearly 20 years, she has led enterprise system implementations and organization-wide training programs across healthcare, biopharmaceutical, higher-education, and public-sector organizations. In every one, data integrity, compliance, and user adoption were non-negotiable. She specializes in the change-management side of technical programs: turning policies and tools into habits that hold. She holds an M.P.A. from California State University, East Bay, and an AI Consultant Certification.

Your company can roll out the newest AI tools, like Copilot and ChatGPT, and still watch most of them go unused. The difference between tools that stick and tools that gather dust is almost never the technology. It's the culture around it.

I've spent nearly 20 years helping teams move to new systems, and the people I worked with were often nervous, non-technical, and certain the change would make their jobs harder. What changed their minds was never a better tool. It was being heard, being included, and being shown that the new way added to their work instead of taking from it. That same fear is exactly what teams feel about AI today.

In this session, I'll share simple, human ways to build a culture where data and AI actually get used: how to lower fear, earn trust, and turn "AI is coming for my job" into "this helps me."

You'll leave with a few practical habits any leader can start using right away, no technical background required.