97%
had already used generative AI
Before any rollout. Private use outweighed work-only use five to one — your people are teaching themselves.
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Evidence-based AI adoption
The problem isn’t resistance. It’s everything around it.
When experienced professionals were asked, just 8% worried about their jobs — this specific fear ranked dead last. The real blockers of generative AI at work were rules, permission and trust. A Human Guide to AI shows you how to fix them.
- Based on an Executive MBA research study
- Survey + expert interviews
- Paperback & Kindle
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What the study found
Four numbers that change the AI conversation
Experienced knowledge workers, asked properly — and the answers turn the usual AI change-management playbook upside down.
59.5%
named data privacy as their top fear
Not paranoia, professionalism. You answer it with architecture — safe tools and clear rules — not persuasion.
8.1%
feared losing their job
It came dead last. Most rollouts are designed around a fear almost nobody holds.
4.01 / 7
social influence — the weakest dial
People were willing. The visible signal from leadership that AI is expected never came.
The science behind it
Five dials decide whether AI actually sticks
In 2003 a team led by Viswanath Venkatesh fused eight acceptance theories into one model — UTAUT, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Picture a mixing desk: push the sliders up in the right combination and people use the thing. Leave one down and you get quiet sabotage.
In the study, the two lowest dials were exactly the two the organization controls: endorsement and support.
5.17
UsefulPerformance expectancy
5.38
EasyEffort expectancy
4.01
EndorsedSocial influence
4.43
SupportedFacilitating conditions
5.26
IntentionBehavioral intention
Free tools
Find out where you stand
The AI readiness check from the book and the one-page Human Guide to AI. Anonymous, no cookies, no login — more tools for teams are coming soon.
AI Readiness Check
Is your organization actually ready for AI?
The 15-question self-assessment from Chapter 9 of the book. Score your organization on the five dials of technology acceptance and see them next to the study’s figures — plus the one thing to fix first.
15questions from the book
5acceptance dials
~3minto your result
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Your result
0Readiness
Study benchmark
Fix this first
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More tools for your whole team
I am putting the finishing touches on further tools that take the approach of the book from one person to whole teams and organizations — free, anonymous and without cookies, like everything on this site.
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The Human Guide to AI
The whole playbook on one sheet — the acceptance & trust model, five guiding principles and the seven-step rollout on the front, all thirteen recommendations on the back. Print it, pin it, hand it to your team.
The guide is also available in German.
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The book
Built on a real study — not a consultant’s guesswork.
A mixed-methods study of the people actually using generative AI at work, the forty-year-old science of technology acceptance, and the one-page Human Guide to AI you can use on Monday morning. Short, sharp, human.
- Part IWhy Humans DecideThe 8% surprise, the forty-year-old science of “will they actually use it?”, optimists and pessimists.
- Part IIWhat the Data SaysThree fears and which ones are real, three potentials, the commitment bottleneck — and where you stand.
- Part IIIThe PlaybookThirteen moves, the one-page Human Guide to AI, the same playbook at three sizes, ninety days to put it to work.
Free · the one-page Human Guide to AI
The whole book on one sheet of paper
The Human Guide to AI distills the study into a single page you can pin above your desk: how acceptance and trust grow, five guiding principles and a seven-step rollout on the front — every recommendation, O1–O7 and P1–P6, on the back.
- Maps every move to the acceptance & trust model
- Seven rollout steps, each with a team tip
- Built for leadership teams and project leads alike
The playbook
What to actually do on Monday morning
Thirteen moves — seven for the organization, six for its people — and a ninety-day plan to put them to work.
Coming soon
The playbook goes online soon
Thirteen concrete moves and a ninety-day plan — step by step, right here on the website. Until then, you will find the whole playbook in the book.
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In the meantime: get the book · get the one-page Human Guide to AI
About the author
Martin Brugg
Martin Brugg has worked in information technology for over twenty-five years — through the arrival of the internet, the smartphone, the cloud, and now generative AI. He has spent that time where technology meets the people who actually have to use it: rollouts, migrations, support desks, and the quiet conversations afterward about what went wrong. He started as an apprentice IT technician, went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business informatics, and later completed an executive master’s degree. This book grew out of his graduate research into how people adopt generative AI at work — a mixed-methods study combining a survey of experienced professionals with in-depth expert interviews.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Who is this book for?
Leaders, managers, IT and project owners, HR — anyone who has to make AI work with real people, not just switch it on. It is short, practical and built on evidence rather than hype.
Is the readiness check really anonymous?
Yes. No names, no email addresses, no IP addresses and no cookies are stored with your answers.
Will there be more tools?
Yes. Further tools for teams and organizations and the playbook with its thirteen moves are in their final checks. Leave your email address in the tools section and you get exactly one email when they are live.
Is it really free? Where is the catch?
There is none. The readiness check and the one-page Human Guide to AI are free — for you and your team. The guide is protected by copyright, though: please do not sell it, change it or publish it as your own. More free tools will follow soon. No ads, no tracking, no selling of data. If the guide helps you, the book goes deeper — and a short review on Amazon helps others find it.
What happens with my email address?
It is only used after you confirm it (double opt-in), to send you the downloads and occasional notes on AI adoption. It stays on this website — not with a newsletter provider — and every email lets you unsubscribe and delete your data with one click.
I own the book — where is my download code?
Printed on the “About the Author” page at the end of the book. Enter it in the download section and everything unlocks instantly, without an email address.
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. The book and the tools are general professional guidance. Always adapt any recommendation to your own organization’s rules and the laws that apply to you.
A Human Guide to AI
Keep the human in the middle.
The research, the playbook and the one-page Human Guide to AI — in a book you can finish on a flight and use the next morning.
Questions, a workshop, or feedback on a tool? Contact me →
Contact
Let’s talk
Questions about the book, an AI rollout in your organization, or feedback on one of the tools? Send me a message — I read every one personally.
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I will get back to you personally, usually within a few days.