Augment: How Winning Organizations Thrive with AI

Something extraordinary is happening in workplaces around the world-and most organizations are missing it.

Artificial intelligence has achieved near-universal adoption. 88% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function. Yet only 6% achieve transformational results. The tools are everywhere. The transformation is rare.

Why do so many well-funded, well-intentioned AI initiatives fail to deliver on their promise?

In AUGMENT, Steven Christensen reveals the uncomfortable truth: the technology isn't the problem. Organizations are deploying powerful AI tools into systems designed for a pre-AI world-and wondering why nothing changes. They're automating tasks when they should be redesigning work. They're measuring adoption when they should be measuring impact. They're asking "How can we use AI?" when they should be asking "How should work be different now that AI exists?"

Drawing on the latest research from Microsoft, McKinsey, and the World Economic Forum-plus insights from hundreds of organizations across industries and geographies-this book presents a new framework for AI transformation built on three pillars:

AUGMENTATION over automation. The winning organizations don't use AI to replace human work. They use it to amplify human capability-creating partnerships where humans and machines each contribute what they do best.

TRUST as infrastructure. AI introduces new uncertainties into organizational life. Who created this work? Can it be trusted? How do we maintain accountability? Organizations that solve these trust challenges unlock value others never capture.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE over individual productivity. The real prize isn't faster individuals-it's smarter teams and more adaptive organizations. AI's greatest impact comes when it transforms how groups think, decide, and act together.
AUGMENT provides leaders with practical frameworks including:

- The AUGMENT principles for designing human-AI collaboration
- The five failure patterns that trap organizations in "pilot purgatory"
- A 90-day roadmap for moving from AI adoption to AI transformation
- Strategies for building responsible AI practices as competitive advantage
- Guidance for navigating the emerging world of AI agents

Whether you're a CEO setting AI strategy, a transformation leader driving change, or a manager redesigning how your team works, this book offers the insights you need to move beyond the hype and capture AI's true potential.

The organizations that thrive won't be those with the best technology. They'll be those that redesign most thoughtfully. The future of work with AI isn't something that happens to us-it's something we design.

AUGMENT shows you how.