Making AI A Habit - One Micro Shift at a Time
How CPOs can drive sustainable AI adoption through everyday micro shifts
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in on a sprint review with one of my client.
Sarah, the CPO, had brought me in to help drive AI adoption - part of a broader initiative to make their team more effective, efficient, and future-ready.
We’d already run the workshops. Built out the prompt libraries. Set OKRs.
But culture? Culture is slippery.
It doesn’t shift just because the CPO said it should.
So I was watching quietly when it happened.
Maya, a mid-level PM, opened her update with: "I had Claude summarize our last 10 user interviews. Here's what came out."
She shared three themes. Clean. Clear. Actionable.
No fanfare. No mention of AI as some big new thing. Just part of her new workflow.
There was a pause. Then a few head nods. And the conversation moved on.
Sarah and I smiled. In that moment, we knew the team had turned a corner.
Micro Shifts in Action
Over the next few weeks, we started noticing small changes.
A PM posted a prompt in Slack: “I used our playbook to build a full library of GPTs - feel free to use them.”
Another used Perplexity search for industry trends and market data.
Someone built a simple agent to summarize Jira tickets.
None of these things were officially mandated. They were spontaneous, useful, and very human.
This to me is what real adoption looks like.
The Myth of the Big Play
When people think about culture change, they usually think big.
Launch the training. Roll out the new tool. Set the goals.
But in practice? Culture changes in the margins.
Through dozens of small, repeatable actions.
I call these moments Micro Shifts.
They’re the tiny, unremarkable behaviors that normalize new habits—like asking ChatGPT for help outlining a roadmap, using Claude to synthesize user feedback, or Bolt to create clickable prototypes.
Individually, they’re forgettable. Collectively, they’re transformational.
Why This Matters
What I’ve seen - again and again - is that real AI fluency doesn’t begin with tooling. It begins with confidence in using AI.
Micro Shifts build that confidence.
They reduce friction. They spark curiosity. They create a kind of informal social proof that says:
"Hey, we use AI here. It’s normal. And if you use it well it can really help."
You don’t need everyone to be an AI wizard. You just need enough people using it in small, useful ways that it becomes part of the culture.
The CPO's Role in Cultivating Habits
Sarah played a crucial role in making these micro-shifts stick.
Her approach offers valuable lessons for other product leaders:
She modeled the behavior herself, using ChatGPT in her meetings to synthesize discussion points.
She celebrated small wins publicly, not just big innovations.
She invested in enabling her entire product team - she put money where her mouth is
She created protected spaces, hackathons, and jam sessions for PMs to learn, experiment, and build confidence
Most importantly, she created a small team of change agents to normalize new habits and drive adoption
The best way to drive AI adoption is not through force.
Yes, mandates are important, since they signal intent.
But for sustainable change, you need mandates and the right conditions. So that the PMs discover value themselves, form new habits, and then share those habits naturally.
As for that moment with Maya?
It wasn’t big or loud.
But it was real.
That’s what made it powerful. And, more importantly, that is what is going to make it stick.
AI is Reshaping Product Management—Are You Ready?
CPOs who lean in are already seeing:
20%+ productivity gains
Less rework, more focus
Bigger impact, delivered faster
🚀 Curious what this could look like in your org? Let’s chat.
Good stuff :)