Carmela
Fortin
CEO at Seattle Startup Coaches
"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
Fri May 15 - 2:40 PM EDT/New York (See in local time)
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05/15/2026 2:40 PM
05/15/2026 02:50 PM
America/New_York
#WTGC2026
"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
#WTGC2026
"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
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"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
"The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)"
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Session: The Missing Layer in AI Adoption: Why Smart Teams Still Stall (and How to Fix It)
We’re surrounded by AI tools that promise speed, scale, and productivity, yet most teams aren’t seeing real results. The issue isn’t talent, budget, or ambition. It’s the missing layer before AI ever works.In this lightning talk, I introduce the concept of the Pre-AI Layer—the human, organizational, and decision infrastructure required for AI to actually drive outcomes. I’ll show why even highly capable teams struggle with AI adoption, how uneven AI usage quietly fractures organizations, and what leaders can do immediately to create alignment without slowing innovation.
This is a practical, non-hype talk for women leading technical, product, marketing, and growth teams who want AI to work with their people,not replace them, confuse them, or burn them out.
Key Takeaways
- Understand why AI initiatives stall even in high-performing teams—and how leadership behavior, not tools, is usually the blocker
- Learn how uneven AI adoption quietly creates risk, misalignment, and burnout across organizations
- Identify the three leadership signals that indicate your organization is not ready to scale AI, yet
- Gain a practical framework for leading AI adoption with clarity, accountability, and trust
Bio
Carmela Fortin is the founder of The Aloha Reset, Seattle Startup Coaches and host of The AI Marketing Coach podcast. She has spoken at Seattle Tech Week and works with AI and SaaS companies including SightCall AI, Unsupervised AI, Singularity, and Noded AI to help founders and leadership teams scale AI responsibly. As a Chief Marketing Officer and Certified Organizational Change Management Coach, Carmela is uniquely positioned to lead the conversation around Pre-AI Layers, the human, operational, and organizational foundations required before AI can scale. She builds and teaches Pre-AI Layers to help leaders align people, process, and intent before automation, so AI becomes a force multiplier, not a cost center. Carmela is an executive coach to tech leaders facilitates change management sessions at major companies, and leads professional retreats at www.aloharesetyoga.com.