Influential Women launches AI masterclass on adoption

Influential Women has released a new masterclass from Momentum Group CEO Jackie Cook on why AI adoption depends on people, workflows and leadership — not just tools and training. The session lays out a framework for turning AI access into real workplace change.

Why it matters: - AI rollout is not the same as AI use that changes how work gets done. - Jackie Cook argues leaders need to focus on trust, judgment and workflow design if they want AI to produce real value. - The masterclass is aimed at helping organizations move beyond experimentation and into practical adoption.

What happened: - Influential Women released a new masterclass, "AI Adoption Is a People Problem Before It’s a Technology Problem." - The session features Jackie Cook, Founder and CEO of Momentum Group, LLC. - Cook helps leaders and organizations navigate leadership, change, career and AI. - The masterclass is available through Influential Women.

The details: - Cook draws on more than 20 years of experience in organizational transformation, operations, product strategy, talent development and leadership enablement. - The masterclass separates AI deployment from AI adoption. - Deployment means an organization has made AI available through tools, licenses, policies and training. - Adoption happens when people actually change how they work, including the decisions, tasks, processes and workflows where AI becomes part of the job. - Cook's Adoption Path has four stages: Access, Ability, Application and Adoption. - Organizations often invest in access and ability, but application is the bridge between knowing how AI works and knowing where it belongs in a specific role. - Cook says employee hesitation may reflect unanswered questions about privacy, accuracy, accountability, job security and appropriate use. - Leaders are asked to create trust, permission, confidence and accountability so employees can use AI responsibly. - Cook's Four Ps framework is Permission, Practice, Protection and Purpose. - Permission gives clear boundaries for experimentation. - Practice gives employees room to use AI in real work. - Protection creates enough safety for people to learn from appropriate mistakes. - Purpose explains why changing how work gets done matters. - Cook also introduces a three-level model for AI agency: Recommend, Initiate and Execute. - The model helps leaders decide how much authority AI should have based on risk, reversibility, human judgment, trust and when escalation to a person is needed. - Cook says organizations should determine AI's role within each workflow rather than aiming for maximum automation. - Her approach starts by finding friction, lost context, repetitive work and slow decisions before deciding whether AI can improve the process.

Between the lines: - The masterclass reflects a broader shift in AI strategy from tool deployment to workflow redesign. - Cook's framework suggests many adoption problems are management problems, not user-training problems. - The emphasis on permission and protection signals that employees may need guardrails before they need more tools. - The focus on human judgment shows AI is being positioned as a support layer, not a replacement for decision-makers.

What's next: - Influential Women will continue offering the masterclass to its audience of professional women and workplace leaders. - Organizations using Cook's framework may be pushed to review where AI adds value and where human oversight should remain. - The likely next step for many teams is deciding which workflows should be assisted, initiated or fully executed by AI.

The bottom line: - Cook's message is simple: AI transformation starts with the work and the people doing it, not with the software itself.