Driving Change That Sticks
Driving Change That Sticks reveals the insider track CAP Practitioners are using to turn innovation into lasting impact by accelerating adoption, aligning leadership, and removing resistance in Agile, AI, and digital transformation projects.
ServiceNow AI Control Tower + CAP Vision: A Powerful Force for AI Advancement
For those who attended ServiceNow Knowledge 2025, it was incredibly exciting to witness the debut of the AI Control Tower—a major leap forward in governed, transparent, and intelligent AI operations.
The AI Control Tower offers:
- 📊 End-to-end AI observability
- ⚖️ Governance and compliance tracking
- 🤖 Proactive model drift detection
- 🔄 AI lifecycle orchestration across the platform
It’s a bold step that brings clarity, trust, and control to enterprise AI.
🌐 Innovation Moves Fast—But People Don’t Always Keep Up
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, marked by AI breakthroughs, fast Agile sprints, and enterprise automation, one truth continues to surface: technology delivers speed, but people determine success.
Despite significant investments in modern tools and platforms, many organizations still face a familiar challenge—adoption.
According to McKinsey, only 30% of digital transformations succeed. Surprisingly, the most common reason isn’t a technical breakdown. Rather, it’s that people don’t adopt the change. Even the best innovations fail when users aren’t ready, engaged, or aligned.
🤖 ServiceNow’s AI Innovation Is a Leap Forward—But Needs Human Readiness
At ServiceNow Knowledge 2025, one of the standout moments was the debut of the AI Control Tower—a major leap in intelligent enterprise oversight. This capability empowers organizations to:
- Monitor AI models across the lifecycle
- Ensure compliance and transparency
- Detect drift and performance gaps in real time
- Govern AI safely and at scale
However, as impressive as these features are, technology alone isn’t enough. Without buy-in from users, support from leaders, and readiness across teams, even the most powerful AI tools may stall.
That’s why pairing this innovation with a Change Acceleration Process (CAP) strategy is essential.
🌍 Leading the Ethical AI Movement & Driving Change That Sticks
How Amba Kak Aligns Technology Policy with Human-Centered Change
In today’s fast-evolving AI landscape, technology moves quickly—but trust, policy, and public accountability often lag behind. That’s where leaders like Amba Kak, Co-Executive Director of the AI Now Institute, are making an extraordinary impact.
As a globally recognized technology policy expert, Kak focuses not only on the development of artificial intelligence—but more importantly, on its social implications, power dynamics, and ethical consequences. Her work consistently centers around one critical goal: ensuring that AI serves the public interest.
Although Kak does not formally reference the Change Acceleration Process (CAP), her advocacy unmistakably mirrors its core values. Like CAP, her efforts prioritize stakeholder alignment, organizational readiness, and cultural transformation—emphasizing that the success of AI is not measured by technical sophistication alone, but by its acceptance, governance, and equitable use.
Through testimony before Congress, leadership at AI Now, and global thought partnerships, Kak is reshaping the conversation on AI—not as a technological inevitability, but as a human challenge that must be managed with foresight, ethics, and inclusive change.
💼 Companies Leveraging CAP in AI and Digital Transformation
| Company | Use Case | Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| ServiceNow | Implemented CAP strategies to enhance adoption of AI-powered solutions like the AI Control Tower, focusing on change management and stakeholder engagement. | Facilitated smoother transitions and sustained usage of AI innovations across client operations. Learn more |
| General Electric (GE) | Applied CAP methodologies in digital transformation efforts, including the development of the Predix platform for industrial IoT. | Aimed to centralize IT operations and position GE as a technologically focused enterprise, though faced challenges in execution. Read the case study |
| Publicis Sapient + Google Cloud | Developed the Cloud Acceleration Program (CAP) to expedite cloud adoption for financial services firms, providing a structured approach with tailored guidance. | Enabled faster utilization of cloud infrastructure, reducing the time to launch integrated platforms from years to months. Discover more |
| PPG Industries | Leveraged CAP principles during a significant digital transformation, transitioning 72% of systems to the cloud and integrating AI in manufacturing processes. | Achieved enhanced business agility, improved consistency across manufacturing plants, and accelerated workforce readiness. Explore the transformation |
| Pegasystems | Integrated CAP concepts within its Pega Infinity platform to support clients in digital process automation and AI-driven customer engagement. | Assisted organizations in navigating complexities of digital transformation, improving workflow optimization and customer interactions. View customer success stories |
| Thirdera (a Cognizant company) | Utilized CAP methodologies to deliver tailored ServiceNow solutions, emphasizing organizational change management and user-centric design. | Enhanced user adoption and satisfaction through intuitive experiences and proactive change strategies. Learn more |
| Cognizant | Applied CAP principles in AI-driven projects across various industries, focusing on responsible AI adoption and organizational readiness. | Improved operational efficiency and customer engagement through structured change management and AI integration. Discover insights |
🧠 Enter the CAP Practitioner: Turning Change Into Real Results
While Agile, Lean, and DevOps focus on speed and delivery, CAP focuses on adoption, behavior, and engagement. It doesn’t replace your delivery model—it enhances it by making the human side of change visible and manageable.
A CAP Practitioner brings structure to the chaos of change by helping organizations:
- Clearly define what’s changing and why
- Map out who’s affected and how
- Align leaders to reinforce key messages and behaviors
- Uncover and address resistance before it slows progress
- Tailor training and communication to drive confidence and action
As a result, CAP ensures change isn’t just implemented—it’s understood, embraced, and sustained.
🔄 CAP + AI Control Tower = Scalable, Trusted Transformation
When combined, CAP and ServiceNow’s AI Control Tower form a powerful foundation for governed, human-centric AI adoption.
- On one hand, the AI Control Tower provides technical transparency and lifecycle governance.
- On the other, CAP delivers the people readiness that ensures innovation translates into outcomes.
Together, they allow organizations to:
- Accelerate trust across roles and departments
- Align machine intelligence with human decisions
- Reduce resistance and improve AI ethics
- Scale innovation confidently and responsibly
In essence, the CAP vision turns the Servicenow Control Tower from a tool into a transformation enabler.
🚦 Does CAP Replace Agile, Lean, or Delivery Models?
Not at all.
Rather than replacing Agile or Lean, CAP enhances them. It focuses on people—who they are, what they need, and why they may resist change—so that transformation doesn’t just happen, but sticks.
✅ Examples:
- In Agile teams, CAP helps product owners understand stakeholder dynamics and resistance patterns before launching new features.
- In Lean Six Sigma efforts, CAP helps map cultural friction that might derail process improvements.
- In AI deployments, CAP identifies human concerns around automation (e.g., job loss, lack of transparency) and builds trust into the rollout.
CAP is not a methodology—it’s an adoption accelerator.
🧠 What Does a CAP Practitioner Actually Do?
A CAP Practitioner bridges strategy, delivery, and behavior change. Using structured tools, they ensure change isn’t just communicated—but adopted.
| Action | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Identify stakeholders & influencers | Ensures early alignment and accountability where it matters most |
| Map resistance & support | Surfaces silent concerns that could derail adoption |
| Align leadership sponsors | Builds cross-functional momentum and sustained support |
| Measure readiness | Highlights areas needing more training or clarity before rollout |
| Design communications & training | Delivers the right message to the right audience at the right time |
🚀 Why It Works in Innovation Projects
Projects like ServiceNow Control Tower and Raptor combine the familiar (dashboards, workflows) with the unknown (AI profiling, federated governance, zero-copy data access). This mix often creates confusion.
CAP Practitioners bring clarity by:
- Explaining what’s changing and why
- Mapping role impacts before rollout
- Building leader alignment across product, data, and user teams
- Tracking readiness by persona (e.g., stewards, analysts, engineers)
Result? People don’t just “get access” to new tools—they use them with confidence and purpose
🔧 Change Acceleration Process (CAP): Recent Use Cases of Lean, Agile, and AI Projects
Here are real-world examples where CAP Practitioners made a measurable difference:
Real-world examples where CAP turned delivery into adoption
| Use Case (with Link) | Industry / Area | CAP in Action | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agile + CAP in Enterprise Data Projects | Data Governance | Aligned stewards, mapped resistance, integrated CAP into Agile grooming | ✅ 40% faster adoption ✅ 60% less rework |
| AI Rollout with CAP in HR | Healthcare | Readiness dashboard, frontline coaching, leadership sponsorship | ✅ 98% adoption in 90 days ✅ Fewer support tickets |
| Lean + CAP in Finance | Financial Services | Cross-functional alignment, reinforced behaviors, strategic messaging | ✅ ROI 6 months early ✅ Improved collaboration |
| CAP with AI Chatbot in Higher Ed | Higher Education | Mapped change fatigue, trained faculty, accelerated onboarding | ✅ 3× adoption speed ✅ Higher user satisfaction |
| ServiceNow AI Assist Rollout | IT Services | Engaged early adopters, built sponsorship, tracked readiness | ✅ Less resistance ✅ KPIs improved 2× faster |
| CAP in M&A ERP Integration | Manufacturing | Tracked commitment, addressed resistance, unified change plans | ✅ Seamless go-live ✅ Increased buy-in post-merger |
| AI Compliance System Launch | Pharma | Cross-team alignment, regulator awareness, risk-based rollout | ✅ 3 months early audit readiness ✅ Better legal-data alignment |
🧭 Final Thought: Delivering Isn’t Enough—Adoption Is Driving Change That Sticks
Today’s digital transformation efforts demand more than fast delivery. They demand lasting adoption.
CAP Practitioners bring the structure, insight, and leadership needed to make that happen—especially when change is fast, uncertain, or met with resistance.
If your next project involves Agile delivery, AI innovation, or organizational change, don’t just build it. Make sure it sticks.
Other Driving Change That Sticks Resources
- A-Z Business Process Improvement Glossary
- Agile at scale 101
- Agile-case-study
- Agile Scrum Master Guide
- Business Process Design Excellence
- Business Process Improvement
- Business Process Optimization Reviews
- CAP Agile Story Grooming
- Change Acceleration Process (CAP)
- Knowledge 2025 Session Catalog
- Maximizing Project Success
- Revolutionizing Organizational Change with the CAP Approach – isixsigma.com
