Eric Vaughan, CEO of enterprise-software powerhouse IgniteTech, remains resolute when reflecting on the most drastic decision of his decades-long career. In early 2023, convinced that generative AI represented an “existential” transformation, Vaughan realized his team was not fully on board. His response: he rebuilt the company from the ground up, replacing nearly 80% of staff within a year, according to headcount figures reviewed by Fortune.
Over 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024, Vaughan said IgniteTech replaced hundreds of employees, though he declined to provide an exact figure. “That was not our goal,” he told Fortune. “It was extremely difficult…But changing minds was harder than adding skills.” It was a brutal reckoning—but Vaughan insists it was necessary, and says he would do it again.
For Vaughan, the signs were clear and urgent. “In early 2023, we saw the light,” he told Fortune, adding that he believed every tech company faced a critical inflection point regarding AI adoption. “Now I’ve come to believe that literally every company is confronting an existential threat from this transformation.”
Where others saw opportunity, Vaughan saw urgency. Failing to act on AI, he believed, could imperil even the strongest businesses. He called an all-hands meeting with his global remote team and delivered a blunt message: everything would now revolve around AI. “We’re going to give a gift to each of you. And that gift is a tremendous investment of time, tools, education, and projects…to give you a new skill,” he said. IgniteTech began reimbursing for AI tools and prompt-engineering courses, even bringing in outside experts to evangelize the technology.
“Every single Monday was called ‘AI Monday,’” Vaughan said. On those days, staff could focus only on AI—no customer calls, no budgets, just AI projects. This applied across the company, from tech to sales to marketing. “That culture needed to be built. That was the key.”
This initiative came at a significant cost: 20% of payroll was dedicated to mass learning, yet the effort initially failed due to resistance and even sabotage. Vaughan discovered that belief is hard to manufacture. “In those early days, we got flat-out, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to do this’ resistance. So we said goodbye to those people.”
The pushback: Why didn’t staff get on board?
Surprisingly, the most resistant were often technical staff rather than sales or marketing. Vaughan said they focused on AI’s limitations rather than its potential, while marketing and sales embraced the possibilities.
This resistance mirrors broader trends. The 2025 enterprise AI adoption report by Writer found one in three workers admit to “actively sabotaging” AI rollouts, rising to 41% among millennials and Gen Z. Sabotage can take many forms: refusing tools, generating poor outputs, or skipping training. Motivations range from fear of job loss to frustration with underperforming tools or unclear leadership strategy.
Writer’s chief strategy officer Kevin Chung told Fortune that the human element of AI resistance is striking. “This sabotage isn’t because they’re afraid of the technology…It’s more like there’s so much pressure to get it right, and then when you’re handed something that doesn’t work, frustration sets in.” He added that workers often distrust organizational direction. “When you’re handed something imperfect, sabotage kicks in because people try to run their own approach.”
Vaughan said he never wanted to force anyone. “You can’t compel people to change if they don’t believe,” he said. Instead, he realized he needed to recruit for belief itself, launching a massive hiring drive for what became known as “AI innovation specialists.” This approach spanned sales, finance, marketing, and other departments. “It was really difficult,” Vaughan said. “Things were upside down…We didn’t quite know where we were or who we were yet.”
Key hires, including chief AI officer Thibault Bridel-Bertomeu, helped drive a companywide reorganization. Every division now reports into the AI organization, streamlining knowledge sharing and reducing duplicated efforts—a common struggle in AI adoption. Writer’s survey shows 71% of C-suite executives report AI being developed in silos, and nearly half say employees are left to figure generative AI out alone.
No pain, no gain
Despite the upheaval, IgniteTech achieved impressive results. By the end of 2024, it had launched two patent-pending AI solutions, including Eloquens AI, an AI-based email automation platform. Financially, the company, in the nine-figure revenue range, ended 2024 at near 75% EBITDA while completing a major acquisition, Khoros. Vaughan highlighted the company’s newfound ability to deliver new products to customers in as little as four days.
Vaughan’s story offers lessons in radical change management: investing in AI, aligning strategy, and securing buy-in from champions are critical. Without belief and commitment, even major investments can fail. “Changing minds was harder than adding skills,” he said.
The ‘boy who cried wolf’ problem
IgniteTech isn’t alone in facing AI adoption challenges. Joshua Wöhle, CEO of Mindstone, which provides AI upskilling for companies like Lufthansa and Hyatt, discussed Vaughan’s approach—upskilling versus mass replacement—on BBC Business Today.
Wöhle noted examples from Ikea and Klarna. Ikea emphasizes reskilling and augmentation, while Klarna drew attention for reducing customer support staff but later rehired for the same roles. Klarna explained that AI reduced workload for outsourced staff by the equivalent of 700 full-time agents, and those workers were redeployed to other clients. The AI agent now handles more complex queries, and only two employees were rehired in a pilot combining AI and human support.
Wöhle acknowledged that AI resistance is partly due to past tech hype, such as NFTs and blockchain, which failed to deliver promised impacts. “Most people get stuck thinking from their workflow first,” he said. “They conclude AI is overhyped because they want it to fit into their old way of working. It takes more thinking and prodding to change the way you work—but the results are dramatic.”
Ikea echoed this approach, saying its “people-first AI approach focuses on augmentation, not automation.” AI frees staff to focus on value-added work rather than replacing jobs.
Writer’s report emphasizes that companies with formal AI strategies and strong investment are more likely to succeed. Vaughan agrees: without belief and alignment, even ambitious AI initiatives can falter.
For Vaughan, there’s no doubt about his path. Asked if he would do it again, he said yes—but he doesn’t recommend others replicate his 80% staff replacement. “That was extremely difficult,” he said. “But ultimately, everybody must be in the same boat, rowing in the same direction. Otherwise, we don’t get where we’re going.”
