Internal AI tools have a habit of becoming shelfware. They launch with a memo, get a flurry of curious clicks, and then quietly empty out. The problem is almost never the technology. It's that the tool was built for an average user who doesn't exist.
We use one heuristic to avoid it: build the tool your single best practitioner would build for themselves if they had the time.
Tools built for the average user get ignored by everyone. Tools built for your sharpest person get adopted by all of them.
Why it works
Your best person has the highest standards and the least patience for friction. If the tool is good enough that they'd choose it over their current workaround, it's good enough for everyone behind them. Aim at the average and you clear no one's bar.
It also fixes the adoption problem at the source. When the most respected person in the room uses something visibly, permission spreads on its own. You don't need a change-management programme; you need one credible believer and a tool worth believing in.
So before the next internal build, find that person. Watch how they actually work. Build the thing that makes their day better — and let the rest of the org follow them to it.