Several years ago, Syntax’s leadership set out with a bold vision: to develop a strategic, market–leading roadmap for embedding generative AI adoption (GenAI) across the business. Today, that plan is reshaping how we innovate, deliver, and create value for our customers.
This post is the third installment in our blog series, Insights from Syntax’s Global Business Innovation, a behind–the–scenes look at how we’re using AI strategy to accelerate productivity, unlock new opportunities, and stay at the forefront of an industry in motion.
Our first post explored GenAI’s impact on software development. In the second post, we highlighted why human engineers continue to play a central role in shaping, guiding, and governing AI driven‑software development. This edition shifts the focus to the critical role people play in achieving AI in the workplace success.
As organizations accelerate their AI in the workplace initiatives, many are discovering that technology alone isn’t enough to drive meaningful transformation. While investment in models, platforms, and infrastructure continues to surge, the organizations poised to lead in 2026 are those reimagining how work gets done, reshaping how their people learn, collaborate, and partner with AI adoption in everyday workflows.
This shift toward a people-centered approach is well supported by research. A report from BCG emphasizes that successful AI at scale depends far more on human and organizational factors, noting that AI business impact follows a 10–20–70 model: 10% driven by algorithms, 20% by technology and data, and 70% by people and processes.
McKinsey reinforces this perspective: “By 2030, about $2.9 trillion of economic value could be unlocked in the United States if organizations prepare their people and redesign workflows around people, agents, and robots working together.”
Below, we explore two critical trends that highlight why people, mindset, and organizational structure will determine AI in the workplace success and how Syntax is putting these principles into action.
Trend 1: AI Strategy Culture Will Become Every Company’s Competitive Edge
As organizations enter the next wave of AI strategy transformation, one reality is becoming clear: technology alone won’t define AI success, culture will.
The companies that advance most effectively will be those that make AI adoption a trusted, accessible, everyday capability for every employee, not just a specialized tool for technical teams.
They will innovate faster, solve problems more creatively, reduce manual effort, and create more consistent, competitive value for the business.
However, building an AI-enabled culture requires more than enthusiasm or experimentation. It requires broad access to AI tools, hands-on enablement, and clear guardrails that encourage responsible use. Organizations must ensure teams not only use AI but also understand it, trust it, and apply it to create value for customers.
Meeting these cultural and operational requirements takes intention and sustained investment. At Syntax, this focus has guided how we’ve approached AI in the workplace from the very beginning.
The New GenAI Era: Building Smarter to Solve Real Business Problems
How Syntax Is Doing This Today
We’ve made people the foundation of our GenAI strategy, a decision that is increasingly shaping how we differentiate in the market. And while many organizations are still in early exploration phases, we’ve taken a deliberate approach to integrating AI adoption into the core of everyday work.
This focus has helped us build an organization where AI fluency is embedded across roles and teams. Employees at every level have access to hands-on tools, practical training, and advanced copilots and agents that support their work.
Today, a significant portion of our workforce uses AI-powered tools to streamline operations, accelerate tasks, and unlock new levels of creativity and efficiency. This growing fluency directly shapes how we design solutions, deliver services, and guide clients through their own AI transformations.
Hundreds of custom AI agents support teams across consulting, cloud, security, development, and back-office functions. These agents leverage Syntax’s proprietary AI repository containing millions of documents and providing the deep contextual intelligence needed for high-quality results.
We’ve also introduced a proprietary employee AI assistant, along with tools that allow employees to build, customize, and share their own AI agents. This approach democratizes innovation, ensuring progress is driven by the people closest to the work.
Together, these capabilities drive productivity gains while fostering a culture rooted in curiosity, continuous learning, and speed.
Trend 2: The Most Important AI Leaders Won’t Sit in the Boardroom
In the AI era, many of the most impactful adoption innovations won’t originate solely from the C-suite. They will come from embedded leaders and influencers within departments. Individuals who understand day-to-day workflows and are well positioned to identify where AI in the workplace can create immediate, meaningful value.
These leaders bridge strategy and execution. They see inefficiencies firsthand, recognize high-impact use cases, know how to reshape processes, and guide teams through change in ways that resonate locally and scale globally.
Forward-thinking organizations are beginning to formalize and invest in these roles, equipping these individuals with the tools, training, and authority they need to drive adoption.
Without them, AI strategy efforts often stall in pilot mode. With them, AI becomes woven into operations faster, deeper, and more sustainably, creating a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate.
How Syntax Is Doing This Today
Syntax is actively developing and supporting a distributed network of embedded AI leaders across departments. These individuals, AI Champions, are equipped with platforms, governance frameworks, and targeted training to help advance AI adoption at both the team and enterprise level.
This model ensures that AI adoption reflects real operational realities, not abstract strategy, and accelerates how quickly new capabilities are implemented, refined, and scaled.
The Future of AI Belongs to People Who Know How to Use It
As AI becomes woven into the fabric of enterprise systems and workflows, differentiation will hinge not on access to the technology, but on how effectively organizations prepare their people to leverage it, trust it, and lead with it.
The companies that lead in 2026 will be those that cultivate AI-enabled workforces supported by strong cultural foundations, clear governance, and embedded champions who bring AI adoption into everyday practice.
Syntax is moving purposely in this direction by equipping employees with powerful AI tools, fostering a community of internal innovators, and embedding AI in the workplace of leadership across the organization. These investments not only strengthen our internal capabilities; they enable us to accelerate customer success with practical, real-world insight and solutions.
Building on this experience, and supported by offerings such as the Syntax GenAI Starter Pack, Syntax DnA³ Digital Innovation Center of Excellence, and Syntax AI CodeGenie, we’re helping organizations evaluate opportunities, deploy AI responsibly, and advance each stage of their transformation journey.
Contact us today to discover how we help organizations empower their workforce with AI to drive measurable business impact.
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Author
Marcelo Tamassia
Global CTO, Syntax
Marcelo Tamassia, Syntax’s Global Chief Technology Officer, drives the company’s technology and innovation strategies. With over two decades in technology, Marcelo emphasizes empowering individuals to provide exceptional solutions. He holds advanced certifications from AWS, Oracle, and Microsoft, along with an MBA from the University of Florida and postgraduate education from Stanford University, underscoring his commitment to continuous learning and excellence.