We stopped writing in Comic Sans. Can we stop fearing AI too?

There was a time when every school project came in Comic Sans. A WordArt title on the cover, maybe a clip art lightbulb, and the quiet certainty that it looked great. And honestly, back then, it did.

The early 2000s were full of habits like that. We pulled out the antenna on our phones and held them up by the window, waiting for one more bar. We forwarded chain messages to ten friends just in case, because breaking the chain felt risky. We spent hours on our MySpace profiles, sure that's where everyone would always be.

None of it lasted, and nobody made a fuss when it went. That's how adaptation usually works. Quietly, almost without noticing.

Nobody sent a memo banning Comic Sans. We just moved on. Something similar is happening with AI right now, except this time people are moving much faster than the organisations they work for. According to McKinsey, employees are three times more likely to be using generative AI than their leaders think. In Portugal, the 2026 Unlocking Portugal’s AI Potential study by AWS and Strand Partners found that 51% of companies now use AI, up from 41% a year ago. But 58% of them still use it mainly for basic tasks, like public chatbots and off-the-shelf tools, and only 16% have reached an advanced stage.

So the habit that still hasn’t made the jump belongs to organisations, not people. It’s the way many leaders still look at AI.

The chain message we're still forwarding

In many organisations, the conversation about AI adoption still sounds like this: "That's not for us." "Let's wait and see." "We'll look at it next year." Sometimes it's a ban. Sometimes it's just silence, while teams quietly use AI tools on their own because nobody told them how.

That silence has a cost. In Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Work Trend Index, a survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries, 75% of knowledge workers said they already use AI at work, and 78% of them bring their own tools. Only 39% had received any AI training from their company. The technology is already in the building. It just came in through the side door.

Underneath most of it sits one idea: AI is here to replace people, so the safest move is to keep it out.

It's the chain message logic again. Not based on what the technology actually does day to day, but on fear of what might happen if we let it in.

Making the first move

So how does a company actually make the jump? It rarely starts with a big transformation plan. It starts small.

• Find out where you stand. Before choosing tools, look at how your teams already work and where AI is already being used, officially or not.
• Pick one real problem. A repetitive process that eats hours every week is a better first project than a vague ambition to “do AI”. Reporting, internal documentation and customer support are common starting points. With 54% of Portuguese companies still without a dedicated AI budget, starting small is also the realistic option.
• Set clear rules, not bans. Approve the tools people can use, explain what data can go into them and make it easy to ask questions.
• Train everyone, not just a pilot team. The lack of digital and AI skills is the most cited barrier to AI adoption, named by 45% of Portuguese companies, and only 26% say they have solid AI skills in-house. Tools without training are just another login.
• Measure and share what works. Small wins, shown to the rest of the company, do more for adoption than any memo.

None of this needs to happen all at once. It just needs to start.

Out with the old habits

We put the antenna away. We stopped forwarding the chains. We logged out of Hi5 and never logged back in. None of it felt like a revolution. It was just adapting to a world that had moved on.

Treating AI as a threat to keep out is the next thing on that list. Comic Sans retired with dignity. Your fear of AI can too. The sooner leadership lets it go, the sooner teams can start working alongside a colleague that's already here.

At LayerX, we help organisations do exactly that: figure out where AI fits, bring it into the team and make it work in practice. If your company is still writing its AI strategy in Comic Sans, let's talk.