Rafee Tarafdar, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Infosys, emphasizes the importance of psychological safety in the current environment influenced by AI developments. He notes that as technology advances rapidly, organizations must be willing to experiment, recognizing that failures may occur and thus require a supportive framework.
To investigate the role of psychological safety in enterprise-level AI success, MIT Technology Review Insights surveyed 500 business leaders. The results indicate a high level of self-reported psychological safety, yet fear remains a significant factor. Some industry experts point to a disconnect between the public promotion of a safe experimentation culture and underlying organizational dynamics that may undermine such intent.
Creating a culture of psychological safety necessitates a comprehensive, systems-level strategy, which cannot be effectively managed by human resources alone. It must be integrated into collaboration practices within organizations.
Key findings from the report include the following:
1. Organizations with cultures supportive of experimentation reported greater success in AI projects. A significant majority of executives (83%) believe that a culture prioritizing psychological safety enhances AI initiative outcomes. Additionally, 80% of leaders agree that such cultures facilitate better AI adoption, and 84% have observed links between psychological safety and measurable results.
2. Psychological barriers are emerging as more substantial hurdles to AI adoption than technological issues. While nearly 73% of respondents feel comfortable providing honest feedback at work, 22% admit to hesitating to lead AI projects due to fears of being blamed for failures.
3. Achieving psychological safety is challenging for many organizations; only 39% of leaders rated their own organizational safety as “very high,” and 48% described it as “moderate.” This suggests that some businesses may be pursuing AI initiatives without an adequately stable cultural foundation.
Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/16/1125899/creating-psychological-safety-in-the-ai-era/