What If Avoiding AI Is the Real Risk?

3 Reasons Playing It Safe Could Hurt You in the Long Run

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There’s a quiet assumption running through many leadership circles today:

“We’re not ready for AI. Better to wait. Let the dust settle.”

But often, each leader means something different by AI. For some, it’s a tool like ChatGPT. For others, it’s the sci-fi version, machines taking over the world. Most don’t realize AI has already been part of their lives for years: in Google search rankings, in their social feeds, in the way Netflix queues up the next show. AI goes even further for medical research, business process automation, and even for software development.

I get it. AI is fast-moving, unfamiliar, and unregulated in many areas. For leaders, especially those stewarding purpose-driven work or large pools of capital, focus on doing the hard work the way it has always been done, it can feel safer to keep it at arm’s length. To delay decisions. To hold out, waiting for those around them to go first and only act if they succeed.

Now, there is wisdom in waiting, but only if that waiting is active in learning.

But what if that instinct of sitting back and waiting for things to develop is doing more harm than good?

What if avoiding AI isn’t the safe route, but actually the riskiest move of all?

This reminds me of fears so many leaders in the last 20 years had, fears that cost them their company, their market share, their ability to make a difference:

“We don’t need a website.”
“Social media isn’t for us.”
“Online donations? That’s not how our supporters give.”

These were real statements made by real leaders… who now no longer lead. Who knows how many CEOs who rejected big technology shifts are still leading their companies?

AI represents a similar moment all over again. And this time, the process will be faster and faster.

1. Avoidance Doesn’t Equal Safety, but Possibly Irrelevance

AI isn’t only a trend. It’s a global and cultural shift, like the internet, electricity, or mobile phones. It is world-changing, as the Atomic Theory still is.

Avoiding AI may seem wise, even the right thing to do. But in a rapidly changing landscape, inaction becomes its own form of leadership failure. It tells your team (and the world) that you’re unwilling to adapt. That you’d rather protect comfort than pursue clarity.

The mission doesn’t survive on virtue alone.
It needs relevance.
It needs operational intelligence.
It needs leaders who know when to protect tradition and when to press forward.

And this isn’t just for CEOs or tech startups. Even a baker or a vegetable grower can leverage AI to improve customer service, streamline operations, increase visibility through smarter marketing, or even create new revenue streams, like offering AI-personalized meal kits or subscription models.

You don’t have to adopt every tool. But refusing to engage at all? That’s not caution. That’s abdication.

2. Small Orgs Lose the Most by Sitting Out

Here’s the paradox: The very leaders who fear AI the most, nonprofits, church teams, scrappy startups, are the ones AI could actually help the most.

Why?

Because AI levels the playing field.

• A single staffer with ChatGPT can draft communications that once required a full team.

• Lean marketing budgets can stretch further with AI-powered design or research tools.

• Teams without data scientists can use AI to analyze donor trends, community feedback, or grant data.

AI offers leverage, especially when you don’t have capital, staff, or time.

Waiting until your org is “ready” may seem wise. But readiness doesn’t come from having a bigger team. It comes from building learning cultures. From experimenting in small, safe ways. Letting go of perfectionism and embracing progress. Enhancing the skills of your team so that they can take advantage of the new opportunities that technological advancements provide.

Just remember not to adopt blindly. Use AI where it helps, not where it harms.

We’ve seen the missteps: AI writing false news, fabricating legal cases, replacing relational work.

Learn first. Then lead with it.

3. Fear-Based Leadership Misses the Bigger Opportunity

Let’s name the real concern:

AI can be misused. It will displace some jobs. It can deepen inequities and accelerate misinformation.

So yes, the fears are valid; they point to issues that demand action. But using them to justify disengagement? That’s a failure of imagination.

Ethical leaders don’t solve risk by hiding from the tool. They engage wisely, with clear boundaries, values, and strategy.

We’ve seen this before:

• Radio was once condemned.

• The printing press was seen as dangerous.

• Email was considered impersonal.

Every powerful technology comes with real misuse. But the solution isn’t rejection, it’s wise integration. It’s discernment, not distance (Here is a deeper dive into the Discernment of AI tools).

Avoiding AI entirely doesn’t protect your values. It just removes your voice from shaping how it’s used. Avoiding AI doesn’t solve the challenges it presents.

Common Myths Leaders Believe About AI

Let’s name a few myths I’ve heard whispered in boardrooms, retreats, and leader circles:

• “We’re too small to need it.”
  Small orgs benefit the most from the scale, speed, and creative support AI can offer.

• “AI is unethical.”
  Technology itself isn’t moral or immoral. Its use depends on the hands and hearts that wield it.

• “We’ll wait until others figure it out.”
  By the time others have “figured it out,” the gap will be too wide to bridge without radical disruption.

Now here's the deeper tension:

As AI grows more powerful, the need for thoughtful regulation grows too. Not the kind that stifles innovation, but the kind that protects, ensures transparency, and keeps power accountable. That work won't come from the tech itself. It’ll come from people, citizens, leaders, and business owners who recognize the cost of silence.

Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired Magazine, once said:
“The business plans of the next 10,000 startups are easy to forecast: Take X and add AI.”

That’s not just a trend. That’s a direction. And leaders who stay passive will soon find themselves outpaced, not because they weren’t smart, but because they weren’t paying attention.

You don’t need to master the mechanics. But you do need to stay awake to what’s changing, and to what must remain human.

TL;DR – If You Only Remember This:

• Avoiding AI is not strategic caution, it’s often disguised fear.

• Leaders who wait too long will lose more than efficiency. They’ll lose their relevance.

• For small teams and startups, AI offers leverage, not a threat.

• Mature leaders engage AI not because it’s safe, but because the cost of disengagement is too high.

Thank you for reading! This article is a Substack-born collaboration between Joel and Jose.

If this stirred something in you, subscribe to Joel Salinas for more reflections on leadership, clarity, and tech decisions that actually serve your mission.

Jose Antonio Morales writes Growing Fearless. He is an IT Pro with experience in process automation, founder of Aurora Coworking, mentor and author of Fear Enough (fearenough.com).