A talk I delivered inside Walmart for all the Home Office / Corporate associates.

1. Dr. Tathagat Varma
Executive Fellow, Co ‘25, Indian School of Business
“Cognitive Chasms: A Grounded Theory of GenAI Adoption”
Your New _____ !

2. Disclaimer!
These are my views based on
my research. Develop your
viewpoint based on your
experiences.
The “YMMV”principle always
applies. Pressure test
everything based on your
context!
Some ideas might already be
obsolete! Do your own
research and apply your
judgment.

3. Who am I? Your new _______?
Co-worker? Intern?
Team
member?
Manager? Paper Tiger? Mentor? Boss? Magic? Snake Oil?
Jarvis?
Worst
nightmare!
Demon? Assistant? Nobody! Servant? Master? Fad? God?
Utility? Genie? Meh! Illusion? Coach? Angel? Worst fear?
Home
delivery?
Service Dog?
Reality? Digital Twin? Buddy?
Hobson’s
Choice?
Friend? Foe? Competitor?
Room
service?
Nemesis?
Savior?
Philosopher’s
Stone?
2am friend?
Batesian
Mimicry?
Elixir? Bestie? Hope? Evil Twin? Jeeves?
It depends! Self? Who cares? Yeah, Right! Whatever! […]

4. So, who am I?
Ancestors: ~1950s -
1990s
Symbolic Logic, Expert
Systems, Fuzzy Logic,
Genetic Algorithms, …
Previous Gen: ~1990s -
2010s
Analytics, Business
Intelligence, Data
Mining, Big Data, Data
Science, …
Current Gen: ~2010s -
2020s
Machine Learning,
Predictive AI, Deep
Learning, GAN, NLP,
CV, ASR, Decision
Science, Language
Translate,
Autocomplete,
Recommendation
Engines, Automation,
Robotics, …
Next Gen: ~2020s – till
date
Foundation Models,
LLMs, SLMs, Diffusion
Models, Generative AI,
Prompt Engineering,
Vibe Coding, Swarm
Intelligence, Self-
driving Vehicles,
Agentic AI, Decision AI,
Physical AI, Smart
Robotics, Cobot, …
Future Gen: ?
Who knows? Maybe
Quantum?
Biological…? Super
Intelligence…?
AGI…? Singularity …
???
I continue to evolve!
My family tree is big!
At least 70 years young!

5. And how am I different?
You (Humans) Me (AI)
Identity Fundamentally, creatures of emotions Fundamentally, creatures of logic
Think Use cognitive faculties to form associations of mental
representations, Logical reasoning, Deductive,
Inductive and Abductive thinking, Causal Analysis,
Memory, Imagination, Creativity, Ethical and Moral
Judgment, Feelings and Emotions, Intuition, Embodied
Cognition
Essentially use computational faculties such as
Mathematical and Logical operations, Pattern
matching and Statistical Analysis and Inferencing
(often limited to correlation rather than causation),
Brain in a Vat / Disembodied Intelligence (mostly)
Act Possess individual agency, and at least some degree of
free will, seek meaning in work and need fulfillment of
purpose
Agency is logical/mathematical/computational/
programmatic/data-centric. Free will? Meaning?
Learn Through self-awareness, observations, subjective lived
experiences, contemplation, self-reflection, and social
interactions, self-directed mechanisms
Limited to data, algorithms and feedback
Strengths Empathy, Adaptability, Social Connections,
Abstractions,
Process large data, Repetitive tasks, High speed and
precision, Scaling, Automation, No need for time off!
Limitations Slow, Error-prone especially with repetitive tasks,
working long hours or uninteresting tasks, Prefers non-
hazardous working conditions, Falls ill! Need time off.
Lack “world view”, Can’t“think”, Isn’t sentient, Lack
consciousness, No empathy, Quickly pick up bias,
Doesn’t really have any value judgment

6. I am growing really fast!
Possibly the fastest
consumer product
ever in terms of user
adoption!
Growing over ~25x
faster than Netflix and
10x faster than
Facebook!

7. And I keep getting better all the time!
Thanks to improvements
in hardware technologies
(compute, storage,
network), neural network
architecture, training
algorithms, techniques,
access to data and human
feedback, I continue to
improve at lightspeed!

8. In my world, a lot happens in just two
weeks……

9. So, why are people using me?
Trillions of Dollars of
Economic Benefits
Unprecedented
Productivity Gains
Millions of
New Jobs

10. What do they use me for?
In 2025, people are discovering
new ways to get personal and
professional support (#1),
followed by content creation
and editing (#2), and learning
and education (#3), among
others.
How people are really using GenAI in 2025, https://hbr.org/2025/04/how-people-are-really-using-gen-ai-in-2025

11. And how do they use me?
Specific use cases at work include:
#2 Organize work
#4 Enhanced learning
#5 and #8 Generating and Improving
Code
#6 Generating Ideas
#9 Creativity
How people are really using GenAI in 2025, https://hbr.org/2025/04/how-people-are-really-using-gen-ai-in-2025

12. But hey, I can do much more…
TASK:
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
PROCESS:
IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
BUSINESS:
INNOVATE BUSINESS

13. Here are some ways I can help…
Assist (“Cognitive Collaboration”)
• Increase productivity for individual workers by
saving time and effort for routine tasks so
they can spend saved time on more critical
tasks.
• E.g., summarize document, transcribe
meeting notes, create presentation,review a
document, analyze data,AI assisted coding,
customer service, chatbots, etc.
Augment (“Vertical Scaling”)
• Improve efficiency of a complete functional
process top to down so the process, or the
firm can reduce its operational costs, or the
bottom line.
• E.g., cull out key insights from past data,
redesign the entire process to reduce lead
time,or systemic waste; raise customer
delight, eliminate process friction, etc.
Amplify (“Horizontal Scaling”)
• Raise efficacy and/or enhance impact of the
end-to-end value chain of entire business,
division, portfolio or product line,so the firm
can grow its topline.
• E.g., Make portfolio reinvestment decisions
basis higher ROI, Business Model Innovation
to capture higher value for the firm, Introduce
new products, Launch new markets, etc.

14. And how can you undertake such journeys?
Research
For my doctoral research, I
studied adoption patterns
of GenAI adoption inside
firms. Specifically, I
researched the necessary
pre-conditions
(“Antecedents”),
enablers (“Moderators”)
and outcomes
(“Consequents”) of
successful adoption
outcome.
Analysis
My analysis led me to
describing a typology of
GenAI adoption failure
modes(“Cognitive
Chasm”), adoption
scaling strategy
(“Multistage Scaling
Framework”) and the
attitudes and beliefs
(“Cognitive Mindsets”)
required for successful
adoption.
Emergent
“Cognitive Decision-
Making”emerged as the
distinguishing marker of
successful adoption (core
category and the
mediator), representing
the most distinct indicator
of successful adoption.
Conclusion
GenAI is a “General
Purpose Technology, and
adoption isan OCM
problem requiring firm-
wide orchestration and
alignmentwith business
objectives, and
maintaining human
agency (in terms of
oversight, controls and
judgment) and human
experienceswere
essential to success.

15. Cognitive Chasms: A Grounded Theory of
GenAI Adoption©

16. Multistage Scaling and Consequents:
Stage 1:
Explore
Stage 2:
Experiment
Stage 3:
Improve
Stage 4:
Transform
Stage 5:
Innovate
Assist
Augment
Amplify

17. Is it all good then?
•Well, I have my limitations,
just like you have yours!
•The more you use me, the
more you know them!
•Let’s explore…

18. Yes, I hallucinate, I have biases, I am not
always correct, but remember…
“All models are wrong, but some
are useful”
– George Box

19. Does using me make you less smart or more
smart?
• Autocorrect (Word 6.0, 1993)
• Spellchecker (Word 95, 1995)
• Search (1990)
• Wikipedia (2001)
• MOOC (2008)
• […] (all the time!)

20. Am I a Good Servant or a Bad Master?
“It is with our
passions as it is
with fire and
water, they are
good servants,
but bad
masters” –
Aesop, 620BC –
520BC
“Money is a
good servant
but a bad
master” –
Francis Bacon,
16th-17th
Century
“Imagination is
a good servant
but a bad
master” –
Agatha
Christie, 1920
“Science is a
good servant
but a bad
master” –
Christian Lous
Lange, Nobel
Peace Prize,
1921.
“The intellect
is a beautiful
servant but a
terrible master”
– Ram Dass,
2013
“AI is….” <Your
Name>, <Your
year>

21. Recaip
I can’t do everything
for everyone, but I
can certainly do
somethings for you!
Learn enough about
me, so you can use
me well!
Train me enough, so
I can do things with
you!
Trust me enough,
so I can do things
for you!
Finally...more than
a tool, technology,
platform,
process,… I am a
new way of
thinking!

22. And remember…
Tool ≠
Technology
Technology
≠ Business
Usage ≠
Adoption
Productivity
≠ Value
GenAI ≠ AI
AI ≠ You!

24. Learn more…
• Theory of Cognitive Chasms: A Grounded Theory of GenAI Adoption: My doctoral dissertation at Indian School of
Business (ISB): https://eprints.exchange.isb.edu/id/eprint/2340/
• GenAI in Business: Invited talk for Emerging Leaders Program at ISB, May 2025:-
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/generative-artificial-intelligence-genai-in-business/278708699
• Theory of Cognitive Chasms: Failure Modes of GenAI Adoption: Lecture for Executive MBA students at Walton School of
Business, Apr 2025: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/theory-of-cognitive-chasms-failure-modes-of-genai-
adoption/278463456
• PhD Colloquium at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), Dec 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/live/UBmkl7Vpr0Q?si=lqw2JJUVhUI8cWL7
• GenAI Value Spectrum – delivering the“true value”from GenAI initiatives: Keynote at IEEE Bangalore Technology
Conference (BTC) 2024: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/genai-value-spectrum-delivering-the-true-value-from-genai-
initiatives/273734671
• Cognitive Chasms – A Typology of GenAI Failure Modes: My talk at GTP Brownbag, May 2025:
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/cognitive-chasms-a-typology-of-genai-failure-failure-modes/279832748
• The role of Cognitive Mindset in GenAI Adoption: Invited talk at Project Management Institute (PMI) Bangalore Chapter
Footprints: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-role-of-cognitive-mindset-in-genai-adoption-pdf/274055306
• Managing Fast-Evolving GenAI Adoptions: Invited Keynote at Siemens Agile Conference
2024: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/managing-fast-evolving-genai-technology-adoptions/273470070

25. Questions?