A Culture of Collaboration for AI Growth
Dublin is on my mind as I prepare for a conference in Ireland. If you get to travel to the city, you’ll negotiate the Dublin Tunnel before you sit down for the first pint. Opened in 2006, the Dublin Tunnel, aka the Port Tunnel, is a 4.5 km underground highway that connects the bustling warehouses around the airport with ship terminals that take Irish products to overseas consumers. The tunnel’s birth arrived in an era of sweeping economic expansion for Ireland. When exponential growth in trucking started to clog Dublin’s downtown roads and threaten pedestrian traffic, business and civic leaders got together to craft a shared vision for managing the economic uptick. Linked by an intentional culture of cross-functional collaboration, Dublin’s influencers teamed up to create an alternative trucking route that would keep downtown tourism thriving and the wheels of commerce moving. The $750 million project moved from conception to opening in under 10 years. That’s the power of cross-functional collaboration, a power that can be unleashed in our organizations to fuel AI transformation.
You’ve seen the numbers. Among the most striking stats from the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2025 was the assertion that 60% of employers expect to transform their businesses by 2030. Of this number, 86% anticipate “AI and information processing” to headline transformation. While we all know that skills gaps in the AI domain are perceived as a barrier to transformation, we may not appreciate how concerned employers are with culture. The Report shows that employers remain concerned about the “challenge of aligning internal processes, organizational structures, hierarchies and mindsets in responding to the trends and disruptions companies expect to face.” Perhaps this “culture concern” rings true for your organization. Is your culture built for such complex and cross-functional collaboration? Does trust permeate through your business? As AI-driven change takes hold, do our people genuinely feel seen, heard, and valued—or are they just bracing for impact?
In a thoughtful 2023 piece on AI transformation, Paul Pallath of Applied AI said, “A culture shift that values creativity, adaptability, cooperation, and a growth attitude is necessary for successful AI transformation.” Pallath, who, like me, is a fan of cross-functional collaboration, adds, “Collaboration promotes the exchange of ideas and harnesses the power of collective intelligence to drive innovation and solve complex challenges.” This “exchange” is facilitated by thoughtful leadership. On this point, Sanksshep Mahendra of Artificial Intelligence+ notes that leaders in a cross-functional, collaborative culture create “an environment of mutual respect and openness that allows team members to freely share ideas and voice concerns.” Did you get that? The best thing you can do as a leader in the era of AI integration is to nurture a healthy environment for collaboration so that challenges are identified and managed together.
Seeding Cross-functional Collaboration
I like to think of cross-functional collaboration as strategic collaboration and my standard way of working. Often, this type of collaboration arises from the identification of a common problem. Think about the Dublin Tunnel. What brings logistics company executives, civic leaders, and small business owners to the same table? The recognition that traffic gridlock is bad for everyone. When my challenge is also your challenge, it’s in our best interest to map a solution together. In the AI environment, cross-functional collaboration replaces siloed thinking with agile, interdisciplinary input. Here’s where effective leadership is essential. To make cross-functional collaboration a standard way of working within the organization, especially given the pervasive challenges presented by AI, leaders must communicate shared outcomes over the individual’s success. Shared outcomes drive the strategy.
AI isn’t a one-department show. It demands cross-functional collaboration where tech teams, product leads, marketers, and frontline employees all have a seat—and a voice—at the table. The technical pros may bring the AI know-how, but your customer insights team might just hold the keys to adoption. And it’s you—the leader—who orchestrates the rhythm.
That means setting shared goals, encouraging uncomfortable conversations, and creating space for learning—yes, even a crash course on AI fundamentals or active listening wouldn’t hurt. Real collaboration isn’t kumbaya; it’s structured, intentional, and tied to outcomes. You don’t need to be an AI engineer, but you do need to understand enough to connect the dots—and know when to raise your hand and say, “I need to learn more.” That’s leadership. That’s culture. That’s how transformation sticks.
There you have it, friends. A culture teeming with cross-functional collaboration will weather the AI tsunami with strength and vision. So, grab a pint, get your team together, and get to work.
