People think, learn and respond to change in different ways. Introducing AI starts with understanding those differences and asking what each person needs to take part. The Working With Me approach brings that understanding into the opportunities you explore, the rules you agree and the support you offer. Every brain belongs in that conversation.
What the two have in common
Both fall down when everyone is assumed to work the same way. One training session, one pace and one attitude to change can leave people without the support they need. A team that has already made working differences visible has done some of the groundwork.
Start with the person
People may be confident users, have tried AI briefly or want solid foundations before starting. A working manual, each person's own account of how they work best, records how they like to learn and communicate and what support helps, under their own sharing choices. Nobody is assessed, and nobody has to disclose a diagnosis to be supported well. Strengths belong to people, not to labels, so do not assume what someone is good at from how they are described.
From there, look at each person's actual role. The repeated writing, the summarising, the first drafts, the searching. That is where the useful opportunities are, and they differ from job to job.
Different routes in
- Written step-by-step guides for people who want to see the whole process before starting.
- Room to experiment for people who learn by doing and find demonstrations hard to follow.
- One change at a time for people for whom switching tools carries a real cost.
- A named person to ask, so nobody has to raise a hand in a group to get help.
These are ordinary adjustments, the same kind a neuroinclusive team already makes, applied to something new. Offer choices like these as part of normal working life, then ask people what actually helps.
Agree the rules together
Uncertainty about what is allowed lands hardest on people who find ambiguity expensive. Practical, business-approved guidance can reduce it: which tools and accounts are approved, what information may be used with them, how work is checked and who is responsible. The method is in how to agree the rules of AI at work with your team.
Pace, support and measurement
Change takes support, not just permission. Put review and help in the diary, let people move at a pace they can hold, and expect some things to be dropped. Measure the work: useful adoption, time including the checking effort, quality, and relevant costs against a baseline. Agree what progress information people will share and why. Review actions and outcomes within roles as well as patterns across the team; keep private manual answers under each person’s sharing choices. More AI use is not an outcome in itself.
Where to go deeper
The wider foundations are in neuroinclusion at work, the complete guide. For the AI side, the AI Adoption Programme runs over three months and works through the opportunities in each person's own role, the rules, the support and the measurement.
Common questions
How do I introduce AI to a neurodivergent team
Start from each person's own account of how they work, look at the opportunities in their actual role, agree the rules together, and offer more than one route into the tools with real support behind it. Review what helps people put useful ideas into their work, and adapt the support when something is not working.
Are AI tools helpful for neurodivergent employees
Sometimes. Drafting support, summaries and structure can remove real friction for some people and add none for others. What helps depends on the person and the job, which is why it should start from individual working preferences rather than a single rollout.
Should we track how much each employee uses AI
Agree useful adoption measures with the team and explain what is visible to managers. Activity alone does not demonstrate value. Review agreed work, quality, time including checking and support needs, without scoring people by their AI use.