The 1990s change management industry collapsed under its own vagueness, then got eaten by the cost-cutters. Now agentic AI is forcing the hardest organizational question in a generation, and neither playbook works. The answer is uncomfortably simple: tell your people the truth.
Customer research captures what people want to be true about themselves, not what's true about their behavior. Concept testing was a compromise forced by the cost of building. That cost just collapsed. You can vibe code a working prototype in an afternoon. Test behavior, not stated preferences.
