by Clemens Hackl (Digital Director, SmartLab)

The real opportunity for lasting culture change lies not in dramatic overhauls, but in the everyday moments most overlook. While leadership shifts, crises, and large-scale transformation efforts may dominate the narrative, research increasingly highlights that lasting behaviour change is most often sparked by subtle forces—offering organisations a powerful, untapped lever for transformation.

Today, we have a powerful ally: Agentic AI—AI that supports, adapts to, and collaborates with human intention. It allows us to amplify the invisible levers that shape culture, nudging behaviour not with mandates, but with design.

Here are three underrated but high-impact triggers of culture change—along with how AI and digital persona design can be used to elevate them.

1. Informal Networks & Peer Influence

Culture spreads through trusted relationships, often below the org chart. Research from MIT and Stanford’s Human Dynamics Lab reveals that peer influence, not formal authority, is the biggest driver of behavioural adoption in organisations. In fact, high-trust informal influencers can drive behaviour change 3–5x more effectively than formal change agents.

How AI can amplify this:

• Network intelligence tools can map informal influence patterns across teams.
• Embedded AI agents can guide peer leaders with nudges, knowledge, or tone cues aligned with desired behaviours.
• Social learning analytics can identify where grassroots momentum is forming—and support it with targeted micro-interventions.

AI Persona Opportunity:

Design AI systems with traits that mirror the culture you want to spread:

• Collaborative and facilitative
• Conversational, not didactic
• Sensitive to tone and timing

An AI that encourages peer-led recognition and includes culturally aligned phrases like “team-first” or “curious mindset” reinforces values through everyday interaction.

2. Narrative and Framing Shifts

“Change at Scale emphasizes that successful transformation depends on employees understanding why a change matters—its purpose—so they can build the habits and systems to support it.”
—NeuroLeadership Institute, Change at Scale, 2022

Cognitive science also shows that we tend to act based on how we interpret events, not just what those events are. As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman noted, “What you see is all there is.” Framing matters deeply. The same task framed as “control” vs. “care” leads to entirely different engagement levels.

How AI can amplify this:

• Narrative analysis tools can detect dominant themes in internal comms and flag misaligned narratives.
• Conversational AI can support managers in reframing feedback or strategic updates.
• Generative AI assistants can offer alternate framings to align team messages with cultural values (e.g. turning “targets missed” into “opportunities to learn”).

AI Persona Opportunity:

Give your AI a narrative style that consistently reinforces cultural principles:

• Optimistic, human-centred language
• Values-based framing (e.g. “impact,” “learning,” “care”)
• Cognitive reappraisal built into feedback

An AI that “speaks the culture” becomes a daily micro-coach, helping people find better meaning in their work.

3. Small Nudges & Environmental Design

“There are only three things we can do that will create lasting change: Have an epiphany, change our environment, or change our habits in tiny ways.”
– Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

People don’t resist change, they resist being changed. But if the environment changes, so does behaviour. Fogg’s model of behaviour change (B=MAP) shows that behaviour = motivation + ability + prompt. Nudges win because they reduce friction.

How AI can amplify this:

• Calendar-level nudges: e.g. suggest reflective time after team meetings or surface inclusive practices.
• Workflow defaults: e.g. prompt recognition at task completion, rotate speaking roles.
• Adaptive AI learns your habits and suggests micro-adjustments over time—without user fatigue.

AI Persona Opportunity:

Model your AI after a trusted coach—supportive, positive, and non-punitive:

• Celebratory tone for progress
• Gentle for reminders
• Respectful of autonomy

An AI that says, “You’ve created space for others to contribute three times this week—great leadership,” does more for culture than a slide deck ever could.

From Policy to Personality: Culture Lives in How Your AI Speaks

Every digital interface is now a cultural interface. With AI entering daily workstreams, its tone of voice, language, and behavioural style must reflect the organisation’s desired culture—not just its efficiency goals.

This is the next frontier: designing AI personas and micro-interactions that are intentional cultural signals.

4. The AI Persona as Culture Carrier

What if your AI systems:

• Always used inclusive language and promoted diverse voices?
• Reinforced coaching-based leadership styles through tone?
• Adapted to team values (e.g. humility, collaboration, curiosity)?

As Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research emphasizes, digital environments now guide behaviour more than official policies do.

Final Thought

Culture change doesn’t start with new rules. It starts with new relationships, new stories, and new cues in the environment. And now, with Agentic AI, we can design these more intentionally than ever before.

We don’t just implement culture. We interact it into being.
How are you designing your digital tools and AI agents to reflect your organisation’s values?
What tone of voice should your AI speak with to build the culture you want?