Fourteen cards to open the AI conversation that most organisations are avoiding. Print them. Take them into a room. See what happens.
Print on A4 or A3, cut along the edges. Laminate if you are keeping them. Or just print and fold. They do not need to be precious. The conversation does.
There are no right answers. There are no wrong ones. These cards exist to open conversations, not conclude them. Start with a Mirror card. Move to the Room when you're ready. Use the Honest cards only when trust is present, they earn their place.
Tell us what came up:
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These aren't for the room, not yet. Sit with these alone, or with one other person you trust, before you ask anyone else the harder questions. You can't open an honest conversation while your own answers are still rehearsed.
When did you last ask someone in your team what they actually think about AI, and really listen to the answer?
Not in a briefing. Not on a survey. A real conversation where their answer surprised you.
What decision about AI are you avoiding, because you're not sure you want to hear the honest answer?
The avoidance itself is data. What is it telling you?
If AI made half your team's current role redundant within three years, what is your responsibility to them?
Not legally. As a person. What do you actually owe them?
These are conversation openers, for a team session, a one-to-one, or a group that hasn't talked about AI properly yet. They don't require expertise to answer. They require honesty. Start here before the harder cards.
What would you do differently at work if you could use any AI tool, without anyone knowing?
Not hypothetically. What would actually change tomorrow morning?
What's the most tedious part of your job that AI could take? And how would that make you feel?
Both parts of the question matter equally. Don't skip the second one.
What's one thing you wish the people making AI decisions in this organisation actually understood?
Assume goodwill on all sides. What's the gap between what they know and what you know?
If you were designing this organisation's approach to AI from scratch, what's the first thing you'd do differently?
You don't need to know the answer. What's your instinct?
Use these when the room is ready. They're not designed to be comfortable, they are designed to surface what's actually in the room. Psychological safety has to exist before these land well. Don't rush to them.
Has anyone in this room used an AI tool for work that wasn't officially approved? What happened?
This is a safe space. The question isn't about discipline, it is about understanding what your organisation is actually doing versus what it thinks it's doing.
What are you afraid AI will reveal about your work, that you'd rather stayed hidden?
Not a trick question. Not about integrity. About the parts of work we rely on that we're not sure survive scrutiny.
The government says AI won't replace you, but someone using AI will. Do you believe that? What does your honest answer tell you?
There's also a version where AI replaces both of you. That's a conversation worth having too.
Once the harder questions have had space, these close the loop. They're constructive without being falsely optimistic. They ask people to build something, not just reflect on what they've seen.
What would good AI governance look like in this organisation, if it were designed by the people in this room, not handed down from above?
Write it on a whiteboard. It doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be yours.
If we get this wrong, what does that look like in two years? And who in this room would feel it first?
The person who feels it first usually already knows. Give them the space to say so.
Built Around Us means we build around you too. What came up in your session matters, not for data, but because the conversation is bigger than any one organisation.
Tell us what came up.
Not your data. Your conversation. What surprised you. What the room said that nobody expected. What question you wish was on a card but isn't. We're building this together, and we can only do that if you tell us what's actually happening.
builtaroundus.com/feedback