What Happens When a CTO Makes AI Non-Negotiable

I had a call recently with Josef Nevoral, CTO at Vicoland. He leads a team of nine engineers. And he made a decision that many technical leaders are still hesitating over: AI is mandatory. Use it to write code, or find another place to work.

Some of his engineers resisted. He gave them a choice. A few left. He hasn't looked back.

Why He Drew the Line

Josef's position isn't about tools. It's about where he believes engineering is going. If his team doesn't adopt AI now, they fall behind, and so does the company. Waiting for everyone to feel comfortable wasn't an option.

They use Cursor with Opus 4.5. The stack matters less than the principle: code generation and AI-assisted development are part of the job description. Not a perk. Not an experiment. Part of the job.

The Real Tension

Most CTOs I talk to want AI adoption, but they want it to happen organically. Training, workshops, "showing the way." That works when you have time. It doesn't work when your competitors are already shipping faster.

The tough question: when does encouragement become requirement? Josef answered it for himself. His answer was clear.

Not Everyone Will Stay

Some engineers may leave. That's the cost of drawing a hard line. Josef is okay with it. He'd rather have a smaller team that moves fast with AI than a larger one that drags.

Whether you agree with that trade-off depends on your context. Not every team can afford to lose people. Not every company is ready for that level of decisiveness. But the trend is clear: more technical leaders are asking themselves the same question Josef did.

What This Means for You

If you're a founder or CTO evaluating AI adoption, the real decision isn't "should we try AI?" It's "how fast do we need to move, and what are we willing to do to get there?"

Getting started with practical steps is one path. Making it non-negotiable is another. Most teams will land somewhere in between. The mistake is pretending the decision doesn't exist.

Josef made his call. Yours may look different. But the moment you stop treating AI as optional is the moment your team starts adapting, or not.